@doschicos It’s certainly less rural than Williamstown, but (in my opinion only) it still feels a bit removed as a town. I personally like rural places but it’s important to visit these sorts of colleges to know what you’re getting into.
It’s easy to have missed on this long thread, but note that the OP is looking for test optional schools, @writingpumpkin03.
Fairtest lists quite a few test optional schools. But as I mentioned in my post upthread, getting merit money at these schools is a whole other story. The main constraint here is not the test score. It’s the budgetary constraint paired with the test score or not reporting the test score. It doesn’t do any good to get into a school if it’s unaffordable.
The first order of business here is to determine how much OP can afford. Then we can look for affordable schools looking at those schools likely to meet need or have merit money , that are also admission possibilities for the OP given the test score or lack thereof.
As others have recommended, I’d take a look at the Colleges that Change Lives, quite a few are test optional and only use the FAFSA (that doesn’t dig into your equity like the CSS form).
Two that come to mind that my son, with very high GPA and excellent EC’s, and non-impressive SATs got excellent merit awards from are Knox College and Allegheny College. Allegheny and Knox have strong Bio and Environmental Sciences. Knox is 45 min from 2 regional airports and Allegheny is 1.5 hours from Pittsburgh.
You Should definitely take a look at Trinity College in Hartford. It is highly selective in the NESCAC school leagues such as Bates, Hamilton etc but is located in a state capital city, urban environment. The president is the only african american female neuroscientist in this collection of colleges. Brand new neuroscience building. It is very generous with aid thanks to a robust endowment. The college has a wide range to offer from arts at nearby Bushnell Theater and Wadsworth Anthaneum to sports that win in this league, Trinity is also completely test optional. Tremendous research opportunities as an undergrad. Proximity to internships at Children’s Hospital in Hartford, and long history of placements in NYC. Give it a look and run NPC.