Hi! Regarding Niche, I use the student reviews like I do online reviews in general: If the same theme keeps popping up over and over in the majority (such as themes like too much partying/kids don’t care about academics), I worry. If I read just a couple that seem off from everyone else, I disregard…figure that student did not find a school that fit well, or some kids have a harder time than the majority.
College is such a different world I would think that as long as she doesn’t go to a girls only school, she will find plenty of boys to have relationships with; I personally wouldn’t worry too much about M/F ratio.
I can speak to Elon for you, my S19 goes there and is very happy Great performing arts school, nationally known, so the performing arts scene is probably good but I don’t know how it works for non majors. I do know acapella is big there and lots of talented kids. Its a beautiful campus and makes some top lists for that. Town is tiny. City 45 min away; within a couple hours are mountains or a beach. Football is there but not a big thing, Greek is a part of the social life but not huge (they only have small on campus greek houses for sophomores only). Yes there are partiers and there are plenty of non partiers. He has found his people who try hard in school (Note I was worried about party crowd/priority and tried to have a strong eye on this on our visits…again DS has found his people as an academically minded non partier and it was easy, and he’s happy). Diverse: no. Preppy: yes, (large population of students from NY/NJ, which also adds a large Jewish contingent), but my son is not preppy and midwestern and found his people fine. Grades and merit aid look good, I think my son had a 3.7 and got decent merit. Note that Elon’s sticker price is lower to its peers and the aid is proportionally lower. Son is a psych major and likes his psych and anthro classes a lot so far. Send me a PM if you want more info…and I think they are doing in person tours, at least they were even back in May.
My D17 attends LMU in LA and it checks all of those boxes except price. It’s pricey even with merit. It is Jesuit, but we have visited lots of Jesuit schools and find them very accepting of all faiths and no religious pressure, although there will be religious presence (Christmas trees for example). I mention this because many Jesuit schools will fit your D’s GPA and non-Greek preferences, and are in the sweet spot of mid sized schools.
Wondering about Rhodes (TN) for your D. It fit my son’s GPA and seemed to have a lot to offer, but by the time it came on the list he had enough options that he didn’t want to visit. Oh and a friend goes to University of Utah and spends TONS of time outdoors. My high schooler son is interested in CO but we haven’t found a great fit anywhere there so far (something in between high academics/price and party school).