<p>I find it amusing that I have been seeking to go further and further south 
NJ –> NC –> hopefully Georgia</p>
<p>Lafayette is a good match for the OP as long as the GPA is on an upward trend as it appears it is. Lafayette has also historically provided 100% of need-based aid, although I believe the last 5% of the Class of 2013 was selected on a need-aware basis. My daughter is a current student and has received a very generous package of need and merit-based aid. Lafayette is also very interested in expanding geographical diversity and Texas is one of the states they are focusing recruiting efforts on.</p>
<p>Try West Coast schools as well - California has some good “small-town feel” colleges as well.</p>
<p>I think Cal Poly SLO would be great for you, except for fact that there are about 20,000 students there. However the atmosphere there is unbeatable.</p>
<p>FUNNY LIST ON WHY TEXAS SUCKS
Category: Just for Fun - Inside Jokes
Description: 50 Reasons Why Texas Sucks</p>
<ol>
<li>Texans. Socially ■■■■■■■■ acts of bravado. Lack of self awareness.
Isolationistic in thought. Kind of like someone who was raised under a
rock, but the rock was big, so they boast about how big the rock was.
There’s more, but, man, it’s so sad - and they don’t even know it!</li>
<li>Texas politics. I am a conservative who votes republican. Texans are
rednecks who vote republican. should I buy an “I’m with stupid” T-shirt?</li>
<li>Tx is a Mexican border state. Complete with roads traveled by drug
cartels feeding the increasing violent crime rate, drug use, and ever
expanding prison population in Tx. That isn’t nice and I don’t have
this problem in my state.</li>
<li>Is EVERYONE in Tx chewing tobacco??</li>
<li>Leading state for hate groups. There are more known hate
groups in tx then any other state. They all hate different groups for
different reasons. When you get right down to it, no one is safe in tx</li>
<li>not even texans. Testament to tx long tradition of nice, down to
earth, clan members and level-headed cult fanatics.</li>
<li>There are Two seasons in Tx, hot and hotter. There is a third if
you count the hurricane season. A fourth if you count squirrel
season.</li>
<li>Texas’ branding of Tex-mex. Uh, we all know it’s just Mexican.
Maybe Kansas should capitalize on Cantonese food and call it
Kan-Can. It’s catchier, and doesn’t sound like a gas station when
you say it. </li>
<li>Over industrialization of undesirable industries. Yes, when you
visit tx, you get the full impact of what a cesspool they’ve made out
of their state with factories, oil refineries, and chemical plants.
Don’t get me wrong, it is good somebody is manufacturing this stuff
out there, but, man, you’ve got to be six flags short of a theme park
to live amongst the stench-filled, chemical run-off, heat-fest that is
tx.</li>
<li>Texas as a state ranks in the top 5 of all states for all major
pollutants. Go figure. The EPA says you can’t breathe the air for fear
of carcinogens, can’t drink the water for fear of toxins, can’t eat
the seafood for fear of mercury poisoning, and the Taiwanese plants
spill high levels of run-off into the neighborhoods. That isn’t good
either!</li>
<li>“Clampet” stereotypes which aren’t all together untrue. I’ve never
seen any other collective bunch unwittingly living up to negative
stereotypes. Perhaps some t-shirts can be air dropped to them. You
know, t-shirts that say something like, “thank god i struck oil, cuz
my double-wide needs a fixin”</li>
<li>Texan’s general confusion between pride and reason. there is a
healthy pride, and then there is a texan pride. actually, a texan is
proud of his state like a branch davidian is proud of his cool-aid.</li>
<li>“DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS”. Why would I need to mess with
Texas when it’s already messed up? What’s wrong with the old standby:
Yeeeeeeehaw!!!..and other inane slogans that demonstrate
an inability to articulate one’s self.</li>
<li>Corrupt institutions of business. Enron was a great. But, no one
can beat the oil companies for blood money, environmental destruction,
greed, and corruption. a texan would tell you that corruption only
exists in zip codes outside their magical state. is this true?</li>
<li>Cults and fundamentalists. Kind of self explanatory. Apparently,
tx is the perfect place for those who like to organize and be
merry while preying on kids. Gotta love tx.</li>
<li>Backwards thinking. State first? Country second, or is there
something between state and country like, i don’t know, socks or
peanut butter? You gotta love state first mentality. If the country is
attacked, would tx try to side with mexico just to save their own state?
Kind of like, if the house was burning, you’d only save your favorite bathroom.
Lots of reasoning there. wait a minute! i’m going to start a new one. it’s
called home owners association first! Hey tx, do you shoot people in
the back too? Buncha anti-american secessionist quitters! just kidding,
only 20% of you are the American Taliban.</li>
<li>Worst humidity and dew point. Yes it is true. Houston/bay area is
tied with annual averages for the worst humidity and dew point in the
united states per NOAA. In a nutshell, it’s like a sauna. a constant
sauna for 7 months out of the year. so is hell.</li>
<li>Hurricanes. you got it. more of my tax dollars go to natural
disasters like hurricanes in tx. nothing like every hurricane season
fearing the wrath of god upon your family and home.</li>
<li>Tornadoes. this must have to do with the fact that tx leads the
nation in the amount of trailor homes as a percentage of all homes.
the good thing is, tx is flat and has nothing around for 100’s of
miles. so, not many people should get hurt except those who ask for
it. you know, texans.</li>
<li>Trailer trash. “T” stands for trailor trash, tornadoes, truck
stops, terrible, tacky, terrorist, taliban, travesty, and one
more…uh…dang, i forgot.</li>
<li>Prison over population. tx just can’t kill 'em fast enough.</li>
<li>Gun rights. Hey look, texans need their guns because the state is
unwilling foot the bill for adequate policing and safety like other
states. state first! citizen last!</li>
<li>Highest unwanted teen pregnancies. According to a Houston paper,
they like to do more than play with barbies down in tx. Apparently
they like to get pregnant and be a mom at age 12 too.</li>
<li>Poorly educated. STILL poorly educated compared to other states.
when are the oil guys going to pay for schools.</li>
<li>Lack of affluence. This is something oil money cannot buy. you can
be rich, but you can’t find Oklahoma on a map.</li>
<li>Cities annex neighboring towns just to boast on size. truly texas.
guess what, everyone can see thru this. when your metro area is a 10th
the size of other metro areas, you kind of get the idea your just
being typical tx.</li>
<li>Highest accident rate of any state. Listen, you have to drive 2
hours to get to what places the rest of us can get to in 30 minutes. I
would drive fast and not care about my life too if I lived in texas.
of course, the accident rate also includes factory explosions, etc.</li>
<li>Texas consumes more energy than what is produced by the state in
terms of gross product per the dept of energy. texas is an energy
empire. unfortunately, their bragging is unsubstantiated when they
claim the power the world.</li>
<li>highest in-sourcer (more people working for foreign firms -
helping make $ in foreign investments). guess what, more citizens in
tx by percentage aren’t contributing a dime to u.s. investment.</li>
<li>High cancer rate. of course. you don’t roil your state with
anything goes industry without paying for it do you?</li>
<li>High obesity rate - must be the dependence on mexican food, bbq.
That’s Mexian food, you know, it’s what makes tx so exotic.</li>
<li>Rated one of the ‘least livable’ of all states in 2008. It’s just
an article. but it was nice.</li>
<li>Floods. It is wonderful how tx is famous for its natural
disasters. Stevie Ray Vaughn sang about it. He’s a texan, i like
Stevie ray Vaughn, and if i lived in texas I’d sing the blues too.
he’s just telling it like it is.</li>
<li>Lack of water to most of the state, high cost of water. Are you
kidding? you can’t drink oil?</li>
<li>Toxic levels of mercury in fishing off texas shore. Already
covered. I like eating thermometers. maybe i should move to tx.</li>
<li>No mountains. Tx is beautiful with flat dusty fields of dry dirt
for 100’s of miles until you get to some hills with nice folks with
guns. tx. great place to drive thru on your way to somewhere else.</li>
<li>Beaches are contaminated. Galveston is called a resort town.
compared to my state, galveston is a cesspool with an oil platform
right on the beach while you swim among signs that warn you about
hepatitis.</li>
<li>4 out of the 10 fattest cities in America just happen to reside in
Texas. Now, we all know that Texas toast is so dang tasty, but slather
on some bbq sauce and top it off with a block of lard and you got you
there an o’fficial Tx-sized snack for the kids! </li>
<li>Pronounced pride and prejudice. back on the pride kick. can’t have
pride without prejudiced. oh wait, i can.</li>
<li>Nice people - to your face. The rest is some kind of judgment call
made on their own arcane beliefs.</li>
<li>American history, or lack there of. First Tx wanted nothing more than
to be annexed by the U.S., once it was ratified in, then it wanted out,
then it barely contributed to the confederate forces in the civil war!
Is Tx acting like a bipolar adolescent who just found out he was adopted,
or just too hopped up on peyote?</li>
<li>Nasty critters. Fire ants, Africanized bees, scorpions, etc. </li>
<li>Texas flag. Ok, now, what flag does the Tx flag look like if you
stare at it a long time (.01 seconds)? Give you a hint: It was designed
nearly 70 years before U.S. citizens declared Tx sovereign! Where is
the originality? Did Texans burn up all their creativity when they coined
“Tex-Mex”?</li>
<li>The rankings among the states: Percentage of Uninsured
Children-50th, Percentage of Population
without Health Insurance-50th, Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT)
Scores-47th, Percentage of Population over 25 with a High School
diploma-50th, Percentage of Non-Elderly Women with Health
Insurance-50th, Rate of Women Aged 40+ Who Receive
Mammograms-44th, Rate of Women Aged 18+ Who Receive Pap
Smears-47th, Cervical Cancer Rate-5th in the nation, Women’s Voter
Registration-43rd, Women’s Voter Turnout-49th, Percentage of Eligible
Voters that Vote-44th. Texas, please change your name to New Iran.</li>
<li>Lost perspective of their country. I guess if your trapped in an
abyss, you lose all hope that there is more out there.</li>
<li>Texas tea smells like wafting B.O., a sulfur pit, and a manure
farm. oh wait, tx oil towns are right next to sulfer pits which are
right next to ranches. that leave’s B.O., which is the illegal
immigrant day laborer who has to work illegally at all these places in
order to make ends meet.</li>
<li>BIG Hair. This is what they mean when they say everything is bigger in
Tx.</li>
<li>dallas cowboys. greatest NFL expansion team to ever bandwagon on (if
your in to that kind of thing)…even though they haven’t been to a superbowl
in 15 years.</li>
<li>Propaganda. Texans love to embellish the truth and distort the facts in
attempts to sell their state to us. must be easier for them than having to do
any of that pesky research or providing boring factual substantiation. Once
they realize we know better, they tend to get louder and more aggressive -
kind of like a silverback gorilla when threatened by poachers.</li>
<li>Income Inequality Between the Rich and the Poor- Sate ranking: 49th.
Hmmm, 13 billionaires and 15 million low income earners. We’ve come a
long way as Americans…except for tx who is just now building pyramids
for their oil pharaohs.</li>
<li>Sports are competitive. That’s why academics aren’t. Luckily they’re
close to country where they can get cheap anabolic steroids and other
enhancement drugs you cant buy in the u.s.</li>
</ol>
<p>My D’s friend goes to American is loving it. good section. Try GWU. has alarge endowment.</p>
<p>Texas TT,
Nice list of the many stereotypes of Texas and Texans (but go easy on # 46 )</p>
<p>to the OP,
The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, ie, look before you leap. Lots of nice colleges in the NE and around the USA, but don’t romanticize them. Visit.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>One thing to keep in mind: climate in the northeast is very different than texas. My suggestions are: Tufts, BC, Amherst are very good options in good college towns.</p>
<p>Look at Salve Regina in Newport, RI. Gorgeous setting in a seaside town and I think you would qualify for merit aid. Another is Endicott College in MA.</p>
<p>Also, Providence College in Providence, RI.</p>