<p>flippy, The good news is that there really ARE a lot of great schools in America! </p>
<p>My son who just graduated from Williams had a list that was similar to yours and many of the same priorities. He knew he wanted small to medium. He loved the idea of an outdoorsy-natural beauty environment, but wanted occasional access to major urban. He wanted intense academics but happy friendly social kids. He was ambivalent about sports (though many of his friends are athletes) and he also wanted a vibrant arts scene.</p>
<p>In addition to Williams he liked Hamilton, Kenyon, Wesleyan, Brown and Yale. Except for the arts criteria he would have strongly considered Amherst. In retrospect he could have added many more, like Bowdoin, Middlebury, Pomona, Dartmouth . . . and on and on.</p>
<p>I would suggest that you try to focus on about 12 schools: 1 or 2 safeties, 2 or 3 matches and the rest reaches. You seem to identified by size and student type. Now you need to eliminate based on geographic location -- both by part of the country and urban vs rural vs suburban. </p>
<p>Don't worry about trying to cover all bases.</p>