<p>thanks for all the feedback :)</p>
<p>wow. bryn mawr college fits your description almost perfectly</p>
<p>any more ideas?</p>
<p>You might want to look into Smith. It is in Northampton, Massachusetts, about two hours from Boston by car. Northampton is an artsy town with many interesting shops and restaurants. It is in the moutains, so the surrounding area is beautiful. Instead of dorms, there are houses that have between 10 and ~130 students. Many of the houses are beautiful and old. The students are known as being very liberal, but I think that Smith is trying to attract more moderate students as well. It has the third largest percent of Pell Grant (low-income) students of all top LACs. The Ada Comstock program is for women who are returning to college who are 25-69 years old. I am not sure about racial diversity there, though. Smith is also part of the five-college consortium, which also includes Amherst, Mount Holyoke, Hampshire, and UMASS Amherst, so there is a wide variety of courses available to Smithies. Smith is known for its study abroad progams, and it is strong in the departments that you mentioned. There are no requirements except for one writing-intensive freshman class, and the profs are supposed to be amazing. Also, there is something called STRIDE that gives ~40 incoming students paid internships in their first and second years.</p>
<p>Duke. Gothic, very green (8000+acres), strong German dept, study abroad.</p>
<p>Wow Johns Hopkins struck me while I was reading your post. It fits many of your criteria. For example, it is in the middle of Baltimore (lots to do), while its campus tends to be in its own little world (green campus, many flowers, trees, sidewalks, outdoor lounging). Although the architecture isnt gothic, it is Georgian style and very uniform with the entire campus. There is a good bus system (free fare for students) that will take you around town, and the campus is small enough for you walk to class without needing alternate transportation. Hopkins brings about lot of diversity (politically, they are liberal democrats), and people there care a lot global issues. When I visited, everyone seemed respectful, open-minded, academically motivated (you have to be motivated at JHU to survive), and contrary to popular belief its not over competitive, although there is a lot of healthy competition going on. You may be turned off to overall peppiness of the student body (although many colleges have preppy student bodies nowadays), but everyone is nice and easy to get along with. The party scene there isnt too big, but its just like how you described the average students idea of fun isnt getting wasted every weekend as they prefer to hang-out and party once in awhile. Hopkins also has excellent academics - top programs in English, biology fields, poli sci, IR, Biomedical engineering, engineering, eastern studies, etc They also offer the Johns Hopkins Peabody Conservatory, which attracts some of Americas best young musicians where you will be able to take music lessons, join the Hopkins symphony orchestra, etc One of the biggest advantages of Hopkins is that there is no core curriculum, which gives you more room to explore areas of your interest (easily pursue a double major German and English for example) or expand your breadth through curiosity. I have found out, after talking to a representative that it is possible to create your own major there if it is not currently available. As for other stuff, there are plenty of study abroad programs (youll have to look into Germany though), many good clubs, music is a big scene (HUGE A Cappella scene, ability to study at Peabody, etc), practice rooms are available at many places (usually in the same building as your dorm), and Hopkins is very generous with financial aid and merit aid. The dorms there are nicer than your typical college dorms and you also get the choice of picking suite style dorms as well. Unfortunately, like most schools, the food there sucks. Technology wise, computers are everywhere, campus is wireless, and there are many nice facilities. I hope youll check it out. I think youll be pleasantly surprised. If you have questions you can contact me through AIM atma264.</p>
<p>Tufts, yes, except that it does not give merit aid. But it fits the description- compact green campus, close to neat neighborhood and to Cambridge/Boston, fine academics, overseas programs, etc. But no merit aid.</p>
<p>Brandeis fits most of these, except that it is not in or near a wonderful neighborhood (it's in a residential area), and the campus lacks classic architecture. However, a well-designed architectural campus is less essential than people believe - once you get on campus, it becomes your new home, and after a short while you don't pay a lot of attention to the architecture. And it offers merit aid.</p>
<p>Rochester is a good school, also with merit aid. The campus is nice; it's next to a park, only a short bus ride from other parts of the city. But you had better like winter weather (Tufts and Brandeis, too, but Rochester has more of it) and the city of Rochester (some do, some don't).</p>
<p>P.S. you should expect to find at least a moderate amount of alcohol and drug use at most campuses</p>
<p>B u m p ! !</p>
<p>I thought i'd try bumping this up again to see if any new people on cc would have any ideas for me... thanks!</p>
<p>brown would fit :)</p>
<p>CMU sounds like a good fit. Diverse group of students with a passion for education.</p>
<p>BC fits all your criteria except there are many "preppy" students. They just had quite a few students from their German program receive Fulbright scholarships to do grad work/teach in Germany. Their study abroad program is extremely well-organized!</p>
<p>I also recommend Swarthmore. Absolutely beautiful campus that is somewhat secluded and very close to Philly, supposedly has less partying and hard drinking than most schools, and very academically oriented.</p>
<p>Swarthmore, Haverford, Bryn Mawr all sound like they fit your criteria</p>
<p>McGill in Canada.</p>
<p>Georgetown is perfect. Great humanities and languages and in an amazing outskirt (I suppose that's what you call it) of D.C. with great shops. Study abroad, which you said you were interested in, is huge there. I think almost 50% of students took a semester or year abroad this year. Only problem is a slightly homogenous student body, many preppy Catholics but they're all exceptionally friendly and largely counter-balanced by a ton of international students.</p>
<p>Well, it's not really in the top right, but I think the University of Chicago could fit you perfectly. The campus is classified as a botanic garden, and gothic architecture is definitely evident. The surrounding area is full of cool shops (esp. 55th street), and transportation is very convenient. Chicago students are laid back socially (many preferring to study), but there is an active social scene. Chicago has wonderful English and German programs. Chicago offers two study abroad programs in Germany: the Free University of Berlin and the Freiburg headquarters of the Institute for the International Education of Students. The University of Chicago has a variety of music groups open to all students, including a symphony orchestra, chamber orchestra, wind ensemble, and a jazz ensemble. Dorms at U Chicago are awesome (check out Max Palevsky or Snell-Hitchcock!). Check out the virtual</a> tour to see a pretty campus- the virtual tour also shows Chicago's technology.</p>
<p>Swarthmore, Tufts, Penn, Johns Hopkins, UVa, and Duke also sound like they would be excellent matches.</p>
<p>I'm going to second Smith and expand on what yemaya wrote. </p>
<p>Location: Western Mass is beautiful, and while you have a decent bus ride or drive to NYC or Boston, it's doable. Northampton is fun to live in and there's lots going on. Plus it's very safe. The PVTA buses will take you to any of the other four colleges in the area, and you can take classes or do activities at them.</p>
<p>Campus:
Designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, who did Central Park. The campus is an arboretum and while the buildings aren't gothic, there is a wide variety of architectural styles (I live in an absolutely adorable victorian). I'd say Mt. Holyoke would suit your architectural preferences better, but it's in a REALLY boring town. </p>
<p>Socially:
There's definitely plenty to do on campus, and while I've never had trouble finding a party when I wanted one, most events don't revolve around drinking. If you wanted a huge co-ed party environment, this just isn't the place, unless you're prepared to drive or take the bus to UMass or Amherst. </p>
<p>I think the students here are great! I've met people who are absolutely brilliant, so you certainly won't lack for intellectual conversaton if you want it. And there are a lot of different types of people, so even if it takes you a little while to find your niche, once you do you'll be golden. And in the meanwhile, everyone's superfriendly. </p>
<p>Academics:
Smith has great resources--we have a huge endowment compared to most liberal arts colleges, plus we can share books and things with the other colleges in the area. I don't know too much about music at Smith, but I know the orchestra just performed at Carnegie Hall and it was supposed to be a great concert.</p>
<p>Smith has its own program in Hamburg, and it's pretty well-regarded. You can take classes at the University there, and Smith professors also offer courses. You need two years of college German to go, and I've heard good things about the profs.</p>
<p>There's absolutely no core. I should mention that there are relatively few creative writing classes--the English department is mainly focused on literature. Professors in general are wonderful: inviting students over for dinner, helping them get research jobs and internships, giving out home phone numbers, etc. </p>
<p>Other Stuff
Music groups are open to ANYONE.
Smith gives a decent amount of need-based aid (they promise to meet the need, as calculated by the federal formula, of everyone they accept). On the merit side, there's STRIDE, which yemaya mentioned above, as well as Zollman scholarships (half tuition for four years, offered to about 10 students each year...you're going to want SAT scores above 1450 on the old scale along with very strong ECs and good grades in hard classes) and Mary Maples Dunn awards (not as large as Zollman, but still nice). </p>
<p>I came to Smith in part because I felt like it was a "small pond" where I could fit in well but still make a mark. Heading into my senior year, I think this has been the perfect place for me: I love my major, spent a semester in Washington DC, am doing an internship in Montana this summer with funding from the college (an opportunity open to ALL students through the Praxis program), designed my own minor, was a finalist for a national fellowship and will apply for a different one in the fall (the fellowships coordinator makes sure that Smithies are as competitive as students at any college in the country--this year we had 13 Fulbright fellows), did research for two years with a professor, lived in a co-op and a 'party house' in different years, served on various committees, had the Dean of the College as my premajor advisor, had a work-study job as a kosher chef, and got paid to hang out this weekend with alumnae from the classes of 1930 and 1935 as an ambassador during their reunion. I've made some amazing, absolutely life-changing friends. The president, dean, and provost of the college all know my name. Best of all, while I love it here, I know I'm being prepared really well for the real world.</p>
<p>You should consider Rice, Emory, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins.</p>
<p>thanks for the suggestions! :)</p>