I don’t care for drinking, smoking, or dancing. Call me boring, but that’s just not my scene. I understand that every college is going to have some partying, but I’d prefer to look for a school that is not known for it’s party atmosphere.
For reference: My goal is to get into a college with a 30% acceptance rate or less. I’d prefer a school is Massachusetts or California. I don’t identify with a religion.
Religious colleges are some of the lesser partying schools, depending on the religion, and you don’t usually have to be of a religion to attend. From your post I’m not sure if you’d consider a religious college or not.
Look for colleges that offer substance free housing and that offer it to freshmen. There will be plenty of people like you at any college, but sub free housing makes it easier to find them, and allows you to stay more separate from the party scene and its aftereffects.
There are a growing number of completely smoke free campuses and I think you can find them by googling. You can also search to find out the campuses with the most party hearty reputations, and exclude them from your list.
Unless you go to a Mormon or Baptist college, there will be drinking, smoking, and dancing (of course there will be some of all of that at the more straight laced colleges too but in much tinier proportion).
Thank you for your response! I don’t think I’d really consider attending a religious school, since they tend to be conservative and I’m a very liberal atheist/Democrat.
Gender? Some women’s colleges have a “lighter” party scene. Like Mount Holyoke.
I forgot to mention that I’m a girl! Aah yes, I’m familiar with Mount Holyoke. My mom went to school there in the early 90s.
When you say you don’t want a religious school because you’re are a democrat, in response to a poster suggesting Catholic colleges, keep in mind that Catholics do tend to skew Democrat based on their views on social justice issues. Very conservative Catholics may favor a Republican because of the abortion issue, but younger Catholics are not as apt to share that view. Catholic colleges will have a big commitment to community service and social justice, so the climate is not good to feel conservative, especially for Jesuit schools. I would say that you are more likely to find a conservative/republican bent at a southern school, vs a northeast Catholic one.
wisteria I think your info is very off base…more stereotypes than anything else.
op if you go to a larger school you will be more likely to find non party people. large schools may be less intimate than an LAC but there are more people to find your niche.
carnegie mellon may perhaps be a good choice (in pittsburgh) and as you acknowledge at all schools there will be party people, drugs, drinking etc…but perhaps less than many other schools also U of pittsburgh has a lot going on and you can find every type of person there. they also like carnegie mellon have tons of research and other cool stuff going on. both schools are in pittsburgh which is truly one of the most amazing cities in the U.S.( it is the comeback kid.) and everyone who goes there says the same thing…pittsburgh is an amazing place and before i went I thought it was just old abandonded steel mills.
I would look at UCSD and Santa Clara University (the private one not the UC)
Brandies (which is secular, but was founded by Jews looking to combat Ivy League quotas), Rochester, and Tufts all have very studious student bodies.
OP, what do you dream to do after college?
Perhaps a more urban environment would suit you. Students have such a wide variety of options, both on and off campus, that partying likely represents an easily avoidable social option.
Believe me, we are in search of some thing very very similar 
You did not say what you wanted to study. For engineering, I have come across a couple of suitable (low party) colleges: Caltech, Olin College (MA). Caltech is a dream college though. Do you have any names to share?
Wellesley, because of its location in a tony suburb is known as a non-party school. Same deal with Smith, although Smith has the town of Northampton and the other four colleges nearby.