Here’s a list of liberal arts colleges that are in or near cities - it may be helpful;
East Coast
Barnard College, New York City
Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA, near Philadelphia
Haverford College, near Philadelphia
Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY, near New York City
Swarthmore College, Smarthmore, PA, near Philadelphia
Trinity College, Hartford, CT
Midwest
Macalester College, St. Paul
South
University of Richmond, Richmond, VA
West
Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO
Reed College, Portland, OR
Claremont McKenna College
Updates: I’ve already been accepted to my safety, and I know I’ll get a full ride + stipend at my financial safety, UT Dallas, so I don’t think Muhlenberg will make the list (unless it’s a lot better than UTD). F&M looks to have pretty big greek life so I think that’s a no–but seriously, thanks so much for letting me know about these schools! Unfortunately I’ve crossed off Macalester because of the preppy vibe. I can’t do rural (sorry) but I will look into St. Olaf, Rhodes. I’ve looked into Vassar but they seem more liberal than most LACs, so I’m wary of that. Is it true?
I’ll look into Bowdoin, Reed, and Earlham too! Also, a question about Barnard–I’ve heard it sucks for pre-med, does anyone know if this is true?
Schools that I’m considering (excluding schools listed above that I haven’t looked into yet): Barnard, Occidental, Pomona, Union, Haverford
Also, this is dumb of me, I know, but I just now realized that LACs are small…very small. Does anyone know of LACs (or LAC like schools) that are mayyyybe closer to 3,000 total undergrad instead of 1,000, while still being good for pre-med?
I really can’t say thank you enough. My high school counselor knows nothing about colleges out of state (Texas doesn’t really have LACs lol) so this is incredibly helpful.
@Chembiodad That’s not what I see in the Diversity Index that you linked to. Granted, the Index does show relatively high levels of diversity at (1) women’s colleges; (2) the wealthy Northeastern trio of Amherst, Williams, and Swarthmore; and (3) the Claremont Colleges and Oxy in southern California.
But after that, the diversity levels at top LACs fall sharply. In NESCAC, for example, all of the schools other than Williams and Amherst are in the 0.38 - 0.52 range. If you switch to the National University index, there are tons of schools with numbers higher than that, including every Ivy, just about every other top private university, all the top publics in CA and TX, etc.
Highly-ranked LACs tend to be located outside of major urban areas in the Northeast and Midwest. This means that they tend to be located in communities that are not noted for diversity. Furthermore, LACs have small enrollments, so even if they are relatively diverse, any minority population will still be small in terms of absolute numbers. Realistically, these factors probably make LACs a “harder sell” for minorities, despite their academic quality.
Union has a higher percentage of students in fraternities than does Franklin and Marshall and they appear to be a bigger deal there. Great school, though.
Seconding @ShrimpBurrito. Trinity University’s just a few minutes out of downtown San Antonio, and has by far the best science facilities I have seen at a LAC (speaking as someone who applied to 12 of them). Also with your stats you have a good shot at a significant merit aid scholarship
@corbett, in the USNWR diversity index which measures ethnic diversity, the 1st highly selective university MIT is .71 - there are 5 highly selective LAC’s between .7-.67 and there are 8 highly selective universities in that same range.
This doesn’t hold true - “Realistically, it’s harder for LACs to attract a diverse student body.” Many state flagship universities are lower on the scale so diversity does drops significantly when you go beyond the top universities - Penn State .38, Alabama .35, Wisconsin .32, there are many others.
Not sure why Sarah Lawrence keeps getting mentioned here. Its science offerings are relatively limited, and its emphasis is on arts, some humanities, and psychology.
@culaccino, most of the highly selective LAC’s are in the 2000 student range as that keeps classes very small with 10-16 students; there are some larger such as Oberlin and Wesleyan which have around 3200.
@TheGreyKing Oh, I’ll definitely check out F&M then! I think I kept Union on the list because only a few girls are in sororities; will have to double check niche to be sure.
@ShrimpBurrito@Levin67 honestly I’m not a fan of San Antonio but I’ll look into Trinity!
To clarify posting #27, Many highly ranked universities are below .5 on this particular scale as well - Boston College .46, Notre Dame .43, Pitt .39, Penn State .38, Wake Forest .38, Indiana .37, Tulane .33, Wisconsin .32, there are many others.
Also, I’ve just started looking at financial safety schools, schools that can give me close to a full ride merit-based. I was only going to apply to a couple LACs, but if there’s a good one out there that would give me money, plus has a great pre-med program, I’ll definitely apply to that as well. I’m just wary of the extremely small student pop at a lot of these schools
If you have National Merit, this significantly larger list may be similarly useful (though it is old, so verify on college web sites): http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/
Note: some of the listed scholarships are only full tuition, but others are full ride.
St Olaf has 3,200 students I think.
Macalester is not preppy.
No Greek life at either.
Seconding Trinity U in San Antonio.
Union is proud of being the founder of fraternities and they’re a very influential part of life there, much more so than at F&M.
Do you have access to a Fiske guide and/or Princeton Review’s best colleges?
I don’t think either Wesleyan or Oberlin would pass the Op’s not “over the top liberal” test. Depending what she really means by that, it could include anything from single sex bathrooms (which is pretty common among all LACs) to the mere presence of any social justice activism which is what most CC posters think of when referring to W and O.
