<p>Exactly what the title reads.. What are some liberal art schools in urban areas? Seems like all liberal art schools are in the middle of nowhere.</p>
<p>Macalester, Rhodes, Reed, Lewis & Clark, Barnard if female.</p>
<p>Holy Cross, Trinity.</p>
<p>Agnes Scott- Atlanta (near)
Barnard- NYC
Bryn Mawr- Philadelphia (near)
Davidson- Charlotte (near)
Emerson- Boston (not exactly a LAC)
Eugene Lang- NYC
Goucher- Baltimore
Haverford- Philadelphia (near)
Holy Cross- Worcester
Lake Forest- Chicago (near)
Macalester- St. Paul
Occidental- LA
Reed- Portland
Rhodes- Memphis
Lewis & Clark- Portland
Swarthmore- Philadelphia (near)
Trinity- San Antonio
Wagner- NYC
Wellesley- Boston (near)</p>
<p>Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore are suburban - all three are on the main line outside Philly. <em>Beautiful</em> area, lots of fun, stuff to do, but definitely not urban. Davidson is at best suburban, quite a hike outside Charlotte.</p>
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Well, obviously. You’ll notice that I carefully marked each suburban school with a “near” to denote its suburban status. It’s fairly easy to get from the Quaker schools to Philly, though. Charlotte really isn’t that far from Davidson (I’ve made the trek several times), but I hesitated to put it on the list because you’d need a car. I put it on the list because you’d also need a car to get around places like Rhodes and Occidental. </p>
<p>To be blunt, I’d much rather be in a suburb of Philly or Boston than directly in Worcester or Memphis. Others may disagree.</p>
<p>I’ve been to Holy Cross. It is not urban.</p>
<p>Clark is urban and and active in helping its surroundings. The New School/Eugene Lang is in NYC</p>
<p>It is not clear without stats which schools are matches, or whether you think of suburban (Ursinus outside Philly) or small city (Albright in Reading; Moravian in Bethlehem; etc) as sufficient</p>
<p>Add Colorado College (Colorado Springs, CO) and Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT.) </p>
<p>Note, there’s a Trinity University in San Antonio (as IBclass06 mentions), and there’s a Trinity College in Hartford CT. (which may be the one par72 means).</p>
<p>Even if you exclude the suburban schools, of course not all the remaining “urban” environments are the same in size or attractions. Greenwich Village (Eugene Lang College) is very different from Middletown, CT. (Wesleyan). I doubt many Colorado College students choose that school mainly for the city of Colorado Springs; more likely, they’re attracted to the surrounding Rocky Mountains (though they might also like the night life and shops nearby).</p>
<p>For a good LAC in an attractive urban location, Macalester would be near the top of my list (assuming you can take the cold winters). Or Barnard (if female). If the city is a more important objective than the campus itself, and you want someplace a little less selective, then maybe Eugene Lang.</p>
<p>Holy Cross is 1 mile to downtown Worcester but where it is situated is not urban more suburban.</p>
<p>Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, Scripps and Harvey Mudd are all located in Claremont CA, which is in LA County, but suburban. There is a Rail Line right there that will take you into downtown LA. They have a ski and beach day each year where you start on the slopes in the morning and then drive to the beach in the afternoon. That’s fun for people not from a similar environment. While you will likely spend most time on campus and in the Claremont Village, no doubt there are opportunities to get into LA, Hollywood, Santa Monica. Definetely not in the middle of nowhere.</p>
<p>Occidential College is about 20-30 minutes West, more toward LA proper, but I don’t think there is a rail line there, though the area has gotten somewhat hipsterish. It is much smaller because it is not in a group like the Claremont Colleges. Barak Obama whet there for a couple of years.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone!
Now, what are some liberal art schools located in urban areas that have strong medical programs?</p>
<p>Heh, Pomona. The Metrolink isn’t the safest bet for sure. It doesn’t run frequently enough really. The last train on some lines runs at 5 PM some weekends!</p>
<p>Assumption College (MA)
Canisius College (NY)
Loyola College (MD)
Lake Forest College (IL)
U of Tulsa (OK)
Emory University (GA)
Saint Louis University
College of Wooster (OH)</p>
<p>Amherst is less than five minutes away from a college town populated by students from Amherst, UMass, and Hampshire, elementary and middle school children, hippies and retirees, and other interesting characters. It’s very often a lively place, and it’s always aesthetically pleasing. It’s 15 minutes by bus away from several major shopping centers. Northhampton, a bourgeois-bohemian paradise, is 20 minutes away by car.</p>
<p>Don’t believe you’ll have time to enjoy urban life if you’re an academic at an LAC. However, you’ll be satisfied at Amherst.</p>
<p>Haverford, Bryn Mawr, and Swarthmore are all great choices as well, all very close (10-20 minutes) to Philly, all very beautiful themselves.</p>
<p>Pomona is also an excellent choice. The schools in the Claremont Consortium are close and intimate enough that you’ll never be short of opportunities, experiences, and social events.</p>
<p>Obstinate: Funny a few minutes after I read your comment about the metrolink, I called my S. Guess what, he was on the train on his way back to Claremont from LA! It was about 8:00PM in California when I called so at least on some lines it runs later. I’m glad he was on the train and not getting ready to go to it when I called. I will definitely tell him to check the schedule whenever he plans a trip!</p>
<p>It runs but not often enough and I took Greyhound into LA from Claremont, which sort of sealed my impression of Downtown LA.
Walk from Claremont colleges to the bus station was 30 min or so fun and easy yet I don’t know if any students ever walk? The schools are surrounded by parking lots.
Bus station in LA is THE creepiest location I have ever been. There were city busses then subway from Macy’s plaza to get wherever you need to go but my gosh.
Those students poor and un-driving, there is a way but plan accordingly and take the train unless you must get to LA somehow anyway humanly possible.</p>
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<p>Virtually any decent LAC is likely to have a decent pre-med program. If you run down the list of US News top 25 or 30 LACs, I doubt anyone on CC can make an ironclad case that any of them clearly stand out for pre-med per se compared to nearest neighbors on the list. Haverford for a long time was reputed to have an especially good pre-med advising program, but that is just one piece of the academic picture you’re trying to take in. </p>
<p>Once you’ve compiled an initial list, you really need to go visit a few of these places. You may think you want “urban”, but that will rule out many of the best LACs. And you need to see what urban really means in the context of specific settings. In an urban LAC, I would want one where I could step right off campus and within a few minutes walk, be in my idea of an interesting, desirable city neighborhood. Not too many LACs really satisfy that very well. Some of the ones that do may require compromises in other areas. For instance, Eugene Lang has what may be the ultimate urban setting, but does not have much of a campus at all (or very good dorm options).</p>
<p>I would not call Amherst the town, urban or particularly interesting. People drive back and forth between Amherst and Northampton simply because one day they may feel like Baskin-Robbins ice cream while on another, Ben and Jerry’s. That’s a typical weekend.</p>