<p>I think the wikipedia "hipster" definition fits Reed and Portland fairly well, more so than average.</p>
<p>LACs for you, it sounds like: If Pomona is a fit, take a look at Oberlin-less academically intense, and only an hour from Cleveland. Grinnell loves quirky, has great facilities and is an hour from Des Moines and Iowa City: Tons of sports (walk on teams) and so many extra curriculars that you won't be able to do them all thanks to a huge endowment. Bowdoin could work too-Portland is a neat city, albeit a longer drive, and outdooring is a huge draw there. Check out Carleton (about 45 minutes from Minneapolis) too.</p>
<p>Be forwarned that schools close to cities draw people who want to leave campus on the weekends. Not everyone there is going to be invested in making the campus their 'focal point' especially as they move into the upper grades. It's the plus side of being somewhat isolated from the city that students get very actively involved in what's happening on campus-and the administration knows they have to provide a lot of action to keep students from complaining.</p>
<p>Wofford College, SC
Davidson College, NC
Washington & Lee University, VA
Ohio Wesleyan University
Allegheny College, PA
Rice University, TX
Connecticut College
U of Tulsa, OK
Northwestern University, IL</p>
<p>Bard, Sarah Lawrence, Carleton, Williams, Amherst, Brown, Yale, Princeton, Wesleyan, Pomona, maybe Dartmouth, maybe Swarthmore and/or Haverford.</p>
<p>Also maybe Oberlin and Rice. And check out the New College of Florida. </p>
<p>Women's colleges are not convents, you know. Sounds to me as if you might like Smith and Wellesley, and possibly Bryn Mawr. All of them are closely involved with coed schools via cross-registration.</p>
<p>Apart from a big-time college sports scene (which OP said isn't necessary), Wesleyan is a perfect match for every criterion on her list in post #9. It's a very free-thinking, deeply intellectual, artsy place with well-rounded curricular strengths and, because of its size (somewhere between a large LAC and a small university), more depth and breadth to its curriculum than many LACs. Yet it's small enough to retain the close relationships between faculty and students that you'll find at small LACs. And from everything I hear, Wes students also love to have a good time---often in artsy and/or intellectual ways, of course.</p>
<p>Depending on what you want in sports scene, Carleton could be a very good fit. High percentage (like 85%) of students participate in sports. Ultimate and broomball are huge IM draws, but there are lots of IM teams overall.</p>
<p>Carleton is Div3, but nationally competitive in Ultimate Frisbee which is not grouped by division (men went to semis last year and women to quarters) and I think pretty good in swimming, soccer and xcountry (check the Carleton Forum for more info, or someone here will undoubtably correct me if I'm off on this, LOL) </p>
<p>Student life is very campus-based (wide variety of activities all the time) except for the off-campus studies program - nearly 70% of students study off-campus at some point in their 4 yrs. </p>
<p>Very good and close faculty-student relationships, small classes, faculty teach all classes (all these things are common to the LACs).</p>
<p>Good luck</p>