<p>I like Reed and Oberlin but cant seem to find similar schools for matches/safeties.</p>
<p>Schools like Trinity, Connecticut College, Colby, Union, etc are good for me as far as academics are concerned but theyre all very preppy. Do any schools that have similar selectivity, but without the abecrombie, exist</p>
<p>Maybe Earlham, Beloit, Sarah Lawrence, Goucher, Bennington, Hampshire; Smith if you are female?</p>
<p>Skidmore is artsy but also a little preppy too.</p>
<p>well first of all, abercrombie is not preppy, but anyway... Bates is less preppy than Colby, Wesleyan is a haven of liberals so I doubt it's incredibly preppy although I haven't been there, Bard is unpreppy, Brown and Columbia are the least preppy ivies but they're not lac's, that's all I can think of off the top of my head but I'll get backt o you.</p>
<p>meateaters ideas are good. Bard would be the only one at the safer level of selectivity.</p>
<p>In midwest also Grinnell & maybe Macalester.</p>
<p>I'm always curious about what people mean by "preppy." It's awfully relative...I can't say that I've been to a "preppy" school....</p>
<p>How preppy is Pomona? People I talk to always assume it is because it's in SoCal, but I'm hoping it's not...........</p>
<p>Well, this question adds to mine....is SoCal preppy? I certainly wouldn't say so. What the heck does the expression mean?</p>
<p>good new england LACS that arent preppy is a tough one...
wesleyan.
vassar maybe?
mt holyoke if youre female
definitely hampshire college</p>
<p>I don't know what other people mean by "preppy" but my daughter's interpretation of a preppy school seems to have these identifiers: </p>
<p>well-coifed girls who wear make up and heels to class and carry designer bags, boys who wear kahki's and shirts with collars and are clean shaven; kids concerned with plotting their future careers as I-bankers and lawyers while still in college; frat parties and sorority cliques; lots of kids from wealthy, WASPY families; political apathy (if forced, lean towards conservative politics); low tolerance for mingling between different ethnic, racial, and economic classes.</p>
<p>But, that's just my daughter's definition of preppy. Others may have a different idea. By the way, we've seen lots of campuses that look like this both in California and on the east coast. Far fewer in the midwest and Pacific northwest. (We are from southern California). Nothing wrong with schools like this - just not what my daughter is looking for.</p>
<p>She might want to look at Knox College in Illinois.</p>
<p>I didn't think Swarthmore or Mount Holyoke were very preppy when I visited. I thought Williams was.</p>
<p>"I didn't think Swarthmore or Mount Holyoke were very preppy when I visited. I thought Williams was."</p>
<p>OK, but I'm still interested to know what you mean by preppy. For instance, Carolyn's description doesn't describe Williams at all. I'm not arguing, I just think it's one of those undefined terms that causes a great deal of confusion here.</p>
<p>I think "preppy" (white bread/rich kid prep school etc.) is more of an east coast thing, although Stanford comes as close to fitting that bill of any school in California that comes to mind IMO. </p>
<p>As far as LACs in California, I don't see Pomona as "preppy" at all, maybe Claremont Mckenna might have a little of that "feel" to it among the Claremont schools (Pitzer NO way) and perhaps Occidental to some small extent has a bit of a "preppy" feel. </p>
<p>Only by reputation, I understand Williams and Amherst to be heavily on the "preppy" side and Wesleyan, Brandeis, Haverford and Swarthmore to not be so.</p>
<p>Driver- In my experience at the prefrosh weekend at Williams in '02, I felt that Carolyn's description fit. Lots of guys wearing their shirts tucked in and belted. Lots of well dressed girls who changed their clothes a lot. Of course...this could just be because of who my host and her friends were. Also, the school seemed less diverse than others I visited, except there seemed to be a gay/lesbian presence on campus that I noticed. That was just my experience.</p>
<p>Vassar, Vassar, Vassar!</p>
<p>And Wesleyan.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Lots of guys wearing their shirts tucked in and belted. Lots of well dressed girls who changed their clothes a lot.
[/quote]
Interesting. I've never seen anything like that at Williams (not that I'm doubting your account), or among the dozens of young Ephs who have stayed overnight at my house (sports and frisbee mom). Couldn't tell if they had belts on, because all their shirts were untucked. Flip-flops all around. Even a few backwards baseball caps. Look, if the vibe at any particular college doesn't feel right for a particular reason, you're wise to take it off of your list. But the possibility that a few kids thought it was appropriate to dress up a little for pre-frosh weekend may have been the reason they were asked to be hosts in the first place. To be clear--I'm not picking a fight on this--I'm really interested in how people make this "preppiness" judgement, since it comes up so frequently here. I know a great deal about what things are like at Williams and Wesleyan, having close relatives and friends who are students and faculty at both places. They're very different places. But I'm not sure upon what basis one could call one "preppier" than the other.</p>
<p>Belts are preppy? haha, I always thought they were an essential wardrobe item.</p>
<p>Well, Driver (fancy meeting you here) honestly: what are the chances of you having a child at Wesleyan as opposed to Williams? Clothes aside, which runs more conservative, which probably produces more I-bankers?</p>
<p>The OP's looking for schools more like Reed and Oberlin; those are his examples of what he means by nonpreppy, and I'm guessing that Carolyn's D's assessment would resonate for him, too.</p>
<p>I con cur with SBmom's and meateater's suugestions.</p>
<p>Hey there Garland,
The chances of me having a kid at Wesleyan are very slim. :) Having a relative who teaches there is as much as I can handle, although the anecdotes at Thanksgiving are priceless.. As I said, it's a very different place. But I'm seriously interested in what is meant by "preppy." Grads who go into I-banking? I don't know. Wesleyan has a very highly-touted economics department, just like Williams. It is certainly far more active politically than Williams, although both student bodies vote overwhelmingly Democrat, according to polls. There's no shortage of kids who went to top prep schools at either place. I truly don't have my argument hat on here (or is it a helmet?) If you don't dress preppy, how do people know if you're preppy?</p>