Scripps would be a match, and it’s very academically blended with the Claremont Consortium, so you’d have guys in essentially all of your classes except for the 3-semester humanities core and freshman writing. It’s small in its own right but the consortium has nearly 7K students altogether on fully-adjacent campuses. (You could consider Pitzer, CMC, and Pomona as well; but Pitzer would be a low reach and Pomona and CMC would be reaches.) Also, the student newspaper, The Student Life, is joint for the 5C’s and is a great publication if you want to keep doing student journalism.
On the east coast, Mt. Holyoke would be a low-match, in the 5-college consortium with UMass/Amherst/Hampshire/Smith. Smith would be a more competitive match. (Amherst would be a reach, and Hampshire doesn’t meet full need and is more “alternative” than you’re looking for anyway.)
Additional match schools that meet full demonstrated financial need and are mid-sized, not rural:
University of Richmond
Macalester College (on the smaller end of mid-sized but great urban setting in St. Paul)
Lastly, a couple of safeties that meet full need: Whitman College is small-ish and rural-ish, but Walla Walla is a nice town and Whitman is a wonderful LAC that meets full need. Occidental also meets full need, and is in urban/suburban LA, although it is definitely small (without the “ish”). Both of these have around a 50% acceptance rate, so maybe I should call them low-match/safeties, but your chances of getting in are pretty solid, and both would be wonderful academically for your areas of interest, and have the intellectual but not over-stressed vibe that you’re seeking.
University of San Diego is a really nice school, but they only meet 71% of need on average. And the UC’s will also have a higher out-of-pocket than private colleges and universities that meet full need. So I’d encourage you to really think about adding Whitman and/or Oxy as safeties that are likely to give you better financial aid than UCSC and USD. (Not saying you shouldn’t apply to USD and the UC’s, of course; just cover your bases with better financial safeties too.)
Lastly… The nice thing about DIII athletics is that you aren’t obligated like you are with D1. Athletics could help get you into schools where the decision might otherwise go either way, and you could let the sport go after a season (or technically even sooner, but let’s say one season for the sake of sportsmanship) if you weren’t enjoying it.
Scripps (joint athletics with CMC and Mudd), Mt. Holyoke, Smith, Macalester, Whitman, and Oxy are all DIII schools. (Richmond is D1)