Hello, I don’t think this school exists, but if any place would know it is this board. We are looking for a college in the northeast/mid-atlantic region that fits the following criteria: near the mountains but not too far from a city; more than 5k students; division 3 sports.
Like I said, I don’t think it exists, but prove me wrong.
Ithaca college (if you count Ithaca as a city!). Why is D3 a criteria…are you/your student trying to be recruited for their sport?
And what about cost and major?
Case Western is in Cleveland but less than 30 minutes from state parks and some skiing (albeit not the best). DIII and just over 5,000 students. Close-ish to the Northeast ; ).
CMU would also fit the bill- ish ; )
I’d start by googling colleges that have D3 teams in the sport you are interested in. You can then sift through that list to find options that best fit your other criteria.
U Southern Maine in Portland is D3, has about 6k students and is within an hour or of mountains/skiing.
I agree, and then by major, otherwise we’re shooting in the dark. I linked all the DIII schools below. They can be sorted by state.
Thanks everyone - and yes playing sports would be ideal for him so that is why we are looking at D3, but I think the other criteria that are being looked for are keeping a lot of schools off the list.
How about University of Scranton?
Or, Brandeis?
Bottom line: as demonstrated by several posters above - it’s not hard to find colleges that meet your criteria using readily available online resources.
With all due respect, I’m not sure others need to be doing this legwork on your behalf.
U Scranton only has 3,500 undergrads. But does sound like something will have to give on the criteria!
U Rochester is pretty close to what you seek. Winter sports in the area, though probably not real mountains.
U Denver, except that’s D1.
And yes, your child will have to accept that compromise is necessary. There are a lot of great LACs that fit the bill, but not in terms of size of student body.
And it’s in the mountain west. 
I do think the criteria will have to give somewhere, maybe the starting reason could be if kid wants to have a successful recruiting experience they have to cast a wide net.
So expand geography. Or drop close to a city, or broaden definition of a city…playing a sport and taking classes will leave little time to take advantage of the nearest city, whether it’s Boston, or Portland, or Rochester.
Look at larger D1 colleges with club sports.
Major, academic stats, budget, sport?
Here are some for your consideration. There’s at least 4k students (most are 5k+), in proximity to some mountainous areas, and all are D3. Some are closer to big cities than others, but this is probably fairly comprehensive.
U. of Rochester (NY)
Penn State-Erie
Plymouth State (NH)
Springfield (MA)
York (PA )
Utica (NY)
Wilkes (PA )
Rensselaer Polytechnic (NY)
Ithaca (NY)
Rochester Institute of Technology (NY)
SUNY Cortland
SUNY Geneseo
SUNY Oneonta
Westfield State (MA)
Fitchburg State (MA)
Western Connecticut State
U. of Scranton (PA )
Pennsylvania College of Technology
Ramapo (NJ)
William Paterson (NJ)