<p>Most private schools have pretty finely tuned guidance offices. Have you spoken with your guidance counselor? S/he probably has great relationships with admissions people everywhere and can give you a sense of which schools might be a good fit. Better yet, s/he can talk to admissions officers about you, getting your application that personal touch. People pay thousands of dollars for service like this... don't ignore that it's there!!!!
Other than that, i would recommend that you look at the top 25 LACS and see if any of them appeal to you in particular. You should also look at smaller universities. On the ivy front, Princeton, Yale and Dartmouth have smaller classes with an emphasis on teaching. Pick a bunch of schools, then go meet with your guidance counselor for... wait for it... guidance.
Good luck!</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon--my boss has a degree in creative writing from there.
Johns Hopkins--a friend went there for a master's in poetry, and they have a writing seminars program Undergraduate</a> Studies
I'd also look at Brown, Hamilton, Carleton, Colby, and Colgate (the last four being high-ranking LACs).</p>
<p>I'd look at Northwestern -- there's a very intense debate team, it has about 8,000 undergraduates, offers a creative writing program that you apply to sophomore year, has a beautiful suburban campus but with access to Chicago via the el</p>