Colleges with liberal and intellectual environment...but easier to get into?

<p>Yea, I always mix the Minnesota schools up. According to the website:

Really not a lot when one considers that Mac costs more than $55,000 a year, but at least the need based aid is better than most LACs.</p>

<p>From what I know there is little chance of merit aid at Bard or Macalester with these stats. If there were, my kid with a 33 might have applied. And why would anyone say Macalester, Bard, Grinnell, are easy to get into? Maybe easy if you are a strong candidate for an ivy. And isn’t Sarah Lawrence considered one of the most expensive schools in the country? These aren’t the kind of places to look for merit aid. New College gives $15K to all out of state students that are good enough to be accepted. Definitely look at the Colleges that Change Lives Schools. Many of these are great schools, liberal, intellectual, lots of interaction with the profs, and give good merit aid as long as you can get to sometimes less desirable parts of the country. You aren’t going to find something that compares to NYU, though. (and I think that’s good, NYU is so impersonal.)</p>

<p>The OP didn’t ask for merit, s/he asked for schools with better financial aid than NYU. At those schools, which are roughly as selective as NYU, the financial aid packages are generally much better. Also, Sarah Lawrence is one of the most expensive schools at list price although it operates on a high tuition, high discount model.</p>

<p>If you’re looking at Grinnell and Macalester and CTCL schools, check out Knox in Galesburgh Illinois, fantastic LAC in a very intellectual environment, very creative approach to fulfilling a complete LA degree.</p>

<p>But the OP was also asking for schools “easier to get into” and at this point Bard, Grinnell, and Macalester don’t apply.</p>