Thank you all for the suggestions! @PurpleTitan Reed seems a bit too hippie for me.
While it may be illogical, I don’t really want to apply to private schools within CA or public schools outside the state. Also, I’m not sure iff this is the correct place to post it, but are there any similar schools that offer merit aid or are more matches/safeties? Again, thank you all so much for the suggestions and info. 
It really is illogical.
I can think of LACs with good science programs that offer merit aid and would serve as safeties and matches but can’t think of ones that are urban.
LACs that offer some merit aid (and are in or ~near cities, with~2K students or more):
Davidson (1950 students)
Colorado College
Macalester
Occidental (in CA)
Rhodes
Lewis & Clark
Willamette
University of Puget Sound
Davidson may be a low reach.
Colorado College and Macalester probably are high match schools.
The rest would be match/low match.
Notice that none of these are in the Northeast. If you don’t qualify for need-based aid but do want a merit discount, some of your best net prices will be in the southern, midwestern, or western states. Of the relatively few urban LACs, most of them also seem to be outside the NE. The only ~selective urban LAC in New England I can think of is Trinity College (Hartford), which does have an attractive campus (but offers little/no merit money). Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore are close to Philadelphia; all 3 are very good but very small; only Bryn Mawr offers merit scholarships.
"but are there any similar schools that offer merit aid or are more matches/safeties? "
As you get outside of the top 20 or so LACs, you will get into the ones that offer merit money. Richmond seems to tick a lot of your boxes, but this many students who were expecting merit awards did not get them. If you like UR, then focus on getting your ACT up and get all A’s in the autumn.
One feature that distinguishes URichmond is that about 40% of its students are business majors.
However, it’s larger than most other LACs (~3300 students) so it still has about as many arts & science majors as many other LACs do.
You might find this page helpful in identifying schools with active Jewish communities:
http://www.bestcolleges.com/features/top-colleges-with-jewish-communities/
LACs listed on that page (and that might more-or-less fit your other criteria):
Pomona (in CA; no merit money)
Carleton (~45 minutes from Twin Cities; no merit money)
Swarthmore (< 2K students; no merit money)
Haverford (< 2k students; no merit money)
Middlebury (far from major cities, but excellent for environmental sciences/studies; no merit money)
Davidson
Vassar (no merit money)
Wesleyan (no merit money)
Wellesley (no merit money)
Barnard (no merit money)
Colorado College
@doschicos, interesting to hear as we attended a STEM open house last year and the student panel said that yes some students participated in the MIT program, but as it could take a while to get back and forth it really required a full day for one class so not very easily accomplished.
A LAC with 1,700-2,200 students will definitely “feel” larger than a high school with a similar number of students.
Have you visited Pitzer and Scripps?
I’d recommend looking into Bowdoin, Bates, and Colby, Carleton, Macalester, and St Olaf.
I immediately thought of Brandeis. U of Rochester is not too big, 6000 undergrads. Fabulous school. Oberlin has 3000 students. Dickinson has about 2800. These are all excellent schools with hillels.
Merit aid is possible and, with the right stats, likely, at all of those schools, @circusgirl1 .
@MYOS1634, campus size and number of academic and residential buildings made a difference in making smaller student populations feel bigger or smaller for my twin DD’s - so of the ones you listed, Bowdoin and Macalester felt small, Bates was right at the cutoff, and Carleton and Colby felt nice and big, never saw St. Olaf.
@circusgirl1, As I referenced in post #29, Hamilton meets so many of the asks, except it’s next to a small village so no cool town to hang out in - that said the campus has a ton going on and most students in areas with bigger towns say it really isn’t a meaningful positive as they tend to also hang out on campus, Wellesley is a great example of that, so it seems like it’s only those that want a true urban experience is where it makes a big difference.
Muhlenberg meets a lot of your criteria. 2400 students, active Hillel, big % of Jewish kids, strong stem (pre-med). Though I do think the campus, while pretty, feels small and compact.
It would be a safety for you and gives merit
Bates is the perfect size, IMO. It’s walking distance to plenty of restaurants and shopping, though Lewiston itself is nothing special, and has walking access to hiking trails and a bird sanctuary too. The free Bates shuttle takes students to Portland, which is a very cool small city only 40 minutes away, as well as other picturesque Maine coastal towns. Freeport is very popular for shopping and dining, and you will see kids from Bowdoin and Colby there too. Bates has an extremely high rate of students getting into med school, as well as being a top 5 LAC producer of Fulbright Scholars.
@Lindagaf, absolutely agree that Bates checks those boxes very well, but much like Oberlin a student that’s at the tippy top of the student population academic profile may feel that it’s not a fit; my DD’s did and decided to go elsewhere though they liked it a lot - there are no wrong reasons…That said OP is not there at this point so this shouldn’t be a concern.
The sweet spot for the LAC’s is around 2,000. Too much larger and you lose that sense of community and intimacy that you seem to be attracted to. I agree with @JenJenJenJen that there is probably a better chance of doing research as an undergrad since the profs don’t have a pool of graduate students to draw from. My D attends one of the NE LAC’s and has had a paying research internships since summer of freshmen year doing cancer research. Almost all of her friends who wanted internships, whether in the sciences, finance or government/public service have been able to obtain one, including full semester internships for college credit in major cities (NYC and DC). Study abroad also seems to be fairly easy to obtain.
One thing to bear in mind if you are considering any of the top Midwest or Northeast LACs, it gets cold in the winter! We live in a warm weather state, and three of my D’s closest friends are SoCal girls. It was hilarious seeing pictures of the 4 of them bundled like Eskimos as temps dipped below 0. Unless you are a skier, you will need a whole new winter wardrobe. That being said, all 4 girls seem to have adjusted.
With your stat’s, have you considered any of the Ivies? They will be reaches, but you fall within the “range”. If you can get your ACT up a point or two it will put you in the top half of the range. Both H and Y have robust house/residential college systems which gives you the social living situation of a LAC (each house/res college has a little over 400 students) within a larger research university system. No doubt they will be reaches, but you have a legitimate shot based on your stat’s. The circus EC is also pretty unique on its face. As a Yale interviewer, I would definitely be drawn to talking to you about that.
@Chembiodad -are you suggesting that a kid who has a choice between Bates and Hamilton, would automatically choose Hamilton? If so I don’t think that’s the case at all. There really is not much of an academic or prestige difference between the two, so it really comes down to personal preference
Middlebury College had the first undergrad major in environmental sciences in the nation, has Hillel, a cute college town, a beautiful campus, a little more than 2000 students and really terrific undergrad sciences housed in a wonderful new science building.
@wisteria100, no I don’t think that one would automatically chose Hamilton over Bates, but yes the student population academic profile is different just like it is between Hamilton and Amherst. Regarding prestige, as I have noted before, I have no idea what that means and don’t care to learn.
Avg. SAT Scores 2016:
Amherst;
Reading - 680-780
Math - 680-780
Hamilton;
Reading - 650-740
Math - 650-740
Bates;
Reading - 570-690
Math - 580-700
This is not a value judgement about any particular school. When my DD’s finalized their selection, yes surrounding themselves with the smartest student population mattered to them - they scored 1550 and 1570 respectively, but no didn’t get into those schools with higher average scores so they chose the best overall fit for them.
Surely you know that @Lindagaf’s D attends Bates and had quite the choice of schools to choose from. Your post amounts to a my D got into your school, but we chose the 'better" one. Borrowing from another thread you’ve been active on, not a ‘classy’ comment.
Would Kate or Amal ever say, my kid goes to a better school than yours? Don’t think so. Would a real housewife of NJ, say something like that? You betcha.
As has been mentioned many times, Bates is probably the most well known of test-optional colleges. It is never going to have the highest ranges of test scores. My D attends Bates, and her SAT score is equivalent to a 1540 on the new SAT, so hardly a low score. She got into three other colleges with higher average scores. Most of her good friends applied test optional. Our tour guide chose Bates over U Penn. I have previously mentioned a gifted student at Bates who speaks several languages, studies classics, scored a coveted internship, and has won prestigious national debate championships, yet she was unable to get a high score on the SAT and chose to apply ED to Bates, test-optional.
As we all know, in many cases, high test scores can be paid for in the form of lots of expensive test prep. My kid had math test prep tutors, and I myself am a private tutor, so I am a fan, but I am fully aware that high tests scores do not just indicate intelligence. They also indicate the ability to pay for tutoring.