<p>My daughter would love to find a small to midsized, rigorous LAC in or near a large city. She isn't quite at the Swarthmore/Haverford level but that's the general idea. She loved Amherst/Smith/Holyoke but didn't take to the Northampton area. She really wants the bright lights.</p>
<p>Macalester is the first school that comes to mind. It’s definitely my number one, so I’d suggest looking into it. Just my suggestion.</p>
<p>Here are a few:</p>
<p>Barnard (NY)
Davidson (Charlotte)
Occidental (LA)
Macalester (St. Paul)
New College (Sarasota)</p>
<p>Case Western (Cleveland)</p>
<p>Case Western is hardly a LAC!</p>
<p>Rhodes would be a better fit for the OP’s daughter than Davidson, I think. It’s less selective and has a much better location. Rhodes is very generous with merit aid but is not quite as good with financial aid; Davidson is loan-free. </p>
<p>Lewis & Clark (Portland), Reed (Portland), Trinity (San Antonio), and Colorado College (Colorado Springs) are reasonably close to urban areas, though the first two are a bit further away from downtown proper. Along with Barnard, Agnes Scott (Atlanta) is worth a look if she’s willing to go single-sex. Maybe Wellesley (Boston).</p>
<p>U Richmond might also be a possibility. Not quite as popular as a city like DC, but a reasonably good location and an extremely attractive campus. It’d be a good choice if she’s interested in government or business.</p>
<p>Colorado College is within the city limits of Colorado Springs, 2010 population ~416K, and within walking distance of hotels, shops, restaurants, etc. </p>
<p>Trinity College, Hartford might be worth a look. For selectivity it’s comparable to Macalester or Mt. Holyoke, although Hartford isn’t the most attractive city in the world.</p>
<p>Goucher College is less selective than some of the schools we’re mentioning. It’s a couple miles north of the Baltimore city limits, across the street from a large, fairly glitzy suburban shopping mall.</p>
<p>Any of the schools we’re mentioning could work, but in my opinion Barnard offers the best combination of great academics, bright lights, and appropriate selectivity.</p>
<p>Barnard would be great but it’s a big reach; naviance shows that grads from her hswho go there average 4.78 gpa and 2200 boards. She has 4.3 weighted gpa and 2000 boards. Mt Holyoke is great but Northampton was too rural for her!</p>
<p>Sarah Lawrence is a 20 minute train ride from Manhattan.</p>
<p>Both Pomona College and Claremont McKenna College are rigorous and are located in part of the great Los Angeles area.</p>
<p>Would she consider Bryn Mawr? I think it is not quite as selective as Haverford or Swarthmore.</p>
<p>Claremont McK is very selective (comparable to Haverford). Pomona is even more so. Bryn Mawr should be much more realistic. If she liked Mt. Holyoke except for the “rural” setting, Bryn Mawr might be about right. Downtown Philadelphia is easily accessible from there by train. She could cross-register at Haverford, too.</p>
<p>If she wants a woman’s college, there’s also Mills. Much easier to get into than the East Coast schools and in the middle of a major metro area–Oakland.</p>
<p>Simmons, Emerson, Emmanuel in Boston?</p>
<p>We just attended the Occidental open house yesterday. They made several references to using LA as their “laboratory” for various social science research. It has only about 2000 students, which felt like high school to me. However D was very impressed after sitting in on two upper level classes. It’s on the list…</p>
<p>[Shimer</a> College](<a href=“http://shimer.edu%5DShimer”>http://shimer.edu) is a rigorous Great Books college located in the heart of Chicago. (It’s also a very unusual place, and probably wouldn’t appeal to someone just looking for a standard LAC.)</p>
<p>Jesuit colleges are generally in a city and many are urban and also rigorous. Most are small to medium.</p>
<p>Fordham is in the Bronx (5,000 undergrads) and a smaller campus in Lincoln Center (1800 undergrads) and I don’t know if she wants to go far from home or not.</p>
<p>Dont get too hung up on prestige/rankings. There are some gems out there.</p>
<p>While Case Western is not categorized as a LAC by US News (which Anna’s Dad derides) their total enrollment is under 10K students which is certainly LAC like.</p>
<p>Lac is more like 1,800 - 3,000. Bucknell is “officially” the largest LAC, with 3,600 students.</p>
<p>I second Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY. It’s on the metro north line to Manhattan – under 30 minutes. it sounds like it would be a target school for her stats but she’d receive an excellent education. the only downside to the college is it’s expense.</p>