I really want to go to an LAC and while I don’t mind a little competitive spirit, I don’t want the snooty “I’m better than you” kind of vibe either. Bonus for colleges that are writers colleges or foster a community for writers ((: thank you!
Generalizing, you could focus on the midwest and colleges with Quaker foundations. Of the latter, Haverford comes to mind. In the mid-West and strong in writing, look at Kenyon.
What is your stats like just so we can gauge recommendations that would be a good fit to your profile?
Carleton?
“snooty” and “I’m better than you” can actually be two very different things. Snooty implies a social snobbishiness, but “I’m better than you” can simply be competitiveness.
irl, most LACs are neither. As @doschicos said, Kenyon leads the usual suspects for writing, but most of the selective LACs have strong writing centers.
For a literary community, look into Kenyon. For pure creative writing opportunities, consider Hamilton.
Collaborative academics, in the literal sense, though, may not necessarily describe the daily experience for typical students at these schools – though their environments would nonetheless be supportive in the way you have generally described.
ACT 30
SAT 1340
GPA:3.75 W 
Agree with the above, although Swarthmore is very competitive and I think Carleton is more competitive than collaborative as well; I would definitely add Bates to the list.
I’m retaking SAT in the fall, should I retake ACT too? And how much will my gpa hurt me?
Carleton is fairly laid back, but that doesn’t mean they don’t work hard. I don’t see it as all the competitive. Certainly not in Swat’s league there.
While your current stats would make many of the schools mentioned a reach, there are more than 30 or 40 great LAC choices. While raising your scores will better your chances, you should continue to focus on an upward GPA trend as that matters a lot.
it’s also important to work on a realistic group of Target, Reach and Safety schools - ones that you would be happy with regardless of admissions outcomes as the top-30 schools are reaches for almost everyone.
For descriptions of some good writers’ colleges, you can read through these articles:
The 10 best American colleges for writers | USA TODAY
http://college.usatoday.com/the-10-best-american-colleges-for-writers/
The 10 Best Colleges for Creative Writers | The Freelancer
http://contently.net/2014/11/06/resources/10-best-colleges-creative-writers/
The 25 Most Literary Colleges in America | Flavorwire
http://flavorwire.com/409437/the-25-most-literary-colleges-in-america
Writing in the Disciplines | U.S. News
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/writing-programs
Agree with @inparent re: Carleton being a rigorous and intellectual environment but not competitive.
And here’s a list of some schools with strong English majors
http://college.usatoday.com/2015/02/05/the-best-u-s-colleges-for-a-major-in-english/
Good for writers, match for your stats- maybe Bard? Or Skidmore?
Thanks so much for all of the suggestions! Do any of the schools offer good merit aid or do you know of any LAC’s that do? My parents have set a limit of paying $30k a year and I have to come up with the rest (and I don’t qualify for FA)
For private LACs, you’d need to come up with $30-40K above what your parents would pay per year. It’s going to be challenging to find LACs that will dole out that much merit aid, honestly.
Dickinson, Gettysburg, Earlham, Denison, Kenyon, and Grinnell all come to mind as schools that give generous merit aid and have good writing programs, but none may offer as much as you are looking for. Most of these cap out at $20-25,000 per year.
Grinnell and Kenyon probably aren’t realistic merit targets with those stats. I was in the same position with a 2270 SAT and a 3.85 UW and got 25k/yr from Grinnell and 15k/yr from Kenyon. I also think Dickinson’s merit aid caps out at 20k/yr. Can’t speak to the other schools in question. Good luck!
Try Susquehanna–amazing writing department and offer upwards of 28k in merit, with additional scholarships available to apply for. They hold a writing program in the summer too: https://www.susqu.edu/about-su/in-the-community/summer-high-school-programs/writers-workshop. Applications are due the 15th of this month, so if you’re interested, I’d try to get a jump on it.
I agree with @merething as my twin DD’s both had a 35 superscored ACT and 3.8 UW GPA’s and got 23k/30k at Oberlin and 15k each at Kenyon so there’s probably a lot of competition for merit money at those schools. Maybe look at schools like Denison and Wooster in Ohio as they are good Midwest LAC’s and this region seems to have the best LAC’s that give merit aid.