The following is my list of schools (I know it’s long).
Brandeis
Brown
Columbia
Oberlin
Pomona
Rice
Stanford
Swarthmore
Temple
UChicago
Penn
Pitt
Wisconsin
Vassar
Wesleyan
Williams
Fordham
George Washington
Yale
Vermont
Georgetown
I’m looking for a smaller (preferably under 15,000) school that truly values undergraduate education, and also values experimentation with different subjects/careers rather than trying to push you one way or the other. My interests are primarily in physics, history, and classical literature.
Input? I’m early in my search so I’m really just looking for info on these schools, and trying to eliminate ones that I don’t think would be a good fit. Thanks (hope it isn’t too much to process).
You’d seem to be inclined toward schools on your list such as Williams, Vassar and Brown. You could look into Haverford alongside Swarthmore. For literary pursuits, Kenyon should be researched. For additional choices notable for their flexible curricula, consider Amherst, Hamilton, Grinnell. Pomona matches you well from the Claremonts (https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/201808/apker.cfm).
Are any of these schools close enough for you to visit? The feel of Georgetown (17,000, urban) will feel completely different from Williams (2,100, very small town). In fact, the population of the entire town of Williamstown is way less than half of just the enrollment at Georgetown.
Even if you have local schools that are not on your list, you should spend some time on campuses of different sizes just to get a feel for what it is like.
Princeton offers a greater emphasis on undergraduates than several of the universities on your tentative list. It approaches the attributes of top LACs in this way.