If it were me I’d beat a path to Davidson’s door. My niece loved it and my DS21 loved the people but is going elsewhere for athletic and academic reasons. To me Wake and Vandy never seemed like great fits anyway!
Great choices to have.
Congrats on all of the new acceptances!
My original top 5 haven’t changed too much. Richmond, Davidson, Vandy, Colgate, LMU. Not sure of the order but LMU definitely last and Vandy could move to the front if it is a yes and you guys have a good visit. Seems to fit everything she wants on paper but I have never been so not sure of the campus or vibe.
Good luck this week!
In an effort to cover all of my bases without being held accountable:
Lock of the Hour: Colgate University
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Some schools definitely are more vibey than others. Sometimes on CC they are called fit schools. Swat is definitely one of those. But I think there are really not so many vibey school though each school has its own personality certainly. Davidson is known to be intense academically though not in the Chicago way. But OPs D is a strong student so she shouldn’t worry about that too much. Colgate has made a big diversity push the past several years including economic diversity and has put a lot of money behind it. There’s a lot of fun there too, but we found it over the course of 2 visits to be more academic than Richmond.
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D20 has a friend from HS that graduated in 2018 and went to BC. She transferred out after a year because she felt “stifled” by the religious influence. Her top two choices as a transfer were Hamilton and Colgate.
By fun, read keggers, right? 
Colgate is popular in my area. It’s an excellent school, but make no mistake, there’s a lot of partying and Greek life is popular. I think a third of students are involved in Greek life. Even more are involved in Greek life at Davidson. In my mind, Davidson and Colgate are very similar, but Davidson is going to have that southern flavor that might strongly appeal to homerdog’s D because it’s different.
She’s going to Davidson, I’m certain, lol.
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LMU is offering self tours but you have to stay in your car! Not enough. And SCU has self tours but no kids on campus like LMU so there’s not enough reason to visit. We can do virtual tours and without kids on campus, it’s not worth a trip all the way to CA
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Congrats on the admissions successes and great options. I’ll chime in with a prediction for Colgate. I don’t see Richmond (no merit) in the top anymore with the recent wins. Also don’t see the catholic schools in the end. That leaves Colgate, Davidson and Lehigh. I know homermom is partial to Davidson but gut says homerdaughter prefers Colgate. Of course this all just vicarious fun—good luck to the homerfam on a tough (but can’t lose) decision.
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My guess out of the current list of excellent schools is Davidson. We know two lovely young women who went there and loved it. Personality-wise, they are both what I think of as all-American girls. (I don’t mean that to be about race at all.) They are well-rounded, healthy, happy, not extreme. I’m not sure how to describe it, but I mean it as a compliment!
Anyway, how could a kid from the Chicago area not love Davidson’s lake campus? 
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From an environmental perspective, note that Lake Norman is man-made, and appears to be dominated by a nuclear power plant in the Davidson area.
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I think I am the only one who has no idea what school your D will choose! I think she has great choices, all different, yet all seem to check different boxes for her.
I know BC is not high on her list, but I for the other folks following along, BC is not a stifling religious environment. I attended and have a freshman there this year. She is NOT religious at all. I never felt religion was overwhelming when I was there, nor does she feel that way all these years later. She looked at other schools that were immediately axed for the strong religious vibe. Most kids there are catholic, but I would say most are catholic light or catholic in name only. I do think religion is a valid concern to address when looking at BC, but if the school checks all of the other boxes, I would not let religion stop you from investigating BC further.
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Lake Norman is vast. The nuclear plant is on the other side – doesn’t dominate Davidson at all. The lake also provides hydro power.
It’s a very popular recreation lake and many folks live on the lake as well. The college owns a lake campus and students can swim, or use college-owned sailboats, paddle boards, etc.
My daughter did crew on the lake for two years – Davidson has a great boathouse!
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lol. Just about all the lakes in the southern US are manmade, most built by power companies.
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So it’s not like Dark, the German Netflix show?
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Congrats, @homerdog! As expected, fabulous choices.
I was surprised by the Midd app and thought it felt tossed in at the last minute (see a previous post), so I’m not surprised by your comment about adding it due to the lack of essay. No loss on the rejection if she wasn’t even interested enough to interview.
As for BC, I’m guessing that’s down on the list. It wasn’t just the Catholic vibe; her D wasn’t a fan of the off-campus area and was concerned about getting stuck in the housing that required a shuttle in the snowy NE weather. (For the record, I’m from MA and my D20 attended a summer program at BC so I completely get it. She had her app ready to go, but was accepted by her ED1 choice. Still, after spending a summer there taking a couple classes, she had the same concerns about the Catholic vibe and the distant housing. BC was far down on her list.)
I get all the predictions on this thread that Davidson is in the lead, but I can’t get past the small size. For over a year @homerdog commented that her D didn’t want anything too small. While her S19 loves Bowdoin, her D wanted bigger. From the beginning, size was important and she wanted at least 3k. So, while the pull of Davidson will be great, I lean towards Richmond or Colgate (if no Vandy admit). I know she didn’t want cold, but a larger student body may win out over Davidson.
Either way, I can’t wait to see the final choice! 
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I feel like the only one here who still thinks Lehigh is a good fit for this student! I said this (along with Colgate) from the very beginning and have not wavered. I stand firm LOL.
I still say Richmond is slowly dropping, and the final 3 are Davidson, Colgate, and Lehigh. The OP already indicated that her D is not too interested in Vandy.
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I googled around for info, just for kicks. It’s 10 miles away from campus. I’m a “tree-hugger” from California 
, so this would need further investigation IMO.
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I agree that “too small” is going to eliminate some fine schools. I think Mom likes Davidson more than Daughter likes Davidson.
My updated bets are
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BC - Fits most all the mentioned preferences, and some of the unmentioned preferences I think will matter to HomerDaughter. Not so sure the assumption of being too religious will sway the choice too much. But the split campus might.
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Lehigh - I think this could edge Richmond if Homerdaughter feels more like the students here than at UR, and if enrollment size is a more important preference.
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Richmond - Seemed the perfect choice until BC came through and enrollment size loomed a little larger.
Vandy - I don’t know what to think of it. The prestige is high, but I’m not sure if the fit is there, or the desire to attend. Still, a T20 offer might be mighty hard to turn down. But, it’s not an acceptance yet, so I’ll hold off on the ranking until we know.
Santa Clara - I really think this is the perfect choice, but the severe C19 protocol might just be too much to overcome.
Colgate - A nice acceptance-feather in the ol’ hatband, and a great college, but I just can’t see this being the fit.
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I can’t see how you would pick Lehigh if you have Colgate and Davidson as choices. To me, it wouldn’t be a close call at all, no comparison- but I also know there are so many differing opinions when it comes to college choice. Anecdotally, I do know a kid who after getting denied ED at Colgate chose Lehigh over Richmond. One of the reasons was as a Jewish student wasn’t so comfortable in the south.
Just to put some numbers on the Newton campus thing in case it matters, if I recall, traditionally about 40% of freshmen live on Newton, 60% on Upper Campus. Caveat, I don’t know whether that distribution has changed this year, with no forced triples on Upper due to covid de-densification. I don’t think it has changed - I think they may be using more space on CoRo (Upper) for freshmen.
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