Liberal Arts Colleges In/Near Cities

College Search & Selection
1

Hello!

I am entering my senior year of high school and was looking for suggestions on small liberal arts colleges/universities (2,000-6,500) range (give or take a couple hundred) that are located in or near cities. I want the small college feel with individual attention but opportunities a large city would grant.

My stats: Wgpa: 4.2 UWgpa: 3.6 ACT: 33

Looking to study anthropology, peace and justice studies, public health, political science

Schools I have already been looking at:
Emory, Brandeis, American, URochester, Providence, Lehigh

2

Swarthmore, Haverford, and Bryn Mawr are in the Philadelphia area.

3

For a range of further ideas you can read through these Newsweek articles:

https://www.newsweek.com/25-most-desirable-urban-schools-71889

https://www.newsweek.com/25-most-desirable-suburban-schools-71867

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4

Agree with all the choices above.

In big cities: Add Macalester and Occidental. Add Barnard if you are female. Or the ultra urban New School for Social Research (Eugene Lang).

Within a very short commute of a major city via public transportation: Tufts and Sarah Lawrence.

If you are considering Rochester a big enough city, you might like these Worcester colleges: Clark and Holy Cross. Or Baltimore’s Loyola Maryland or Goucher. Or St. Petersburg’s Eckerd. Or Rhodes in Memphis.

5

Trinity in Hartford, Colorado College, Tufts (not a LAC, but similar to your other choices).

6

Agree with many of the above. Adding Manhattan, BC, Brandeis, Brown as possibilities.

7

There’s a city bus that makes hourly weekday runs between Middletown (Wesleyan) and Hartford (service is spotty on weekends, however.)

8

Reed, Pitzer, and chiming in on Occidental.

9

Barnard (if female)

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10

Lewis and Clark in Portland, Oregon (suburban neighborhood).

11

Davidson College, near Charlotte NC - Top 10 National LAC.

12

Not in the city but look at Pitzer and Scripps in Claremont, CA. About 35 miles east of LA with a commuter rail station within walking distance of the campus.

13

Lake Forest College is in Chicagoland and they have a Chicago semester program.

Doesn’t Oberlin have a shuttle to Cleveland? I think Denison does to Columbus.

14

This is exactly where we started our list two years ago. It’s an interesting challenge, but here are a few ideas, trying not to duplicate what’s been mentioned above:

Denison, twenty minutes outside Columbus, Ohio - they do have a shuttle and the school is very engaged with the city (my son will be starting at Denison in the fall)
Trinity University, ten minutes from the center of San Antonio (this school is very close to what you describe, a small school in a beautiful suburban neighborhood but also in the city - strongly recommend you take a look)
Rice University in Houston
Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin
Bowdoin, about 30 minutes outside Portland, Maine
Bates, in Lewiston, Maine, and about 45 minutes outside Portland
University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington and about 45 minutes from Seattle
Santa Clara University in Silicon Valley

15

Great suggestions above, especially Macalester. Good fit with your interests. Lots to do in Twin Cities. Cold.

I don’t see Rhodes College mentioned so far. Terrific LAC with a beautiful campus in Memphis.

16

Rollins in the suburbs of Orlando would be well worth a look, I think. It’s in the right size range (2000 undergrads) and offers majors in IR, public policy, social entrepreneurship, etc. as well as some unusual minors (e.g. Australian studies, Sustainable Development, Caribbean studies).

https://www.rollins.edu/academics/areas-of-study/

U Richmond is another urban LAC not yet mentioned.

17

Rhodes in Memphis – lots of shadowing opportunities for pre-med so I’m guessing – though it’s just a guess – that public health students may also have opportunities.

18

Trinity University in San Antonio. If you are female, Agnes Scott.

19

Although not liberal arts schools but smaller universities, you might like Washington University in St. Louis, Vanderbilt in Nashville, and SMU in Dallas, Rice and Rhodes have already been atoned but they would be good ones to put on your list as well.

20

A sampling of liberal arts colleges in or near big cities. Not screened for other factors like majors offered, religious / non-religious, public / private, etc. or what the city is like.

Carleton
Christopher Newport
Colorado College
Fisk
Gonzaga
Holy Cross
Hood
Lewis and Clark
Manhattan
Marymount Manhattan
Mills (women)
Morehouse (men)
Reed
Richmond
Rhodes
St. Olaf
St. Thomas (MN)
Seattle
Seattle Pacific
Spelman (women)
USAFA
Westminster
Willamette