D26 came along on the Reed tour with S23 and they both felt that although it was sort of nerdy, it had a gloomy antisocial vibe they did not like. That was the only LAC tour she attended though. S23 toured a few other west coast LACs without her. He liked Lewis & Clark. He felt that Puget Sound (sort of a LAC) felt too suburban. He liked Oxy. But ultimately he decided LACs were too small for him and he stopped visiting them. I expect to be visiting more small schools and LACs with D26 since she likes a smaller setting than he does.
That’s a great suggestion.
Picking another off that list to briefly discuss, my S24 who liked William & Mary and Carleton also REALLY liked WUSTL. Now, that is probably too much of a step in the mix-of-nerds-and-others direction for the OP, for now, but it should at least be somewhere in the background on a longer list.
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Yeah, Reed is maybe not so much the sort of friendly/nerdy we have been discussing.
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She hopes for a school full of happy / friendly / social nerds, enjoying their nerdy pursuits in a supportive enthusiastic community.
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Nonetheless, Reed commonly takes the first spot in an annual Princeton Review survey-based ranking for “Best Classroom Experience”:
If Reed doesn’t appear to represent a good match, then perhaps your daughter might benefit from considering other colleges from the site.
I know it’s technically a very good school and I’m sure the teaching is good. My kids just didn’t like the vibe at all. Thanks for the link!
I wonder about Clark as a school with slightly easier admissions.
Thanks! At this point I am not concerned about how easy or hard the admissions will be. I don’t know what my daughter’s stats will be by the end of 10th and 11th grade. The list doesn’t need to be a practical actionable list for college admissions. My daughter is just looking for inspiration, a sense that there are SOME nerdy schools out there where she would fit, and to get the start of a feeling of what she might like in a school. We might end up looking at very different schools a year from now and that’s totally ok.
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First school that came to mind for me was Oberlin, but sounds like you already have experience there. If she open to women’s schools some of them can be pretty nerdy. The Princeton Review is a good resource too.
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Goucher, Brandeis, Bard, Vassar, Clark, Holy Cross, Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore… there are DOZENS.
Tell your D not to worry… they are there, hiding in plain sight…
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It really depends on what you call nerdy, right? If you’re looking at private schools that weed out by academics/scores/essays, all the kids will be “smart.” This may be very different from what your daughter experienced in HS - it was for my kids (I attended a state uni that accepted most and didn’t see much of a difference). So, the majority/all of the kids will have academic ability. Then, I think maybe what she wants is a more intellectually curious/demanding overall student body where staying after class to talk with or meeting up with profs is the norm not the exception and where students have deep intellectual conversations outside of class, right? Sounds like she’d love a Columbia or Chicago, with their respective cores.
Many great examples have already been mentioned - the LACs (in particular, those that don’t have D1 sports or a big emphasis on sports) including the usual swarthmore, Carleton, Reed, Haverford, Wellesley, etc; universities such as UChicago, MIT, Rice, Columbia, Penn, CMU, Cal and I don’t know enough to speak on others. I think you can tell some of the schools by the supplemental questions they ask. I remember looking at Rice’s a while back and wondering how kids came up with answers, lol. Also, your daughter should get a good feel from college websites, materials, and student interviews (if still offered).
I would exclude Duke, though, from a list of “nerdy schools.” While everyone is extremely bright to brilliant, there is also a sizable frat/bro/IB/Consulting/work hard - play culture. This is not to say these kids aren’t bright, but not what you’d think of as “life of the mind” types. That it’s not a U Chicago or Rice is exactly why many students choose Duke over those schools, I think. That said, I think your daughter would find plenty of students just like her there, it’s whatever you make an effort to seek out, I think.
In this regard, maybe she doesn’t necessarily need a “nerd” school, but just a place with great professors and academics in a setting she’s excited about with enough of a population she perceives to be like her so that she will have peers and won’t feel out of place. And, I’d venture to guess this might be any highly academic school (other than a very preppy small LAC)? But, I suppose when you have a choice, you can rule out the schools that don’t fit the bill. 
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I think I know what you mean. S23 gets along fine with those kids even though he himself is really a nerd. He likes having them around and has friends like that. But D26 feels stressed by their casual joking and oneupsmanship and competitiveness. She is brainy and ambitious but prefers a more collaborative / supportive group.
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S23’s best friend from HS goes to U Chicago, we might could visit him there sometime. It does sound pretty nerdy.
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I think some of the public (non-flagships) in certain states have this vibe. I’m thinking of UT-Dallas, Alabama- Huntsville, UMBC, and I am sure there are others. I am more familiar with UT-Dallas, but that school seems to enjoy the nerd label. These aren’t as reachy as some of the ones listed above.
I would agree with Oxy and Bryn Mawr based on kids we know at them. Maybe Rhodes.
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Oh yes, another nerdy friend of S23 just started at Bryn Mawr. Don’t know much about it though.
It’s only been a couple of weeks but my super-nerdy S23 (Latin, D&D, videogaming, astrophysics) is very happy and fits in well at UCSC. The absence of D1 sports gives it a very different vibe compared to his older brother (UCLA). And the location in the redwoods and college-based structure also gives it a nerdy/hippy vibe.
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I know quite a few adult nerds who happily attended UCSC. I’m glad to hear that the new generation of college age nerds can find happiness there as well.
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We just visited Mt Holyoke, I thought it had a nerdy vibe. Upthread people mentioned Whitman, which is a place I think of as supportive to all including nerdy types- “cool nerds” if you will. To me, Reed is the ultimate nerdy school, my kids thought students seemed a bit too brooding, but we know a family with a very nerdy senior who loved it on her recent visit and is applying. Might be worth a second look.
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I think UW Seattle has so many students that there are bound to be plenty of nerdy types, at least that’s what I have noticed walking around campus. A friend’s daughter just started at UC Davis and is big into D and D and over the summer she met a bunch of kids through the D and D discord. Bigger schools will really have all types of kids.
Haverford has Nerd House. I’m pretty sure there was a duel between Nerd House and Lit House recently. lol
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