<p>Most of these schools would be closer to 6-8 hours away, but take a look at the following:</p>
<ol>
<li> Willamette–located in Salem, Oregon, nice smaller school, lots of rain</li>
<li> Pitzer–one of the Claremonts</li>
<li> Scripps–another Claremont, but only if you’re female</li>
<li> University of the Pacific–nice private school about 3 hours away from you</li>
<li> Occidental–located in a nice area of LA, but it might be too urban for your tastes</li>
<li> Humboldt State–more like a potential financial safety–nice school, pretty out-of-the way, on the Northern California coast </li>
<li> University of Oregon–nice laid-back school, might be too big for you at about 21,500 students</li>
<li> University of Utah–once again, might be too big at 29,000 students</li>
<li> University of San Francisco</li>
</ol>
<p>If you could go a little further out, I would recommend University of Puget Sound (about 11 1/2 hours by car)</p>
<p>Humboldt State, University of Oregon and University of Utah are part of the Western Undergraduate Exchange, so you would get reduced tuition rates for them</p>