Cornell and Swarthmore especially are very high reaches with the current test score.
Yeah and I think Swarthmore isn’t so social justicey. It seems more (and I mean this in a kind way) competitive nerdy intellectually.
Lots of good suggestions. I’ll second Hampshire and Bard as two less-selective options.
Bard is very social justice-y, but it’s in the middle of the woods and it’s pretty small.
We drove there from the northern NYC suburbs and it didn’t feel like an easy distance to NYC to us.
Lewis & Clark has been mentioned (and rightfully so). Your daughter sounds like she’d absolutely love the Pacific Northwest. have you looked at Reed? U. of Puget Sound?
Both Reed and UPS would fit the bill well, I’m just unclear on their art programs. Willamette could possibly be an option as well.
Will put in another vote for Bard and will suggest Vasser, Bryn Mawr, and Haverford. Bard feels very isolated, but it is not hard to get to the City (for a day or weekend - not for a few hours). Agree that Tufts could work. Take a look at Macalester as well.
Reed art is excellent and I know two fine artist alums who make a living with their artwork and are both making serious names for themselves.
I agree the Pacific Northwest sounds like a fit geographically. These schools have already been mentioned but I agree with Reed (reach, though), UPS, Lewis and Clark and The Evergreen State College. My D attended Evergreen and I will say that the campus is extremely natural which means…dark. It’s cloudy here a lot and those tall evergreens make it darker. The buildings were built around 1970 so are mostly concrete so no interesting architecture. Also, although it’s “in” Olympia, it’s in the middle of a 1000 foot campus so to get to any store of any kind, you need some type of wheeled transportation. It’s an excellent school but not the right fit for everyone. In contrast, UPS in Tacoma is in the city (not downtown), much more open landscape-wise and has some beautiful buildings. Both of these schools are part of the College That Change Lives group.
Many of those LACs including Oberlin have a quant proficiency requirement which may be fulfilled by calc or taking 2 quant-heavy related courses such as stats, CS courses for majors, etc. Incidentally, I ended up going well beyond the minimum quant requirements by doing calc, stats, and a few CS courses for majors.
There’s also a 9 credit requirement in each of the arts/humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences/STEM areas. It was known as the 9-9-9 requirement and promulgated before Herman Cain decided to appropriate it for his aborted presidential run.
This assumes the individual student has had no previous exposure to ideologies which are centrist or diametrically opposed to his/her own prior to attending college.
This assumption is not only not always the case.
For instance, many of my southern/midwest college classmates affirmatively chose Oberlin precisely because their hometowns, neighbors, and sometimes even their parents/rest of family were very conservative religiously and politically.
They’re all very familiar with the conservative religious/political talking points because that was the overwhelmingly dominant narrative they’ve been exposed to for the first 17-18+ years of their lives before undergrad and yet, strongly disagreed with it whether openly or covertly*.
In their cases, being in a bubble opposite what they grew up with may not only not be detrimental to their growth, but sometimes necessary for their own mental health/sense they’re not alone.
- Many kept their liberal/progressive-left leaning views to themselves to avoid issues with not conforming to the prevailing religious/political conservatism of their hometowns, neighbors, or sometimes even their families. It was also easier to conceal Oberlin's reputation for radical progressive-left activist student culture as back when my classmates and I were undergrads, the internet was only starting to become commonplace in the homes and surprisingly...many parents didn't bother to research deeply into the social/political/religious campus culture environment of their child's(dren's) college selections.
While I understand the OP said $$ is not an issue, as a New York local, I don’t think either of these programs are worth what they charge in tuition for the experience they provide at the undergrad level.
To say the New School is exceedingly weak in the sciences would be an understatement. The subfields in their strong social sciences and humanities tends to be a bit on the narrow side compared with most schools listed so far. They also have had issues maintaining some facilities(i.e. bathrooms)* because of money shortages and considering the high tuition, I’d look elsewhere to get more for the educational dollar.
As for NYU-Gallatin, if that’s what you really want and it’s similar to Hampshire College…go to Hampshire college. You’ll have a likely better experience based on what friends who attended Hampshire and/or NYU have said AND do it with a lower full-pay pricetag.
- Firsthand experience while visiting some friends doing Masters in various Social Science fields at the New School.
Oh, another LAC she may want to consider on the West Coast is Occidental College.
Not sure about the level of student activism, but I’ve heard there’s a decent amount there from relatives living in the LA area.
Excellent comments, @cobrat
If she wants to join clubs and participate in marches, she can do that in almost any college she chooses and it will be easy to find. If she more seriously wishes to address social injustice issues by trying social work, for example, or providing first-hand assistance to the needy, she should look for colleges which provide internships in those areas or opportunities/credit for in-depth community engagement.
@cobrat she said that she doesn’t want math, if i’m remembering correctly. She doesn’t want science. She wants arts and social justice activism and nature. And her stats aren’t super high. That’s the reason behind new school and nyu gallatin in addition to hampshire. hampshire had great sciences and art btw. hampshire is a great school but very different in terms of surroundings than nyu gallatin. she may want a major city for art. nyc is imho one of the top cities for arts and would be part of her campus. new school is fine for people who want the arts and are less interested in heavy academics. hampshire has more nature otoh.
Earlham offers great off campus programs and would be ideal in all respects except that it’s in Richmond, IN. I know less about Guilford, but have encountered quite as few recent grads who are meaningfully engaged in social justice work. Again, not a big city, but less isolated.
Consolidating some ideas culling for stats and lovely environment:
Pacific Northwest schools like Puget Sound, Evergreen, and L&C seem great
Bard – the people who drive from NYC to Bard don’t quite get travel in that region. The way to travel is by train. Amtrak shoots straight into Penn Station at midtown. It’s accessible to NYC for a day. It’s a long day, but possible. Bard is also more selective that has been suggested in this thread IMHO.
Hampshire – 5 college consortium
Sarah Lawrence – 20 minutes to NYC by commuter train and they run a van on weekends
Ithaca
Mt Holyoke – 5 college consortium
Earlham – too small maybe
Boulder
UVM
Occidental – too small maybe
Santa Cruz – big but has college system to make it feel smaller
Brandeis
Mills–cross registration at Berkeley
Hampshire, UVermont, American, Skidmore, Smith (all matches/safeties) and Vassar (reach)
Smith is a reach.
And skidmore needs higher SATs
American is in a city and not the natural environment
I tried to figure out how to get to Bard via public transportation, but Google failed me. 
I know to get to Vassar (probably too reachy for the OP, but otherwise a good fit) you can use Metro North. It looks like for Bard the Amtrak station is nine miles away. http://www.bard.edu/visiting/directions/
How do I calculate her UC GPA? Thanks