I’m confused, if you’ve visited and love the campuses and overall student life, then how can you be unsure of your fit based upon a generalization of LAC’s?
OP, your best chance of avoiding weirdos and the like is at Hamilton. (But there will be weirdos there too. I’ve seen the art department.) The problem with LACs is they are small. If you don’t like the kids, you are stuck with them pretty much. You need to seriously consider if you think you can handle that kind of environment. Most kids do, as noted by their very high retention rates. Pomona isn’t in LA, Hamilton is totally in the middle of nowhere, and Swat has the best location of the three, but the reality is that most kids stay on campus. So you really need to know you are going to like the kids there. I personally don’t think those schools seem to be right for you. Kids who choose LACs are kind of self-selecting. If you are applying to those schools, it’s because you are seeking that particular environment. Don’t apply if you aren’t.
@Lindagaf, it’s interesting that while LAC applicants are self-selecting, someone recently pointed out to me that the school picks you.
OP, if you are not feeling like a particular LAC’s community is a fit, there’s a good chance that school’s adcoms will feel the same as well.
How did you decide which schools to visit? Did you make a list of your interests and then your parents did a list or were they all yours? Given the academic rigor of the schools, you must be a good student with good scores. I visited Pomona this spring and it’s a very diverse and tolerant, open student body. It might not be the right fit for you if you are not comfortable around liberal thinkers, however. You might want to consider Union College, Trinity (Hartford), Miami of Ohio, Denison, Pepperdine, and as others have suggested, larger universities where there are a lot of students.I’ve seen some suggestions of others, and some schools are quite liberal, such as Wesleyan and Brown. Check out the Princeton Review for the list of liberal and conservative student bodies. You might find it helpful. Also, have you considered USC, Rice, SMU or Baylor? I agree with the person who suggested that you start a new list.
The thing is is that you will find gay students at every school. You can’t avoid them, nor should you. As for weird people, you will find them everywhere too. The only thing you might have some control over is how liberal or conservative the campus is. If you want extremely conservative, maybe look into schools that are in conservative states and are run by highly religious groups.
I don’t think you need to worry because with your attitude you won’t be admitted.
OP, if you are looking for conservative, homogenous LAC’s take a look at the attached schools as these probably aren’t fits -
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-most-liberal-colleges-in-the-us-2015
https://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings?rankings=tree-hugging-vegetarians
https://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings?rankings=lgbtq-friendly
Don’t apply to Bard whatever you do… My son loves it there!
I do understand what this person means by weird, odd students. Also, I understand the concern over too much LBGTQ influence. Before you taunt me…I come from a mixed raced family of color and one of my children IS the ‘T’ is LBGTQ. We have been visiting a lot of colleges and the student representatives have often been uncomfortably ‘weird.’ Nose rings? Mismatched clothing? Barely brushed hair? Food stains on their clothing? A couple of these highly ranked, exclusive, liberal arts colleges felt more like hippie communes that colleges trying to prepare students to grow and be successful in the real world. Sure the students are stunningly brilliant—but will they be able to interview well? Acclimate the the real world? In short, if I pay $75,000 plus a year for tuition/room&board, will my student be able to find a great career? Or will my child become weird and be doomed to live in my basement forever? We come from a smallish town, so we are certainly NOT fashion forward. But, my high-schoolers (all three) noted that weirdness of some of the student’s dress and behaviors. And my LBGTQ student? “Really, Mom, IF the campus was all that inclusive and diverse then why would they feel the need to rub our face in it all the time? I just want to be part of the student body in a normal way.” Sorry, but a few of the liberal arts schools do seem out of touch with what prospective students (and parents) might be expecting from what is promised to be an educational and growth experience. My black trans child certainly does not want to be anyone’s poster child for inclusion and diversity. The schools should tone it down and let my child have a chance NOT to become some political statement for them. My other daughter does not want to feel like wearing clothes from JC Penny makes her a fashionista. In short: we hope to find a school that is intellectual, diverse, and still at least aware that an actual world outside of this college bubble exists.
Want my money? Want my students? Show me a final product (student representatives) that is worth $75,000 x four years. Also, convince my teens that they WANT to be that senior representative from your school. This is my take after visiting five liberal arts colleges with 3 very vocal high school students.
@RebeccaJWJ I’m curious as to which schools you visited that gave you those impressions?
@RebeccaJWJ , as you find schools you like, I hope you share them.
My kids with LBGTQ friends sometimes feel like they are the odd ones out because they are straight. I’d like them to be somewhere that they can feel okay just being themselves.
There are also lots of schools that are supposedy racially diverse but they are functionally segregated. I want my kids to be able to continue having diverse friendships.
@RebeccaJWJ , most of us realize that college students eventually grow up and stop dying their hair green. I am sure they interview just fine. I was a total punky, gothy rebel who wore the most outrageous stuff I could find (and at various times had red/white/purple and black/white hair, and red hair, and crazy multi color hair), but I was sensible enough to know that I had to scrub up when I went looking for jobs. Then I matured and grew out of that phase. I can literally think of a handful of colleges where kids would be as extreme as what you describe. And the irony is, that should a kid wear JC Penny clothes (as I do now, haha!) the extreme kids you are describing would be the last to condemn it. In fact, the label-conscious kids at some of the more “preppy” and conservative schools are more likely to laugh at the kids wearing JC Penny’s. College is a time for growth and exploration. If kids with green hair want to be in that kind of bubble in college, good. No different from kids all in Vineyard Vines who want to be in their bubbles too.
I found that tour guides stress their inclusivity because they don’t want people to be worried that they will be excluded. Seems obvious. But maybe your child is super aware of it and is uncomfortable with colleges who stress it. Maybe your child didn’t feel they were being sincere? Every college stresses different things.
FWIW, we visited some elite schools and found kids wearing the gamut. At Brown, our tour guides were a hipster dude with bright red nail polish and a South Dakota cheerleader with hideous strappy sandals. At Tufts, the tour guide literally had a falling-apart shoe that flapped and slapped the ground annoyingly the whole time. At Hamilton the tour guide wore a super short mini-skirt, fishnet tights, and Doc Marten’s. At JHU, the tour guide was wearing nothing but a long sleeved shirt and it was 7 degrees F outside. I was freaking out because I was worried he was going to get frostbite. Were all those kids making poor judgement calls that might put off prospective students? Possibly. I am thinking that they simply were comfortable as they were though.
No hour-long tour is going to show you the final result. That’s research you and your child need to do. We found payscale to be useful. We also looked at colleges linked in profiles, and percentages of full-time employment post-grad rates. There are a lot of other ways to determine how good a college prepares its graduates. A tour isn’t one of them, in my opinion. A tour IS a good way for a student to see if they like the vibe though.
Nice post, @Lindagaf.
" I am thinking that they simply were comfortable as they were though."
As a parent, my desire was for a welcoming place that would be accepting of who my child was and whoever they choose to be over those 4 years, even if they are just trying on a look or lifestyle temporarily, rather than conformity. One of the great things about many LACs, in addition to a quality, more personalized education, is they are frequently accepting and welcoming communities.
All schools have LGBTQ students. All schools have students others might consider weird. Most college kids are going through a liberal phase. Some will remain lifelong liberals. Others won’t. If you want to go to college, you will need to be comfortable around people in these categories.
That said, some schools have a preppier vibe. Just google preppy colleges and see what comes up.
“All schools have students others might consider weird”
Honestly I find the ultra preppy kids a little weird. Who wants to dress like a carbon copy of their parents when they are 19 years old? 
@doschicos, agree would love to hear the names of the schools as we visited almost every coed top-25 LAC with our DD’s and I think only at Tufts, Vassar and Wesleyan did we see that look and even at those it was only a small subset of the population.
Actually, the nude streaking team that we saw at Hamilton’s accepted students day was something we didn’t expect to encounter, but then when I read that they were topped ranked in their sport it all made sense.
Well, if you’re nude then no-one can judge you on what you’re wearing. Problem solved! 
It is impressive that you were able to remember all of this; I can’t even remember the colleges we visited. The suggestion of looking at a large state school is good. Unlike at a small LAC, one can always find a wide variety of people.
@Zinhead , I have a strange knack for remembering useless stuff like that. The tour guides really stick in my head and I think I can remember every single one of them. I actaully thought there were all kinds of people at some of the LACs we visited. That is especially true of Goucher College, where there were quite a few kids with hair in rainbow colors, and every other kind of kid too. There seemed to be all kind of kids at U Rochester too, which is a small university, but not a small LAC. But even at Haverford, which is microscopic, people weren’t all homogenous.