<p>I think my experience might be helpful here: I was an artsy/alterna/whatever kid much like the OP’s daughter, and my first choice for college was Reed. My parents decided Oregon was much too far away, though, so I looked to the Northeast. I visited Brown, Vassar, and Bard, and looked seriously at Wesleyan. The people I met at Amherst – despite their more “mainstream” clothes – struck me as much more interesting. So I went to Amherst as an undergrad, and am glad I did.</p>
<p>I then went to grad school at the University of Virginia and held a faculty position at Union College. Amherst (in the '90s, anyway) was MUCH less preppy than UVA or Union. Keep in mind that Amherst (officially, and for the most part actually) has no fraternities. That in itself reduces the preppiness considerably. But, more importantly, Amherst attracts lots of genuinely smart people from all over – though they may not look as subcultural as the kids at, say, Bard, Hampshire, or Sarah Lawrence, they’re actually much more likely to be the sort of people who actually think for themselves.</p>
<p>That said, there <em>is</em> a preppy element there, coming out of the Northeastern private schools, and when I first arrived on campus I was a little put off. Some were – to use the current argot – genuinely ******y. But pretty soon I found my niche and completely forgot that those people were even there – and found that many of them were actually pretty weird, original thinkers, underneath the uniform. </p>
<p>Plus, if you really feel like you need a dose of anti-preppiness, Hampshire is always right down the road! I definitely knew some people who went to Amherst for the classes but socialized all around the five colleges – it’s an option you don’t have at, say, Williams.</p>