Agnes Scott? Smaller than what you’re looking for, though.
@allyphoe Yeah it’s too small for me, but thanks
- Hollins
- Agnes Scott (echoed)
- Bryn Mawr (zero Greek; 1300 students but part of a consortium that includes co-ed Haverford and Swarthmore with busing; a gorgeous contemplative LAC outside of an urban center so that you have a choice of what you wish for the day; very individualized education; and with Haverford men sharing classes--they practically are the same school but have different campuses about a mile apart so you have choices there too.)
- St. Mary's of Maryland (public LAC that's on the water)
- Hendrix -- very nice school in Arkansas
- Centre (not sure about Greek here though)
- Southwestern University -- I know someone there now, very happy, has some Greek but not out of hand at all, close to Austin and they go there all of the time; It's an LAC outside of an urban center so that you get a choice.
- Mills in California -- you'd get merit I'm pretty sure
- St. Johns of Annapolis/ Santa Fe -- Great books would prepare you for the deep thinking of policy.
- Soka -- really sounds perfect for you. Very international, warm.
@Dustyfeathers Thank you for all the suggestions! However, all the schools you mentioned seem too small for me. I just looked up the number of students at each one, and my high school has more people than most of them, which isn’t really something I want. I’ve briefly considered Southwestern and Mills before though, and I’ve actually researched Soka a ton but it’s just way too small.
Soka IS very very small with about 400 students.
The others aren’t that small due to how many buildings, labs, departments they have - a college will “feel” much larger than a high school - try visiting one with about 2,000 students near where you live (it doesn’t have to be one you want to apply to but rather to get a sense of what it’s like).
University of Puget Sound? U of the Pacific? U Tulsa (Greek but pretty low key)?
Maybe look at Dickinson? Some Greek but not overwhelming. You would get merit $$$. Don’t know much about it, but maybe Elon?
My understanding is that Greek at SCU is entirely off-campus and not a huge percentage participate.
Also check out the University of San Diego and TCU.
SCU abolished Greek life in the early 2000’s. It must have come back recently. I do notice that there are a few frats and sororities but I’m going to guess that a small percentage of the undergrad population are Greeks. I go to campus there every weekend for church and it’s very quiet, almost too quiet. I think everyone disappears for the weekends, as the restaurants that I frequent when I was going to school at SCU are not populated much even on Saturday nights.
As for the wealthy bit, there’s sort of a misconception. Yes, it’s a private school, but here in Silicon Valley, average housing prices is well over a million dollars, even for tiny little houses, and it takes a household income of $300K just to live comfortably here with no excess, just to keep up with the mortgage. So I don’t feel that the majority of the students are wealthy. In fact, I would venture to guess that a good number commute from home to save money. It’s an up and coming school for STEM majors and there’s a decent chance it will be in the Top 50 once they get their national ranking qualification from US News (right now they are considered to be a regional school).
ALL of these schools have Greek life, most with housing on campus. Most California schools have Greek Life. It may only be 10-20% of the student body, but it is prominent. I don’t know why it would bother you if others are involved in Greek Life. If you don’t want to be, just ignore it. Even at schools that are 50% Greek, there are 50% who aren’t. People say they don’t want to have to go to Greek parties. You don’t, just throw your own parties or get a group of people to do what you want to do.
Schools like Notre Dame and BC have no greek life. Do you think the partying or tailgating is any different at those schools?
Florida Southern has university built Greek housing on campus (RIGHT on campus) They are townhouses and each chapter gets a unit and they share some amenities like volleyball pits and bbq areas. I can’t believe you like Florida Southern but don’t like Rollins! Rollins is the cutest college EVER! It seems most of the students are involved in some medical studies like nursing or biotech, or theater.
Stetson - Greeks have big houses spread around the campus. This is not a beautiful campus or exciting place. I didn’t find it to be an academic powerhouse.
Soka is tiny and in a sleepy suburb. Looks like an office park. No Greek Life but very little other life. Honestly, I’ve driven through it on a Sunday morning and not seen a single person. Not one.
You might like U of San Diego. They do have Greek Life but no houses.
Occidental doesn’t seem to fit your needs.
Oxy is need aware and merit is limited. Chapman is more generous with merit.
Be flexible enough to look at schools with full tuition merit, even if the size seems large. My oldest wanted small, private LAC , but in the end attended Bama with NMF scholarship. His major was small and Honors courses limited to 15. The large Greek presence didn’t bother him as he thought it would.
@MYOS1634 I’ve visited Occidental recently (which has 2,000 students) and yeah you’re right, it did seem a lot bigger than on paper. But I just don’t know if I’m willing to consider much smaller than that. I live kinda close to Malone University (1,600 students) so maybe I could visit sometime and see how it feels. Thanks
@Longhaul Yeah I visited both Oxy and Chapman recently and that’s what I found out too. I still really like Occidental but I’m aware it might not be the most realistic so I might cut it. Someone mentioned Alabama earlier in the thread too, and apparently my ACT will get me a substantial automatic scholarship there so I am kinda considering their honors college now. Thanks
How about Rice University? I was there recently on a work trip and I was like 'dang, this is nice!" 7000 students. And no Greek life at all.
@ProfessorPlum168 Thanks for that insight. From what I’ve read so far, it looks like Greek life is entirely off-campus but is still pretty big. I guess I could look into it some more, but since it’s not officially affiliated with the university itself, there’s not many stats and info available. This article (https://www.theodysseyonline.com/sorority-recruitment-santa-clara) was the second thing to come up when I Googled Santa Clara Greek life, which scared me a bit especially combined with student reviews on many sites saying that Greek life is a big part of SCU social life. And yeah you’re probably right about the second bit- I just read a couple reviews saying that lots of rich Bay Area private school kids consider SCU a ‘safety’, but that’s probably more of an exaggeration.
You can decide 1,800-2,000 cut off, that leaves a lot of top LACs - and if Malone feels ok, 1,600-1,700. For LACs below 2,000, you’ll find there are often semesters away (in DC, in Woods Hole, in Boston or Chicago, in every country you can think of - where you can see your scholarship and be independent but with a safety net) so that you can realistically spend 2 semesters away. It IS something to check into - or if you really don’t want to move, whether it’s commonly done at that college.
@SouthernHope Rice is amazing, I know! But it’s super selective, and their merit aid is even more selective on top of that, so I just don’t think it’s very realistic for me. Thanks though!
@twoinanddone Yes, I’m aware the schools on my list have Greek life, I only really added it in my original post because a lot of private schools that would otherwise fit my criteria have lots of Greek life (such as Wake Forest and Furman, for example) so I didn’t want anyone to recommend those to me. And besides, it’s not really the partying aspect of Greek life that I don’t like. But I think you’re right about Rollins! I had previously thought Rollins’ merit aid was too selective for me but that was before I got my latest ACT results. So now I’m considering it again. I’m planning a potential visit to Florida where I definitely want to visit Eckerd and now Rollins, so I just figured I’d check out FSC and Stetson while I’m down there. And yeah I’ve looked at the University of San Diego before briefly, but I’ll have to research it some more now.
Trinity University in San Antonio TX? Not sure about the Greek side. Meets you size and weather criteria. They have a lot of merit aid and their website is very transparent about merit aid.
University of San Diego was my thought for you, too. Gorgeous campus and climate, great mid size (just under 6000 undergrad, 9000 all in all), and I think you might get around $25,000 merit (Alcala Award).
My daughter is a freshman, I just got back from a visit (midwesterner), and it sure seemed awesome to me. Greek life not dominant (25%ish, no houses). Average ACT in your desired range. Nice happy kids. No Seasonal Affective Disorder in that climate! Be forewarned though that they are serious about Liberal Arts, lots of distribution requirements if you are in Arts and Sciences.