Colleges Vibe Similar to Beloit and Agnes Scott

College Search & Selection
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Hi CC! I’ve lurked for quite some time and have found the information on these forums incredibly usefully as my D23 and I research potential colleges. We’ve visited several schools and there are two that really “clicked” with her, so I’m looking for any insight on similar schools we should consider.

I should also mention that we’re looking for merit aid. For that reason, we’re casting a wide net. D23 is a bright student with a good GPA (3.8 uw) and ACT score (32), but marginal ECs (the occasional job and some club memberships, but no sports or leadership). She does not want a super intense/pressure cooker type of academic situation, has no interest in Greek life or party/ drinking culture, identifies as LGBTQ and is possibly non-binary (she’s still questioning), which rules out Smith and other women’s colleges that do not admit non-binary applicants. She would also prefer to not be in a completely rural or isolated area, but she said might reconsider if the vibe of the school felt right to her. She will not go to California, Texas, or Florida. No Christian colleges, either.

The two colleges she fell in love with are Agnes Scott and Beloit. She said she liked the vibe at both, but couldn’t pinpoint exactly why.

She’s ruled out Knox, UNC-Greensboro, Elon, UGA, Auburn. Others we’ve visited but have not been totally ruled out are University of Kentucky, UNC-Asheville, Hendrix and LSU.

We have a few financial safety schools, just in case the others don’t come thorough with enough merit: UT-Chattanooga, University of Alabama (but likely only if she gets Blount Scholars), and UAH. UTC is in-state for us (and she is not interested in any other of our in-state options).

Here are the other schools we’re considering. We likely won’t be able to visit any of them before submitting an application, but will do so if she’s accepted and receives reasonable merit aid:

Bryn Mawr
College of Charleston
College of Wooster (might be too rural)
Dickinson College
Juanita College (might be too rural)
Lewis & Clark
Mount Holyoke
Skidmore
Swarthmore (Reach)
University of Puget Sound
Ursinus College
Vassar
Wheaton (MA)
Willamette

Does anyone have any insight about schools on this list regarding their vibe and/or their merit aid generosity? Any schools not on the list that we should consider?

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My D21 attends College of Wooster and I think it pretty much fits everything you’ve described. “Too rural” is a bit subjective, but the actual town of Wooster has a surprising amount going on - nice restaurants, coffee shops, cute shops, yoga studios, fun town events. I was pleasantly surprised. It’s bigger than you might be picturing, it’s not just a one or two block downtown area. Then, there is decent amount of big box shopping along with a theater a few miles from the school. The school’s activities group plans various outings throughout the year as well, to Cleveland, Columbus, Cedar Point (amusement park), haunted houses in nearby towns, etc.

My daughter was looking for a collaborative environment rather than something super intense. She has found the academics very strong, has really liked her professors and created connections with them right from the start. She is involved in a number of clubs and activities (social, academic, and fine arts). I think your daughter would easily find her people there, there are lots of different kinds of kids and many pronoun variations that most kids seem extremely respectful of. The merit aid is very good at Wooster and the campus is pretty large for a small LAC and quite beautiful.

I wish I could contrast it to Beloit for you - Wooster is about double the size, I do know that. My D23 has applied to and been accepted to Beloit but we have yet to make a visit, although I hope to very soon.

Why did she rule out Knox? I was just at an open house at Cornell College and we liked it a lot. About the same size as Beloit, the kids seem to love it there, but it is way more rural than Wooster.

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My daughter is at Simmons University, which I think checks most (all?) of the boxes you listed. Small, like AS and Beloit, women-centered (non-binary are included), no Greek life. Very LGBTQ-friendly. Located in a fantastic part of Boston. Some programs (Nursing) are pressure-cookers, but in general, it isn’t academically intense (though there are lots of serious and ambitious students). The school doesn’t get much love here on CC, but my D20 could not be happier there.

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Juniata is probably too rural. Getting there from TN will require multiple stops I’m assuming.

Dickinson is in Carlisle. Neat little downtown area but not urban. It’s probably 10 miles from Harrisburg. Again, probably multiple stops to get there. Hard to say if it’s a good fit.

Maybe Chatham in Pittsburgh? Used to be an all women’s college. Nice neighborhood next to CMU and close to Pitt.

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Thanks for all the suggestions!

Regarding the “not rural” requirement, which I agree is completely subjective, I think she just wants to be in or near a town where there’s stuff to do. Boutiques to shop at, coffee shops to hang out in, etc. I think she’d also like the surrounding area to have decent shopping in case she needs clothes or shoes; she doesn’t want a Wal-mart to be the only option.

@cormac05, I can’t say for sure why she didn’t like Knox…she will never give me specifics, just says it didn’t “feel” right. It’s one of those that checks all the boxes on paper, but it didn’t translate in person. I have some suspicions, though. Galesburg, though clearly working to revitalize the downtown area, still felt a little run down in places and I’m sure she noticed that. She also pays careful attention to how the tour guides and administrators answer our questions about LGBTQ acceptance on campus and in the surrounding community. On some tours we’ve taken, the guides get really excited about the question and are happy to give examples (either personal or from their friend group) of LGBTQ activities on campus and how they (or their friends) feel welcome on campus and in town. With Knox, the guides and admins only said that they’d “never heard of any trouble” and pointed out that there is an LGBTQ student group. Of course, that doesn’t mean that Knox isn’t perfectly LGBTQ friendly and/or has a decent percentage of LGBTQ students, but I don’t think their answer gave her the warm and welcoming vibe she was looking for.

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Bryn Mawr might be a little too intense for her academically? I think it ticks many of the other boxes, but can you clarify what that means to her?

I think Wheaton is a great idea although not sure how she’d find the town… but Providence/Boston not too far away for weekends.

Agree that Skidmore, Vassar, Mt. Holyoke College of Charleston worth checking out; I don’t know enough about some of the others to comment. Swarthmore is Bryn Mawr on steroids-- a very accomplished, ambitious student body and students there work REALLY hard. Culturally though- I think it’s a fit, so perhaps look at Earlham, Rhodes? And it sounds like she’d love Clark!

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Dickinson has lots of merit scholarships, great LGBTQ resources, and a low key party culture and Greek life. Excellent academics and lovely town. Easy access to Harrisburg for more city vibes and there is an airport and train station there. Academics and professors are excellent but certainly not a pressure cooker type situation. What is her intended major?
I second Clark University for a particularly excellent LGBTQ culture - know someone’s child there who is having a very positive experience.

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Interesting list. If one like 1k Agnes Scott and Beloit, UK and LSU seems a stretch. Maybe Kalamazoo - just based on what I’ve read.

If you are chasing merit - then Bama and smaller UAH are your best bets but not sure they fit. Of course you can make a big school small etc. you already know this and UTC was another I thought of b4 I saw you are in state. Thought UNCA too but not sure how strong the merit.

Charleston definitely not right - pervasent party culture but look at the Charleston Fellows. These are serious kids.

Merit has shrunk but my daughter got more than tuition but not until after accepting so that’s a huge risk.

No clue how they ‘fit’ but Ogelthorpe and Hendrix have programs where they might match UTK tuition.

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My D also liked Beloit a lot and was accepted EA on December 1 with great merit (we were mostly looking for need-based aid but Beloit gave her a lot of merit). If your daughter really likes Beloit and can get it together to apply EA she may not need a really long list since they let you know so early. I would think she’ll easily be accepted, only question is the level of merit. Their COA is also lower than some of the east coast schools, so any merit award goes further. As an aside my D took Swarthmore off her list as too academically intense and didn’t care for Skidmore. Just as other data points.

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I second Clark as well. My D22 followed and participated in accepted student groups online for Agnes Scott and Clark last year and remarked how similar the people and vibe in both were.

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We have a trans friend at Willamette. They received generous merit aid and the university has a very progressive vibe and is LGBTQ friendly. Salem is the capital city (great spot for internships for a PoliSci Major), but is much less urban than Portland.

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My D23 has a very similar profile and is considering a similar set of schools. She enjoyed her Beloit visit, and also visited Wooster, Allegheny, Macalester, Earlham and Grinnell. Grinnell is a reach (at ~10% acceptance last year). The top of her list right now is Earlham. She loved it there. She’ll be visiting much larger schools (Michigan, Michigan State, UIUC) in the next few weeks.

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Go to Beloit. She will get very good merit there. My daughter transfered in as a junior a few years back. She is LGBTQ also and loved her experience there. She will find her peeps there, no question. Very supportive with great professors that actually want your kids to learn. The kids were intelligent, wanted to learn and very accepting. We know many that have gone there also.

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Thank you all for your suggestions and information! It’s incredibly helpful.

Basically, she does not want an academic environment that consumes all of her time. She has anxiety and likes to have plenty of “chill” time in her day where she can decompress instead of constantly being on the go. She took lots of honors classes early in her HS career (her teachers recommend her for them every year) but found the pace of the classes and the level of homework too stressful. It’s not the she couldn’t keep up academically, she just didn’t want to.

She’s waffled between classical studies and general history recently, but suddenly she’s undecided again. When at Beloit, our tour guide was an anthropology major and talked a lot about how fantastic their program is, so part of me suspects that piqued her interest in the subject. Generally, though, she’ll go somewhere along the humanities route; nothing pre-preprofessional and unlikely to be STEM.

I agree, and I’m always surprised that she hasn’t removed them from contention. LSU is close to grandparents, and our tour guide was LGBTQ and only had fantastic things to say about the school and the area. UK was the very first school we visited. Hubs and I decided to take her there on a whim (she had no specific interest) because we figured it was no loss if she hated it. We just wanted her to get a feel for college tours. But the campus shows so well and she was really impressed. I do feel, though, that a second tour is in order because now she has a better understanding of what she’s looking for. Also, I highly doubt LSU and UK will offer the kind of merit we’ll need to make them affordable…

What is the town/area like? Seems kinda small in my online research, but that doesn’t always give the full picture.

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My D22’s college list had many of the same schools as yours. Her top choice was Reed, which I think also meets a lot of your daughter’s requirements (except it may tip slightly into the pressure cooker environment). My daughter received a grant and work study award worth about $34k, but the COA was going to be over 50k, which was too much given we have two younger children and are going to have many years with two kids in college simultaneously.

One of her best friends is at Lewis and Clark and is loving it. I think she received a good award package as well. Her other best friend is at Whitman in Walla Walla, WA. It may be too rural for your daughter, but it fits in other ways.

I mainly wanted to reply because we are also TN residents and UTC was the only in-state school she considered. She was accepted to the Honors college, which has a $2,000/year additional scholarship. When added to the TN Hope scholarship, the Chancellor’s merit scholarship, the cost of attendance was so much lower than any of her top choices (and I’m a professor at a different institution, so we also receive discounted tuition). Because she’s a Philosophy/Sociology double major (Spanish and Honors minor), keeping undergrad costs low was a priority because she’s planning for grad school.

It has turned out to be a very good fit for her. Her class sizes are small - only 13 in her Honors Humanities six-credit-hour discussion seminar, only 15 in Logic, and even only 40 in the intro Sociology course. Honors is very supportive and has many opportunities. She applied for and received a research fellowship to work with a professor this semester for $12/hour, which is very flexible (between five and ten hours per week). They just took a trip to Montgomery, AL last weekend to visit the Equal Justice initiative with all costs paid by the college. They have study abroad stipends, stipends to attend honors conferences, etc. There are only 50-60 freshman in the honors program (250-ish total undergrads), so it helped her get the liberal arts college environment in a larger school. Not pressure cooker at all, but she’s being pushed and stretched, which is what she wanted.

Though there are 10,000 undergrads, it doesn’t feel at all that large. She’s not into sports or greek life, and she’s found plenty of people like her. She loves Chattanooga and there’s lots of walkable things to do near campus. She’s happy and adjusted much better than I expected given it wasn’t her top choice. If you have any questions, feel free to send me a message.

Good luck to your daughter!

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We loved LSU. Well my daughter did which is what matters. On the tour they pointed out they need to get aggressive because those who apply also apply to Bama, Ole Miss, and Miss State and they were losing. Perhaps they have a scholarship estimator ? I checked …they do.

I hear great things about UK - specifically engineering (not your field). They have a scholarship table although I think it’s not automatic.

On their website a 3.8 and 32 shows $19k for LSU.

At UK it’s not auto but she can apply for the Presidential Scholarship with a 3.5 and 31 test (not super scores I don’t think) and get free tuition.

Has she looked at WKU ? In Williamson County at least, we get a discount.

When you say she could do the rigor in hs but didn’t want to - I don’t care where she goes to college, that is going to need to change.

As for Charleston and I’m sure other schools have their chill places…while it’s pervasive to parties unless you get into Honors, my daughter loves to walk to the Battery for stress relief…about 20 mins away. I worry - single girl, city crime but she says there’s lots of tourists. Hopefully she can find that soothing walk wherever she goes.

Private schools might ding her merit wise on lack of rigor but while many kids change and grow with independence, many kids also struggle with the pace and amount of work in college - especially a subject like anthro which will have a lot of reading and writing as will many other social sciences. Hopefully she can adapt.

Best of luck to her.

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Vassar does not give merit. I’m not sure about Skidmore - they may also be need-based only.

Has she considered Oberlin?

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I believe Skidmore is very little merit - but meets need. They have two merit awards.

I don’t think student would qualify.

“Basically, she does not want an academic environment that consumes all of her time.” Scratch Swarthmore.

“She stopped taking Honors” - I take that to mean she doesn’t have rigor - scratch Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Skidmore, Swat, Vassar for sure. If you look in their common data set (section c9), you will see rigor being the most important criteria.

The rest of your list could work - but without rigor, a student is not going to get into upper echelon schools.

Merit Awards | Scholarships | Skidmore College

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Based on her interests, have her check out American Studies. Here is the description from Dickinson, which includes links to their current courses. Very interdisciplinary. Other liberal arts colleges will also have American Studies, if it proves to be an area of interest to your child. American Studies | Dickinson College

Best of luck with your search.

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You have a number of the Colleges That Change Lives schools on your list, so I’m assuming you’ve seen it, but if not, you may want to take a look there: College Profiles – Colleges That Change Lives

I’ve never visited Beloit or Agnes Scott and thus don’t have a good sense of their vibes. I think that Clark, which has been mentioned several times, would be worth investigating. Other possibilities might be:

Evergreen State College (WA)
Goucher (MD)
Hiram (OH)
Kalamazoo (MI)
McDaniel (MD)

If Earlham is a possibilty (which is a Quaker school), then you may also want to consider Guilford (NC).

@Sweetgum had a kid who really liked Agnes Scott and may have some familiarity with some other schools that your child might like.

ETA: Oh, and what about Lawrence (WI)?

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