<p>My daughter is an excellent student at a top independent school. We are from New York City and are looking for a very academic school with a friendly atmosphere. So far her college advisor gave her Swarthmore, Pomona, Rice and Wesleyan to consider. We also need some target and "safer" schools as all of these are highly competitive.</p>
<p>Brown is known for having the happiest students, but it is hardly a safety.</p>
<p>James Madison is a school with a great campus vibe. I took a visit and the atmosphere is one of a lot of spirited and passionate people who really love their school. They are voted in the top percentage for fun schools.</p>
<p>urban, rural, suburban? Sticking mainly with Liberal Arts colleges? The coasts as opposed to the middle? What would she like to study? I have some ideas…</p>
<p>Just trying to get an idea of things to narrow down…is cost a consideration?</p>
<p>Oberlin, Bates, Vassar, Tufts, Rice. Pitzer or Claremont-McKenna if she likes Pomona. Kalamazoo.</p>
<p>Michigan!</p>
<p>Do you ever look at sites like Princeton Review? They have a top 20 Happiest Students list–first five are Rice, Bowdoin, UCSB, Clemson, and Vanderbilt. But even with these (and the rest of the list), it’s going to be kind of a different-strokes-for-different-folks thing.</p>
<p>Based on my daughter’s experience, I’d suggest Macalester. She also applied to both Pomona (waitlisted) and Wesleyan (accepted). We’re from the Midwest, but she has a number of friends (and one housemate) from NYC.</p>
<p>Colorado College</p>
<p>Univ of Rochester unless you don’t want the cold and snow.</p>
<p>If Pomona is a reach, your D might consider Scripps or Pitzer. They’re both part of the five college consortium, so she could take classes at Pomona, but they aren’t as tough from an admissions standpoint.</p>
<p>try looking at colgate</p>
<p>Pitzer’s acceptance rate has dropped to around 15% now also. LAC’s my D applied to with better acceptance rates than Swarthmore and Pomona are Carleton, Oberlin, Colby.</p>
<p>Take a look at Grinnell in Iowa - the whole place is “Midwest nice” - higher acceptance than some schools on your list but academically rigorous</p>
<p>Look into Bucknell in PA and Whitman College in Washington state. Both are very friendly with strong academics and slightly easier admits than the ones you mentioned.</p>
<p>I think it was Princeton Review who rated Rice students as the happiest. :)</p>
<p>You can’t beat Kenyon for happy students. Many kids from NY, DC area, New England, Chicago, California. There is often presumption that rural setting will be an issue, but when kids get there they hardly even go to Mt Vernon 3-4 miles away.</p>
<p>Haverford also tough to beat.</p>
<p>And if you can get in, Wash U.</p>
<p>lefthandofdog–funny how different experiences can be. Grinnell was the absolute worst tour we had. Everyone was rude and SO not welcoming.</p>
<p>nyfreund420-there are 100’s of schools she could consider. What is her GPA/test scores, geographic area she wants to be in, size school, urban, rural??</p>
<p>Rice and Wash U have incredibly friendly, welcoming collaborative students and Rice has consistently been ranked a school with the happiest students.</p>
<p>There are schools that are welcoming to everyone, and then there are schools that are just welcoming to certain types of students. If we can assume that Rice is a school in the former group, does that make Rice a better option for a particular student? Doesn’t a student just need to find a campus where that student will feel comfortable? For example, a certain type of student may find the LAC Washington & Lee* to be very warm and friendly, while another type may find that is true of the LAC Harvey Mudd**. Now, they both might like Rice University while feeling very uncomfortable at the other LAC, but wouldn’t that characteristic of Rice just be akin to an unnecessary luxury?</p>
<p>I saw that Wesleyan and Swarthmore were in the examples mentioned. I doubt that those schools would seem friendly and warm for all prospective applicants. They are both more Mudd/W&L than they are Rice, as I suspect that many students would feel uncomfortable or unwelcome on those campuses. But that does not mean that Rice would be a better choice than those schools for a particular student.</p>
<ul>
<li>Washington & Lee is an elite LAC with an extremely heavy fraternity presence, with all the typical attributes associated with that
** Harvey Mudd is an elite LAC that is very much focused on STEM, and has all the typical attributes associated with such a STEM focus</li>
</ul>