Thanks for your thoughts! I actually think that my daughter is still trying to figure out what kind of nerd she is, which is part of why she wanted to talk to me about this. Still learning about possible future nerdy pursuits. Her interests and friend groups have been evolving and I’m sure will continue to evolve over the next couple of years.
She doesn’t need to label herself–or others, for that matter.
As long as she is on a campus where she has the kind of artistic, social, academic, political, religious or whatever types of activities she’s interested in- it doesn’t need to be a "what type of nerd am I " situation.
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There are nerds at many schools, as others have noted. However, I don’t really consider Bryn Mawr to be nerdy - not the vibe I get (and I have lived close by for most of my life, and went K-12 across the street). I have been on campus many times, and have known students and staff.
I agree that CMU is a nerdy place. and it is where my middle kid attended a summer program that set her on her current path (which is sort of nerdy). She went to Pitt undergrad, and my youngest is there now. I wouldn’t call Pitt nerdy - not at all - though middle and youngest found nerdy types there.
You can find nerds at most schools. You typically end up hanging out a lot with a group of maybe 6, 8, 10 other students - you don’t need everyone to be a nerd.
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My daughter is a freshman at UChicago. As others have opined, it is a Nerd’s Nirvana 
UChicago loves smart, unique and mature students who are passionate about learning, be that something traditional or something unusual.
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This is very true, which is why some nerdy kids really enjoy bigger schools like yours enjoy Pitt.
I have a senior at Michigan. She has a pretty nerdy core group that really geeks out over their shared common activity. She has a less nerdy group of friends who are in the same social organization, plus a group of friends in her small/niche major.
My daughter isn’t quite as nerdy as your daughter is meaning — she has some broad and mainstream interests and doesn’t always take the deep dive — but she does teeter on the edge of your daughter’s definition. She could have easily had a similarly positive experience with nerdier tendencies at Michigan.
I am not trying to sell the idea of Michigan or Pitt or any other large school, but encouraging your daughter to keep an open mind about the type of school that might work. Especially if she isn’t sure what kind of nerd she is, she might enjoy attending a school that’s large and diverse enough to allow her to continue exploring her nerdy inclinations before narrowing it down.
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txfriendly, I agree with your comments 
We are in Texas and Rice was toward the top of my daughter’s list. She ultimately fell in love with UChicago and is extremely happy there, but I think she would have been equally happy at Rice.
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My freshman daughter and her friends at UChicago had a wild weekend this past weekend …. they went to an Apple orchard and picked apples while discussing philosophy
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I second the recommendation to look at Barnard. My youngest is a sophomore there, and she is very much as you described your daughter if you substitute dance for music. She spent all of high school yearning for other people who were a passionate about learning as she is. Her HS friends were smart, but most of them saw learning as a means to an end.
At Barnard, she has found her people. She finally has friends who will dive deeper on an organic chemistry problem with her to test a theory because they are curious. She’s taking 21 credits, dancing with several different groups, acting in a film, and no one thinks it is odd that she is double majoring in both chemistry and dance.
People party at Barnard too, but they are serious about their work. Passion projects abound.
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deleted, sorry
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GaTech? My nerdy daughter feels there at home 
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Agreed! She absolutely has an open mind, her brother is at UCB and she can imagine herself attending a big diverse school like that, too. (We live nearby, and therefore it is the school that has formed their mental model of “the archetypal university” 
)
She’s just interested in also learning about other schools that have a super nerdy rep and are maybe smaller in size. (And I am interested in learning more, too.) That’s how the thought came up. Enjoying all the suggestions and stories that have come up in this thread!
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Case? Michigan? Yale? CMU?
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About nerdiness. I would say many technical nerds are at some point participated in D&D.
The main mode of communication at GaTech is Discord - another place where nerds hang out 
.
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My D is currently in 3 campaigns ; )
OP- She found her fellow nerds at Purdue.
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Two that haven’t been mentioned, in case she’s not reaching for super-selective schools: If she has an environmentalist nerdy streak, I would add SUNY-ESF to your list. (My S18 went there and loved it.) If she’s a “classics” nerd, check out St. John’s College.
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I used to work at Stanford and I remember being surprised at how un-nerdy it was.
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My cousin who is a big nerd went to Williams (as did her father), her sister (more of a theater nerd but also arts and humanities) started at Bowdoin but ended at Wesleyan. Their mother, truly the ultimate nerd but from many years before D&D was ever thought of, went to Pomona. All nice people but not big partiers or competitive sports people. Excitement is reading and talking about the books.
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I don’t have personal experience with this one, but I get a definite fun and nerdy vibe from Rochester Institute of Technology. And I know you said you weren’t looking for “STEM” schools, but there’s a huge arts/artsy component there, too. Perhaps @zozoty might have more insight?
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One of S23’s HS classmates is at RIT… we haven’t hung out with him since the academic year started so don’t really know much about it, but I think he is coming home for winter holidays. Thanks!
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My D23 is at Rice and loving it so I may be biased … but I think it’s very close to what you are looking for. She was also looking for a ‘nerdy’ school and we visited lots of east coast and west coast schools. Aside from Rice she really liked MIT, Reed, and Swarthmore- all worth looking into, great schools.
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