<p>My son attended Vassar as well and he had a great experience.</p>
<p>Gee, why limit yourself to LAC's?- some of the public U's can outclass most of the LAC's without being pretentious and meet your other posted criteria. Please help your helpers by narrowing the field- academics, majors...</p>
<p>Take a look at Marlboro College in Vermont. My husband went there, I spent a lot of time there. It is a great school. Husband went on to Yale grad school and PhD program from there. Great student/teacher ratio</p>
<p>Lawrence in Appleton, WI. D goes there. Consistently ranks high in LAC's. Good solid education. Kids don't seem overly competitive with each other. It is small thought. Kids do get to know the teachers well.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your contributions. I purposely designed my initial request with few criteria to encourage a wide range of suggestions. For the most part, your suggestions confirm most of the schools we have been considering. And for the few that were not on our list we will definitely take into consideration.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your help. The criteria in my initial request were intentionally limited with the hope that I would receive a wide range of college choices. And I did. Thank you. Most of the suggestions confirmed the colleges we are considering, however there were a few that we haven't. We will add those to our list.</p>
<p>Re Denison: I have good friends who went there, but it has the rep of a school for the heavily entitled. A retired prof I know from Wooster says that the student cars in the Denison parking lots are fancier than those of the profs. He also says that Carleton thinks of itself as "better" than the other midwestern LACs. (I'd tend to think they are, though, with the exception of Oberlin. But apparently Oberlin doesn't throw off that vibe.)</p>
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....the student cars in the Denison parking lots are fancier than those of the profs.
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<p>Couldn't you say exactly the same thing about a great many private colleges and universities? </p>
<p>Denison surely has a more preppy vibe than Oberlin or Mac, but that doesn't mean that non-prep, non-entitlement type students wouldn't fit in there and get a great education. Friend's D is a multi-racial (Anglo-Mexican-Chinese) politically liberal, socially conservative student from a large (3,200-enrollment) good but not Ivy-feeder public high school in CA. She was also admitted to Berkeley, UCSD, Oberlin, Bowdoin, Kenyon and Scripps and chose Denison as the best fit and most affordable for her because her parents couldn't pay for private without significant merit aid. She doesn't have a car on campus and shares an older Honda Accord with her brother when she is home. </p>
<p>This young woman is one of the least pretentious, down-to-earth, kind, serious, multi-talented (music and track) students I know and she is incredibly happy and thriving there so I think the merit aid strategy must be working to bring a more diverse student body to Denison than the stereotyped rich, entitled students. Also, her parents are totally happy with the education she is receiving and the personal attention from professors.</p>
<p>College-curious, my D had similar requirements...good serious academics but not a pressure-cooker, liberal, diverse, and kind of a quirky/light-hearted personality.</p>
<p>Her application list ended up being: Lewis & Clark, Willamette University, Whitman, University of Puget Sound, Occidental, Pitzer, Beloit, and Skidmore.</p>
<p>Visit the schools you are interested in if that is possible; you may be surprised at your kid's reactions; mine hated Amherst, liked Williams, hated Wesleyan and Bard, liked Oberlin, hated Stanford, liked Cal -- these schools sound similar on paper (and looked similar from an adult perspective). And match your kid's strengths and interests to the schools, of course; if interested in music, then Oberlin is an obvious choice; if outdoor winter sports along with rigorous education, then Williams would be a good school to visit, etc. Size is also an issue; some are very tiny, no smaller than high school.</p>
<p>U of Redlands, mentioned earlier, is a LAC & has Johnston. Johnston is having a 5 yr renewal (reunion) to celebrate it's 40th year this weekend. Come visit them dedicate a tree and new fire pit. Son is grad of LAC/school of music & has great Johnston friends.</p>
<p>Another vote to put Lawrence University on the list... PM me if you want specifics. D is a junior there.</p>
<p>I vote for Bates in Maine.</p>
<p>Any thoughts about New College of Florida?</p>
<p>college of wooster. down to earth student body, excellent
academics, good ec's and a nice discounting policy that
usually makes the price right.</p>
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Couldn't you say exactly the same thing about a great many private colleges and universities?
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<p>Some, certainly. </p>
<p>But I wouldn't direct a person specifically looking for a low-key social atmosphere to such a place. It's known that Denison has been trying to leave that image behind, but that still doesn't make it an Earlham or a Bates, which is what the OP seems to be looking for.</p>
<p>There's Antioch</a> College. </p>
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Founded in 1852, Antioch College pioneered progressive education in a unique liberal arts experience within the higher education community.
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<p>Antioch is closed.
Antioch</a> College</p>
<p>Holy....LOL ^^^^^</p>
<p>ditto on pitzer. I attend pomona and I would say that Pitzer is my favorite of the other 4 schools. students who I've met from there tend to be smart, laid back, very liberal (especially socially) and nice. The consortium is great. It gives the 5 cs a bigger feel in terms of student body and class options. It is very easy to take courses off campus and many departments (such as linguistics or sociology) are joint-run between several of the schools. Claremont is a fun place because of the huge mix of people you get in your classes and clubs. (Also, to defend Pomona, I specifically looked for schools that weren't overly snooty or competitive. while some students can be full of themselves, which is probably the case at many highly rated schools, most are very modest, laid back, and down to earth. it's a wonderful environmental change from the cut-throat east coast where I attended school).</p>