St. Olaf is one of my favorites.
Yeah! For mid-sized, I’m assuming that you mean colleges/universities with undergraduate student populations of around 3,000 to 10,000 undergraduates (maybe a bit larger), and from your liking of Tufts and Rochester over Columbia I’m assuming you’re looking for selective but not crazy-selective places (like in the 20-40% range).
To that end, take a look at Boston College, Carnegie Mellon, Brandeis (on the smaller end, with about 3800 undergrads), Tulane, University of Miami, Wake Forest, Lehigh, One special recommendation is Emory, because Emory has the Oxford College. You spend 2 years at a small liberal arts college that’s about 45 minutes away from the main campus of Emory. There are only about 900 undergrads at Oxford, but after your first two years you automatically transfer to the main campus, which has just under 8,000 undergrads.
In California, check out Chapman University, Santa Clara University, Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine, and University of San Diego.
Some schools in the same size range but that are less selective (in the 40-60% range) are Ithaca College, Fordham University, and American University. All great research universities, but may be closer to safeties. Elon University is another suggestion - definitely a liberal arts college, but a bigger one - around 5500 undergrads - and a place that offers master’s and doctoral degrees. Syracuse may be a tad bigger than what you want (15,000 students). Both Clarkson University and Clark University may be a bit smaller than what you want (more like 2,300 undergrads), but it’s a research university.
If public schools are an option for your family, William & Mary is a great place: a research university with a small undergraduate population. Miami University in Oxford, OH is also a highly-regarded smaller research university with around 14,000 undergrads.
For some reaches, Georgetown and Rice might be good. Rice is on the smaller end - about 4,000 undergrads, but is a major research university and is located near one of the largest medical centers in the country, which will be great for your biochem research interests. Another suggestion is Wesleyan, which is definitely an LAC but is more university-like: it offers doctoral degrees, professors are asked to be teacher-scholars and teach the same teaching load as research professors at top research schools, etc. It’s just under 3,000 undergrads. A similar suggestion is University of Richmond - also primarily a small liberal arts college, with just under 3,000 undergrads, but the school also offers master’s and doctoral degrees.
@MindCastle15 I am curious why your parents feel that way. Is it a cultural issue?
@juillet : Thanks for ur answer! Btw…I’d PM’d you a few months back regarding something else- didn’t get an answer 
Not that I wouldn’t LIKE Columbia, I’m just looking for more reachable places- esp after my SAT subjects did not go too well today >_< Yes, I’m looking at colleges in the 10,000- 15, 000 range- even 20-25k is ok, I guess- just not as big as UCs. Or UT Austin. I really liked William and Mary! Though I really want to know, how hard is it for OOS to get into any state college? I’ve heard in places like UNC-CH its as hard as Ivy league!
Btw, I am not super interested in MAJORING in music, I’ve pursued it for a longg time, and I just want to continue 
I’ll look into St Olaf, tho location wise, I’d left out Minnesota.
@TurnerT : Welll…both my parents are engineers. And I’m Indian. So I’m assuming I fit into ur stereotype? 
But honestly, they’ve never been pushy. I think they want me to avoid LACs because they haven’t studied undergrad in US, therefore never heard of them before- and so they have a lot of wrong ideas about them Some reasons are kinda illogical, but if I really really want to, they won’t stop me. That being said, I’ve realised thru the course of this convo that LACs are not for me- I’ll be better off in a small research uni.
Ok, two more questions:
a) I really like Tufts’ biomedical engineering program, but I’m not hearing a lot of good stuff about any of its engineering programs- how is bme there? Anybody from Tufts who can help? And how is premed there? I do want a more rounded education rather than just science focused or engg focused.
b) Tufts and U of Rochester (also applying there) seem to be similar in vibe, and I really liked both. Is Brown similar to them? I’ve always loved Brown Any other colleges similar?
OK, last request :P- any similar colleges BELOW my range where I could get scholarships and FA? (but are still good colleges?) Thnk you so much!
@MindCastle15 Which schools that you are looking at have you visited? Speaking from experience, it is sort of like going on vacation, the resorts that look great in the brochure and on-line sometimes aren’t.
None, actually. It’'s not possible for me. I’m going based on reviews on CC of people who’ve been there, and people who chose the college. But honestly, I’m not ‘extreme’ anything- so I don’t think it’ll be too difficult for me if I exclude all ‘extreme’ schools from my search- (eg UChicago, Bard got out because of that)
@MindCastle15 Are you looking at Wake Forest and Lehigh?
Look at Trinity University in San Antonio, TX. Trinity has nice merit awards and is a solid pre-med school. Trinity also offers Engineering but has the feel of a LAC. I have heard terrific comments about Trinity.
I second the suggestion for Rice. Your scores are a little low and Rice is very competetive, so Rice would be a reach. Based on your comments, I think you would enjoy Rice and the college system. Rice has an excellent music school.
Houston and San Antonio both have major airports so traveling home would be simple. One thing to consider is that traveling from smaller communities can be challenging.
Texas has excellent medical schools.
Wake forest seems good, and I’m looking at Lehigh too. Rice seems good every other way, but I really think its too small for my taste. I’ve applied to UT Austin tho (financial safety)
How is UT Austin a financial safety? It is expensive OOS and offers little merit awards. UT Austin is also very competetive if you are not an auto-admit (which you are not).
Sorry, it’s not! 
I thought it was before due to some miscalculations, then got to know before I applied that it wasn’t, but I still refer to it as my ‘financial safety’ school Sorry, my bad. Though their website is really misleading >_<
I’m not going to Tufts but my cousin graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering a few years ago. She had a job lined up in fall of her senior year, and her workplace paid for her to get her grad degree in aerospace engineering at Georgia Tech. She recently relocated to California to work for SpaceX and is making a fortune. She loved her time at Tufts and couldn’t have been happier with her experience. In particular, she liked that she could study engineering while also having options to study languages as well. I can’t speak for everyone but her experience was very positive.
That is one of the reasons I’m interested in Tufts as well. Can anybody here tell me more about Tufts BME program? I read somewhere on CC its not very good…now I’m feeling doubtful. also, does anyone now the rankings for bme programs? Apart from the first few, I mean after that…
@MindCastle15 Tufts overall reputation in engineering is nothing like Lehigh’s, nor Bucknell’s or Villanova’s for that matter.
You mean its worse? I’m sure Tufts doesn’t compare to more science-y schools…But being a good university overall, are the programs good?
Well yes, but I am not disparaging Tufts its just not a strength. Tufts is a top school but engineering is just not a strength.
Villanova BTW might be well worth your attention because it is not small and its location is really wonderful. It also has a BME program and very good reputation in engineering at the undergrad level. It has become very selective. In math the 75th percentile is a 720 at Nova in the engineering school, not too shabby.
Tufts is known for its approach to engineering, which is very inclusive rather than weed out.