Bard–very hipster.
Definitely not Denison.
Another vote for Earlham.
Consolation - not Denison b/c it’s not the culture she needs or b/c she couldn’t get in with merit?
@lisabees We ended up not investigating Kalamazoo much, can’t remember why. I hear it’s a nice school though.
Re Earlham vs. Denison (not directed to me but I’ll give it a try) - Earlham has a social justice vibe and quirky students. From our research, Denison students seemed more mainstream to me, but the administration is also proactive about increasing diversity on campus. I think your D’s stats are probably sufficient for Denison.
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Thanks Mama. We visited Denison five years ago; It definitely had a mainstream feel. DD has just told me that Oberlin feels “too” hippy for her. That is good! Now that she has experienced the culture here again (as a prospective student, not as a sister), maybe she will look at the future schools with a more forgiving eye! Oberlin was always the school with which she compared others.
Simmons is a women’s college she may be in the range for. Not sure if it is “hipster-like” though.
@lisabees, which school did you put in the GPS, and how did it go?
@lisabees I strongly recommend that you look at this thread started by @eandesmom Periodically she updates the collective outcomes for the thread, including stats and merit money. Scroll backwards until you find the latest compilation. You will probably be pleasantly surprised by the amount of merit that B/B+ students with solid but not exceptional test scores can obtain. If I remember correctly @klinska 's child was in the academic range of your daughter and got 20K+ merit from Wooster.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/20541261/
LOL, my D has a good amount of hippie/hipster/social justice/musician in her and Oberlin has long been her favorite. Although she found Dickinson and Wooster more mainstream than her preference, she felt that she could be happy at either. Lots of kind, happy, helpful people at both. I’m curious to see what your daughter thinks of Earlham. We were unable to visit.
Just made all of the arrangements! Oberlin tour at 12:30, then off to Wooster.
Tomorrow will be Denison, then Earlham.
Staying at a B and B in Granville. Excited about that!
I’d like to break up the trip back to Philly. Any recommendations on which school to see?
Mama - thanks for the link. Off to check it out. Thanks for asking, gardenstategal. 
@lisabees I don’t disagree with the strong athletic vibe at Ursinus, that is definitely there as well. Interestingly enough, though both of our student guides were athletes, the vibe was just different than Allegheny. I am quite sure the fact that we did see some purple hair on girls and long hair on guys and the impressive arts facilities really made the difference whereas Allegheny had none of that. UPS out here is very much the same. Preppy and sporty in a Patagonia kind of way but plenty of artsy too.
Do come on over to the 3.0 thread and see results, I’ll have an updated one this week and it’s an impressive list. For my S, he ended up feeling that the LAC’s were just a little too small and instead opted for smaller sized state schools that had ways to make it seem small and a greater variety of kids that fit the profile he wanted. Which meant Western Washington University and University of Vermont. If she’s set on LAC’s those aren’t options but I thought I’d throw them into the mix.
Primarily the culture thing, but I also have the impression that Denison is hunting high test scores for its larger merit awardees. (Could be inaccurate. There are those here who will know better.)
@consolation – our experience in talking with kids at Denison admitted student events was that merit up to 1/2 tuition was fairly common, but that the full tuition awards were for a whole different level of applicant. My kid met a young woman choosing between Stanford full pay and Denison full tuition, and chose Stanford. He also met students choosing between full pay at Brown, Columbia etc. who took full tuition award at Denison.
Dickinson and St Lawrence were the only test optional schools we ran into that required scores for any merit (St Lawrence) or for anything more than the lowest tier merit (Dickinson).
And for what it’s worth about the Denison culture – it really is a blend of kids these days – activists, artists, and athletes. It is not a homogenous group, either slanting one way, as in the reputation of Oberlin, or another, as in the reputation of W&L.
Not necessarily hipster per se but for a welcoming community where she would qualify for merit and on your way home, maybe Susquehanna? Often overlooked, it’s a lovely school for the right student.
It’s been several years but I had a cousin who transferred out of Kalamazoo to Wesleyan after her freshman year, giving up a significant merit scholarship. She was from suburban Boston, a language major and was attracted to Kalamazoo because of extensive study abroad opportunities. She did not find the vibe she was looking for or comfortable with at Kalamazoo as the student body was not especially diverse plus there was an unsettling racial prejudice incident in her dorm freshman year.
Regarding Kzoo, and many LACs – after going through college search with two kids over about a 7 year period, I think there has been so much transformation within many schools, in terms of admission, diversity etc., that it is difficult to generalize from what a school was like even in the near past. We spent a lot of time visiting Kzoo over the past 2 years, and were impressed by how diverse it is – Common Data Set shows about 62% white, which is similar to Oberlin, and much more diverse than some others. Disturbing incidents can happen in many places, and I would suggest that the school’s response can be more telling than whether it happens at all. Is it a subject of discussion and debate in the college newspaper and other forums, does the administration engage with the issue, and is the administration even the same now as it was when something happened in the past? For what it’s worth, Kzoo has a new President who is former dean at Occidental and is Hispanic by origin.
My daughter has a really intellectual friend who went to a very competitive private school and was heavily involved in musical theater. She got burnt out on the whole environment. I think her GPA is similar to your d’s. Susquehanna is giving her a big merit award for her major and also a talent award. Family is really pleased for her to be a big fish in a small pond to restore her confidence.
If you are hunting merit your d should be in the top 25% of applicants based on GPA and test scores. She might not get merit at Denison, Dickinson or Earlham. If you run the schools’ NPC you will get a hint about merit. Muhlenberg’s NPC was very accurate for us.
Dickinson maybe, in Carlisle, PA.Probably less than 5 minutes out of your way from the PA Turnpike 
Or Juniata, not too far off.
Who am I to stand against the tide of Earlham, but I don’t think of it as hipster at all. Earnest and sober is my impression. Social justice oriented, for sure, but not hipster. I only know a couple of kids who went to Kalamazoo, but my impression is that it’s a lot more hipster than Earlham.
Friends of my kids who were bona fide dyed-in-the-wool hipsters went to Ursinus. And liked it. Kids who would have broken if you tried to make them play a sport.
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Doesn’t Skidmore have a bit of a hipster reputation? Don’t know about admissions/merit, though and it’s a good bit out of your way.