Figuring out college spring break visits. He loved Vassar and Wesleyan. Oberlin and Pitzer are probably also on the list (and Bard and Skidmore) but how about Bates, Bowdoin, and Tufts? Are they similar in vibe at all? Ideally he’d stay on the not-too-cold part of the east coast and the school would be between 2, 000 - 3,000 students. Thanks.
From your list Bates and Tufts are more artsy and liberal than Bowdoin, which IMO is more mainstream and sporty (but there are certainly art offerings and artistic students). You might take a look at Hamilton as well…great art programs, lots of artistic, creative students.
Bates and Tufts might work. Bard and Skidmore sound like better fits than those two though… I say no to Bowdoin. Haverford possibly - not really the same arty vibe but still less conventional than many. Sarah Lawrence?
Connecticut College might compare to Wesleyan; Sarah Lawrence might compare to Bard; Hamilton’s new theatre and studio arts building would seem to serve as a draw for creatively inclined students.
Hamilton?
Not east coast but Colorado College.
Conn College is not really artsy.
Unless things have really changed, Bates was never what I would describe as the prototypical artsy/liberal school.
Excellent of course.
And art is part of all great lacs to some degree and liberal leaning, as most.
But a Skidmore Vassar Bard and Sarah Lawrence experience, no. That wasn’t the Bates students I know even as recently as five years ago.
Tufts has a more artsy vibe mixed in with a very career minded group too. That’s a good choice to see.
You have a great list already and best of luck.
As an aside, although larger, Brown has really become very artsy (they even have a cooperative degree program with their artsy sister school across the street, RISD ) and is Uber liberal and bigger but still relatively small with LAC sensibilities.
Those are all very selective schools, do his stats match up? Agree with @privatebanker only Skidmore, Vassar, Bard and Sarah Lawrence meet your criteria.
Agree with @privatebanker that we have come full circle and Brown is considered a larger version of Wesleyan. 
If he has good stats, he should also look at Swarthmore and perhaps Haverford (though Haverford struck me as more sporty than artsy, but also pretty liberal.) If he has any interest in urban areas, perhaps the New School although there’s not much of a campus per se. Ithaca College? It’s very arty (but also pretty cold) and the town of Ithaca is neat and the whole Finger Lakes area is just lovely.
Below I’ve calculated the percentage of students majoring in the arts at the liberal arts colleges ranked in the top 75 by USNWR, excluding military academies, the single-sex colleges, and a few colleges with unusual curriculums (Soka, SJC, Sarah Lawrence). All of the data comes from the most recent Common Data Set for each school.
15+%
33% Bard
26% Oberlin
22.2% Lawrence
10-15%
12% Connecticut College / Vassar
11.97% Whitman
11.3% Skidmore
11% Kenyon / St. Olaf
10.9% Wesleyan
5-10%
9.12% Lewis & Clark
9% DePauw / Illinois Wesleyan
8.96% Carleton
8.33% Kalamazoo
8.2% Furman
8% Wheaton (IL)
7.6% Beloit / Middlebury
7.22% Knox
7% Bates / Berea / Colorado College / Occidental
6.4% Pitzer
6.26% Hamilton
6% Amherst / Bowdoin / Centre / Denison
5.8% Sewanee
5.7% Williams
5.15% Colby
0-5%
5% Grinnell / Wooster
4.8% Franklin & Marshall
4.61% Puget Sound
4.41% Lafayette
4.32% Trinity
4.1% Macalester
4.09% Dickinson
4% Davidson / Washington & Lee
3.97% Colgate
3.94% Rhodes
3.8% Swarthmore
3.7% Holy Cross
3.33% Pomona
3% Gettysburg / Union
2.9% Haverford
2.8% Hobart & William Smith
2.6% St. Thomas Aquinas
2.5% Bucknell / Richmond / St. Lawrence
0.94% Claremont McKenna
0% Harvey Mudd
LACs ranked 75-150 with 10+% seniors majoring in the arts
39% Bennington
31% Marlboro
18.84% Muhlenberg
14% Wheaton (MA)
13% UNC Asheville
11.6% Luther
11% Juniata / Randolph College
10.1% Goucher
Great to see the percentages, @warblersrule. It might also be noted, for those unfamiliar with these schools, that the three with the highest percentages — Bard, Oberlin and Lawrence — all have music conservatories, which would contribute substantially to their overall levels of fine arts majors.
My daughter is looking at schools in this general category!
She visited, adored, and will definitely apply to Vassar, Skidmore, and Wesleyan!
She also visited and quite liked Smith (though not an option for the OP) and Hamilton.
Bard appealed to her less, for personal reasons.
Oberlin and Kenyon are next on our “to visit” list.
We are looking for more schools with similar vibes, but with closer to 50% acceptance rates (or more!) and would welcome suggestions.
Sarah Lawrence is definitely on our list.
What do people know about Clark?
Schools with higher acceptance rates and similar vibes would include some of the Midwest LACs, such as Beloit and Lawrence in Wisconsin, Earlham in Indiana, and Knox in Illinois.
Eckerd College in St Petersburg may be an option. They opened a new visual arts center last February. Students- 1870, have an honors program and a freshman, they have artistic achievement awards and generous merit and financial aid.
@Booklvr we loved Clark. Our son was accepted, but is attending elsewhere. It’s not in a great neighborhood in Worcester, but we think it’s a gem of a school. If you can get beyond the neighborhood and look at what all it has to offer, you may be pleasantly surprised. We all really, really liked it.
The vibe of the Clarkies is infectious. They are an eclectic, accepting bunch. The programs and the way they go through advisement with the faculty is impressive. LEEP program is a great find, and there are opportunities to take part in an accelerated BA/MA program in a 5 for 4. There was so much that I liked about the school. They had an impressive information session with kids who were engaged with all of the prospective students. It was a very solid #2/#3 on his list.
And, @PetraMC we just came back from Ithaca for an event at Ithaca College and spent almost a week there. I agree. It is lovely. View of Lake Cayuga from campus is very pretty. Downtown is similar to a smaller scale Burlington - artsy vibe, apparently some great wine. Great for foodies. Lots of beautiful waterfalls. A TON of hills. Ithaca College, though, is a bit larger in size - about 6,000 students. Great college town, IMHO. Must be amazing in the summer. We had a great time visiting…albeit during a not so traditional winter in the area - it was 50 degrees one day!
Swarthmore was mentioned. I don’t see it as particularly artsy on the LAC scale.
Clark is definitely going on the list! Thanks for the input, @kjs1992 .
I like the idea of Ithaca as well, and daughter has a couple of close friends who are eyeing that school. It’s bigger than most of the schools we are looking at, but it might be worth a look.
@Midwesternmomofboys, my daughter’s college counselor at her high school also suggested Beloit! Sounds like one we should explore.
New College of Florida is not quite big enough but it recently started a “college consortium” program - it’s a LAC in Florida, public honors, but students who go to New College can register for and take classes at Ringling College of Arts and Design, a couple blocks down the road, for New College credit, if he’s really interested in art. You get the benefit of the LAC environment plus opportunities to take specialized art classes at the high-ranking art school.