Small, artsy/quirky school in the Midwest?

College Search & Selection
1

I’m looking for…
-a smallish (under 3000) school, preferably within a 300 mile radius of St. Louis but outside Missouri
-vibrant college town, NOT in a big city but with access to one
-large “quirky”/“alternative”/artsy populace, not big on frats/sororities
-intellectually stimulating but focused on the ‘big picture’! I want to be part of a student body with a sense of humor/that knows how to have fun!
-Thriving music scene, college radio station, film scene
-Interesting traditions (I’m thinking Knox’s “pumphandle”/flunk day, Carleton’s “primal scream”)
-My current stats: 32 ACT, 1590 New SAT, 4.134 weighted cumulative gpa
-Probably going to need substantial financial aid

Currently looking at Carleton-- does this seem like a good fit given what I’ve described? Any other suggestions GREATLY appreciated!

2

Check out Macalaster. I guess Saint Paul qualifies as a big city but the neighborhood around the college doesn’t feel that way.

Lawrence University could be a good safety.

Further afield, check out Oberlin and Wesleyan.

3

Carleton does seem like a good fit (maybe better than any other college).
I like @doschico’s suggestions, too. Schools listed below don’t quite fit all your criteria but may be worth a look:
UChicago
Larger than specified, but possibly the most LAC-like of T20 universities (with a residential “house” system and Core courses capped at 19 students); definitely urban, but within the 300-mile radius; intellectually stimulating, with interesting traditions (check out Scav Hunt and Doc Films); has very rich academic resources including one of the best academic library systems in the world; excellent need-based aid; extremely selective.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Chicago_Scavenger_Hunt
http://docfilms.uchicago.edu/dev/about/index.shtml

Grinnell
Just outside the 300m radius; rural / not so accessible to a big city; seems to have a strong rep for being quirky and intellectually stimulating; big endowment, good facilities, good need-based aid; high match/target for your stats.

Colorado College
Outside the 300-mile radius; urban, but in a beautiful setting at the foot of the Rockies; interesting one-course-at-a-time Block Plan; low-key Greek and D1 sports scene; good need-based aid (although it is need-aware in admissions); high match/target for your stats.

Other possibilities:
Reed, Hampshire, New College of Florida (public honors college)

4

Colorado College is a good suggestion. They are strong in both fine arts and film departments.

5

Oberlin

6

I would look at Beloit College. Run the NPC. It gives both financial and merit aid estimates. Beloit could be a good safety option.

7

Oberlin checks a lot of those boxes, other than the access to major city – Cleveland is about 40 minutes away, so not tremendously accessible but doable. It does have the “painted rock” in the town square – which is really Oberlin’s front yard – which students paint. Also, albino squirrels, we always thought they were good luck. Oberlin has the requisite coffee shops, pubs, and of course, a vibrant jazz and other music scene. No greek life.

Kenyon is known for its writing and theater programs, but is about an hour from Columbus, and Gambier is not what I’d call a college town, though it has the pre-requisites – coffee shop etc. About 20-25% greek life, non-residential, though members of specific chapters are housed in a cluster in the regular dorms (at least, that is what we were told on multiple tours).

Denison is in a village with the pre-requisites – pizza, coffee shop, dive bar with pool table – and is 25 minutes from Columbus. There is college radio station, a blue grass program within the music department, a tradition of older, local bluegrass players playing every Wed at lunch in the student common, D-Day in the fall when a midline popular music artist performs on campus. About 20-25% male participation in greek life, higher for females, also non-residential, though chapter members are not formally housed together in regular dorms the way we were told it happens at Kenyon. Used to be considered more “mainstream” and lax bros, but past 20 years or so there has been shift in student population so that is now balanced, with environmental activists living on the organic farm, performing and fine artists, social justice and lax bros.

Knox, Wooster, Earlham, Kalamazoo, Lawrence and Beloit are also great schools for quirky, interesting kids. Knox, Wooster and Beloit aren’t really accessible to any major cities. Kalamazoo, the city, is actually known for its arts scene, and Appleton, where Lawrence is, is a bigger town/smaller city of about 80,000. All but Kalamazoo and Earlham have greek life but even on those campuses, it is less traditional, frat boy kind of stuff and more quirky.

The midwest is a gold mine for smaller, quirky schools.

8

That is similar to the distance between Carleton College and the Twin Cities.

9

@tk21769 From the Oberlin students we know, my sense is that they don’t really go into Cleveland much except for flights in and out. I don’t know how that compares to Carleton and Twin Cities, in terms of actual student experience of heading into the city for cultural life etc.

10

I’d throw Kalamazoo College into the mix. Kazoo has lots of college town features due to Western Michigan U, and fairly near Chicago, Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor.

11

Seconding Macalester, Grinnell, Beloit, UChicago, Kalamazoo.

12

Maybe Rhodes.

13

OP,

Everyone has pretty much listed the popular midwestern LACs. It might be easier to do this by state, in no particular order.

MN: Carleton, Macalester.

IA: Grinnell, Cornell (note: like Colorado C., Cornell is also on the block plan, but A) Cornell is considerably easier to get into than Colorado C. and B) Colorado C., while a terrific school, has a reputation as being a rich kid’s school (a quarter of the study body comes from the top 1%).

IL: Knox

WI: Beloit, Lawrence

IN: Earlham

MI: Kalamazoo

OH (which, along with PA, is like the mother-lode of great small schools): Kenyon, Oberlin, College of Wooster, Denison, Ohio Wesleyan.

Western PA: Allegheny, Juniata.

14

The list above is good. Would also suggest St. Olaf College in Minnesota (same city as Carleton, less selective, noted for music). Maybe Hendrix College in Arkansas (not really “Midwest” but still relatively close to St. Louis).

15

Echo Earlham, Knox, Beloit and Juniata.

16

Does Cornell College fit the quirky, artsy, film and music scene vibe? From reports I’ve heard, it didn’t strike me that way.

17

Cornell College is about 35 minutes from downtown Iowa City. Once you have a friend with a car, you can be hitting the artsy/film/music stuff on campus at U of IA, or elsewhere in Iowa City that interests you any day of the week.

18

Below are approximate distances in miles from various ~midwestern LACs to ~neighboring cities/towns:

58 … Kenyon to Columbus OH
54 … Grinnell to Des Moines IA
51 … Beloit to Madison WI
50 … Earlham to Dayton OH
47 … Knox to Peoria IL
42 … Carleton to Twin Cities
40 … Hendrix to Little Rock AR
36 … Oberlin to Cleveland OH
22 … Cornell College to Iowa City IA
0 … Colorado College to Colorado Springs CO
0 … Lawrence University to Appleton WI
0 … Macalester College to Twin Cities
0 … Rhodes to Memphis TN

If the OP visits any of these schools, s/he might want to ask how often students actually do leave campus to visit some of these places. At some colleges, students are busy enough with course work (or there is enough to do right on campus) that they may not leave too often.

19

A few notes to add.

On paper schools may seem equivalent on the lists here but in person they may be very different. For example, Oberlin has a vibrant, active downtown and a thriving arts scene primarily due to the Conservatory of Music but also the performing arts departments. People come into the downtown from neighboring areas - it’s not just the college kids. While it is about 30 minutes from parts of Cleveland the “rural” area it is a part of is reasonably populated, and while there are farms there are also forested areas.

By comparison Grinnell is really isolated. My D just chose Grinnell over Oberlin, but on the town/setting factor she scored it Oberlin 100, Grinnell 0. Corn fields. A slightly active downtown. Some creative vibe, but pales compared to Oberlin. There are a lot of other great things going for Grinnell but that’s not an area of strength.

Someone mentioned Colorado College. First, only men’s hockey and women’s soccer are D1, the rest are D3. The school is a lot like the others on the list but it’s in the middle of a metro area of 700k. Also one of the most conservative cities in the country, the county voted Trump over Clinton by 22.5%, although the state went for Clinton - that may not be important to you, but it is for many. Scores extremely high in terms of access to outdoors stuff - very possibly the best natural city parks in the country. Some nice artsy stuff to be sure but also not far from a panhandling area in downtown Colo Springs - the big arts community is a few miles west in Manitou Springs.

20

Juniata may be quirky and nice, but truly in the middle of nowhere…the town doesn’t have a college town feel as much as a rural Appalachian/rust belt feel (probably would have to substitute a diner or Burger King for a coffee shop) and the nearby “big cities” would be Altoona and State College.