<p>Hello. I really like Bard College but am worried that I won't get in or won't receive enough aid to go there. If anyone can help me find some similar colleges where I'm more likely to get financial aid that'd be great. The most important thing to me is a community of people with creative views and ideas that don't necessarily cater to the norm... somewhere where people are encouraged not to conform and to be their own person. But other factors and my stats are listed below.</p>
<p>Other things that are important to me:
- Small size (around 2000)
- Intellectual over pre-professional
- Little/no Greek life (not a party school)
- Rural location (maybe suburban or town, but not in a big city)
- Northeast (preferably, but I'll definitely look into schools elsewhere if they're a good fit)
- Creative people/people interested in humanities over science/mathy people, but still solid math and science departments</p>
<p>ACT
Expected to be 30, give or take a point</p>
<p>I'm also considering Bennington but the male/female ratio is awful and it's extremely small, so I'm trying to find a better less-selective fit. ANY help would be fantastic. Thank you!</p>
<p>Hampshire, Sarah Lawrence (SL has the same skewed male/female ratio, I think, though). Maybe Emerson, but it’s a bit more urban and pre-professional. Skidmore might be good as well.</p>
<p>why are you looking for a less selective school? Your SATs aren’t superb, but your GPA and courload are what really matter, and yours are great.</p>
<p>plus, there are schools that don’t even look at SATs or ACTs</p>
<p>In general the more selective the school, the better the aid. Places like
Oberlin, Skidmore might be towards the top of your list. But less selective
schools may be Wooster, Clark, Beloit, Muhlenberg</p>
<p>Thank you all so much. I’ve strongly considered Beloit, but if I remember correctly the campus is pretty small and I’m afraid of feeling cooped up. Though if they have good aid then I will at least apply and check it out. I’ve also considered Haverford but didn’t know if it was a realistic possibility. Oberlin has appealed to me as well. Thanks for the others, I’ll definitely look into them, and any other suggestions are welcome.</p>
<p>** Update - I found ACT scores online today and they’re much better than SAT’s were, so I’m feeling a lot better. In case anyone’s curious here they are.</p>
<p>Beloit’s campus is not that much smaller then other top LACs. Its about 1400 students, but the campus is 45 minutes away from Madison and 70 minutes away from Chicago and there is cheap and regular shuttles that go from Beloit to these cities.</p>
<p>It fits most of your requirements. The education is pretty intellectual. There are a few frats (like 3 or 4) but students say they are nothing like the stereotypical ones. They are not in any means exclusive and are much more service oriented then anything else. Its location is a perfect fit as Beloit is a small city of about 40000.</p>
<p>People at Beloit are very artsy but has strong departments all around. It is especially strong in social sciences and humanities/arts but all has a strong math/science department and a new state of the art beautiful science building on campus.</p>