There are many liberal arts colleges in the midwest and on the east coast that don’t have a high percentage of students from California nor do they have large Asian populations. I’ll find some examples tomorrow and report back
I am from the Midwest and have visited most of those colleges, had kids apply to and get accepted to several. Macalester, Carleton, St. Olaf, Lawrence, Beloit, Knox, Kenyon, Denison, Earlham, College of Wooster, Oberlin, Kalamazoo come to mind. Honestly, I think a student of your caliber might not be happy at all of these, with the exception of rank your stats are well above the average. I have a kid with similar stats (school does not rank, though, and is in Midwest so known to these colleges) who applied to and got into some of these. I’d say Carleton, Macalester, Kenyon, and Oberlin make the most sense in the Midwest for you.
Might want to add Grinnell to @intparent’s excellent list of top midwest LACs. Great school.
OP, you might want to consider Colorado College as well. They are sensitive to financial need when rounding out their admissions so if you are full pay (and not expecting any merit) you would be a compelling applicant. CC has a strong English department, and the block plan allows for some unique academic/travel opportunities.
If you follow the link you can find details beyond requirements, including “English Away”. English classes travel all over the world because of the block plan, allowing for a truly immersive educational experience. https://www.coloradocollege.edu/academics/dept/english/
Take Bates College for example- 4.6% of the students are Asian and 5% are from California and then there’s Hamilton College where approx. 7% are Asian and 4% are from California. Just two examples
For LACs it’s always a good idea to spend some time looking for fit at each one you consider because its so important; at a large public just about everyone can find their niche, but at a school of just 2,000 or fewer kids there aren’t that many alternatives if you don’t fit in with the mainstream.
I’d suggest spending more time looking for matches than at the reaches like Amherst, Williams, etc. Not that you shouldn’t try for reaches, but there are a few things that make it seem tough for you.
First is the imbalance between scores and grades. The 800s on M and CR show plenty of potential, yet that didn’t translate into more than B’s in math/science. And into an unimpressive class rank. One interpretation is you could have done better in class, but for lack of effort or motivation got what are good grades but less than you were capable of. This is going to give adcoms pause because at a LAC the classes depend on the effort and interaction of the student; you’re not listening to a prof drone on in lecture, you’re taking an active role. What, they might wonder, will you do when you take classes that don’t thrill you? When the pace of the material picks up in subjects you do like?
And as for ECs, at elite-level colleges they aren’t looking for laundry lists of participated here, held club office there; they want to see initiative and accomplishment. Again, you did more than many uninvolved HS kids, but at the top level they are going to look for standouts. You took part in debate but don’t mention top finishes at local or state contests. You are a staff writer for a school literary magazine but don’t mention winning awards for submitting your work. The history paper sounds promising if it was part of an invitation-only program, even better if it won an award there.
Does your high school have Naviance?
If so, try to find the results of applications from your HS, with stats like yours, to the kinds of LACs that interest you.
@tk21769: It’s only apparent from the OP’s other threads, but he has encountered limitations with Naviance due to the small sample sizes at his school.
'Take Bates College for example- 4.6% of the students are Asian and 5% are from California and then there’s Hamilton College where approx. 7% are Asian and 4% are from California. Just two examples."
My S is Asian and was accepted to Bates with a 30ACT; 3.8ish GPA and a rank of 28/63. Far from top 10%. Many of the selective LACs really want to have a diversified student body and I’m sure it helped my son get accepted to Bates and he wasn’t even from CA but from NY - which isn’t a state they need more students from.
He did very well at Bates and had a great job lined up before he graduated.
If you marked Asian on the SAT you should start getting invites from LACs for diversity weekends. We used that to target specific schools to look into.
@intparent Thank you for your suggestions. I have been thinking about Macalester, Kenyon, Oberlin, Denison, and Carleton. 
@tk21769 No, barely anyone applies to LACs from my school so they barely show any information, if at all, due to privacy concerns.
Thank you @citymama9 , @lr4550 @rayrick for your suggestions, too
@mikemac This is exactly my concern. However, I don’t feel like I didn’t put effort/zoned out in class. My school is ranked in the top 20 high schools nationally in STEM according to US News (although we are just a regular public school).
But yeah, my grades/rank aren’t good, and my ECs are nothing special. I’m not really setting my sights on Amherst/Williams because I know those are too much of a reach. The most selective schools I am looking at are probably Bowdoin, Wesleyan, Middlebury – which are still extremely selective.
Do you feel Kenyon, Oberlin, Bard, Macalester would be matches? I know that @intparent mentioned earlier that he/she thought that Vassar would be a match for me, but I hesitate to go that far given my stats.
@emilybee Bates did stick out to me before because of its low Asian population, especially compared to nearby Bowdoin or other colleges of a similar caliber.
I don’t think that your class rank will be very consequential at most liberal arts colleges unless other classmates are applying. Colleges know that the differences at competitive high schools like yours can come down to a single sophomore math test or junior English paper. I think you should select match and safety schools judiciously. Colleges like Claremont-McKenna love “leadership” ECs, which I didn’t see when I glanced at your original post. That would also be true of the most selective LACs like Williams, Amherst, and Pomona. Your test scores are competitive for any college in the country. You might consider selecting one reach LAC for ED, especially since you don’t need financial aid.
Whitman is probably a solid match for you. I would call it a safety, except it might not be one for a West Coast applicant. My son got in, with a modest merit scholarship, and significantly lower stats than yours. He had a geographic advantage (rare for kids from NJ), however, and very strong ECs.
Only ED if you are SURE it is your first choice and you are sure your parents are able and willing to pay full price.
Great English-major schools for you:
Match: Bard, Skidmore
Low Reach: Kenyon, Hamilton, Grinnell, Oberlin (Early Decision might help with these)
High reach: there are a lot of strengths in your profile. Pick a school you love and try Early Decision.
Maybe so, but If very few students at the OP’s high school apply to LACs, will his school even be on their radar as a “competitive” high school? He may want to have a conversation with his GC about his rank and how it might affect his chances. I would not assume it won’t matter.
At most of the top ~40 LACs, the majority of enrolled students did rank in their HS top 10%.
Here are the percentages in the T10% for a few of these schools (according to USNWR):
94% Haverford
84% Amherst
86% Bowdoin
76% Middlebury
70% Vassar
69% Colorado College
65% Kenyon
64% Wesleyan
43% Skidmore
Furthermore, many of the remainders (the ones outside the T10%) probably come from very competitive schools that are well known to the adcoms. LACs are very popular at some east coast private schools, for example.
@tk21769 Yeah, I’ve said this before, but the fact that so few from my school apply to LACs makes me wonder if they’d be aware of how competitive my high school is. I mean, they’ll show average SAT scores on the profile, but I don’t know.
From what I know of Kenyon, it seems like a good suggestion. Your stats are excellent.
This article will offer you further perspective: “The Twelve Best Creative Writing Colleges and Programs,” PrepScholar.
- Excellent safety's: St. Olaf, Earlham, Skidmore, Franklin & Marshall, Muhlenberg, Lafayette.
- Work on your interview prep. Know the school inside out prior to interviewing.
- Essays have to be flawless if you are claiming humanities as forte.
- Being Asian -- that will vary by admissions committee. Some are more racist than others. It's a crap shoot. I would look at the demographics. There is a HUGE variation where Asians are concerned -- as well as other non-Euro's. That is where you can glean who is serious about diversity and who only pays lip service. If there are Asians on the admissions committees, that is prolly not a bad indicator. It is mainly a function of their recruitment strategies. Also, contact Asian student groups at these places; if there aren't any, then.... Students will tell you if you should come. They have nothing to gain by misleading you.