Cost not an issue, we will be full pay and can be (sorry to lead with this, but it has been my experience that when someone asks a similar question, that is usually the first thing out of everyone’s suggestion. So she can afford to go anywhere).
Current Stats: Unweighted 4.0 GPA in a well respected high performing PA Public School (usually send 3-4 students to top 10 schools annually). Her strength of schedule is near top, but she won’t be able to take Calc BC (she did not place into Algebra in 6th grade because we moved into district that year and they tested the prior year).
Her Test Score: The only test she took was the Pre-ACT and they project a 31-32 on the ACT. She typically is not a exceptional test taker.
She is not the strongest EC person. Choir, Piano, and helps at church by teaching SS etc.
Her interests: Zoology, maybe microbiology, but anything really, those appear to be the current flavour du jour.
Her Parents think a smaller school would benefit her, but she’s looking at some of the biggest (OSU, UofM, MichSt., Purdue…) So we would like her to consider some smaller campuses (LAC) that may have a bigger school appeal while give her a zoology option for now, but other options if she decides she wants something else.
What I’m looking for are potential smaller schools she could get into that might meet those criteria.
The dreaded search for a smaller school that feels like a bigger one! If you’re not averse to sending her to California, consider the Clarement consortium of schools - Pitzer, Scripps, Claremont, Pomona +. Small schools that combine to a large community. William & Mary is a small large school. I would think a lot of the Division 1 Catholic schools might fit the bill - they have all the sports culture and activity but have a smaller population and more personal, small-school culture. Loyola Marymount, Wake Forest, Gonzaga… ?
I think you may be pleasantly surprised by Honors college programs at PSU Schreyer, & TOSU.
How about Wake Forest, Emory, Davidson?
Lafayette, Lehigh, Bucknell?
I think this is going to be difficult. Some of what makes these places special is the absolute size and the relationship between the university size and the city size. If you put a 2k LAC in an urban environment, the city overwhelms the school. If you shrink both you end out with Kenyon. UMich/Ann Arbor is much different than Kenyon/Gambier.
What about a small research university like Lehigh?
Yeah, I am actually sitting about 5 miles from Lehigh right now. We are familiar with it. When my son was looking he said that Lehigh was a “drinking institution with a college problem.” I’m sure that is overly harsh, but I do know it does have a reputation as a work hard/play hard university and the play hard isn’t my daughters cup of tea.
Plus, I’m not sure they have a zoology degree. That seems to be the reason she’s focused on large schools, is that is what she is thinking about studying. I originally thought a Research University with a smaller UG population might be good (my son attends UChicago), but I used the college search function on CC and didn’t come up with any real hits in that area so thought I’d try this route.
I think the Honors College route might be worth looking into, thanks!
Is she starting her Junior or Senior year?
Starting her Junior year in two weeks
University of Vermont- smaller than your average state school.
You won’t find Zoology at small schools too often.
If she ends up surprising herself with her standardized tests, Cornell would be a good reach school.
Large schools do have honors colleges or programs, like OSU and UMich. I’m not familiar with OSU or the other schools on your large school list, but at UMich, you get your own floor in South Quad, your own lounge, your own honors advisor, etc. UMich also has Learning Communities or Residential College that your D can apply to as well. I assume you can find similar programs at all the B1G schools.
I think kids who want big schools want big schools. I’m a big school person and those tiny little LACs in those tiny little towns made me want to run. I let my kids look at them, I pretended interest, but I knew they really weren’t going to work. Both kids said they wanted small schools, both wished they’d picked even bigger schools by junior year. Biggest complaint was that there weren’t as many courses offered as they would have liked. Plenty in the course catalog, not so many offered every semester.
I think zoology is going to be a small(er) department at most any school. She’ll get that cozy feeling. A big school with zoology that doesn’t seem big is Colorado State, with 27k undergrads.
@BrianBoiler could you specifically explain why she needs a zoology degree?
That’s what she wants to study. I don’t know why, I think she likes large organism animal biology. I don’t even know what a zoologist does.
@BrianBoiler - your last comment made me laugh. One piece of advice is that there is nothing wrong with starting with something that sounds really cool, but where she has the flexibility to shift if her vision of zoology doesn’t meet reality. I was friends with organic chem majors who were certain that they wanted to study marine biology- until they realized they needed something with more career options. That may be a benefit of the larger school- there are more opportunities to explore and change paths without major transitions.
My mom is a retired biology professor who did research is zoology. She did small mammal population studies which can provide information on the health of forests or indicate what size forest island in an urban area can support wildlife. In addition, she did some studies of primitive primates in order to determine whether or how vocalizations were taught. This can help understand how human primates learn language as you are starting with the very basics. My mom taught at a small college where many students were working on nursing degrees. I would guess that most biology programs include some opportunities to study zoology although most undergraduates would get a BS in Biology. When looking at LACs it would be important to check professor bios and course offering to ensure there are classes in zoology rather than a focus on molecular biology, genetics, or what not.
There’s also animal science 
Wrt to smaller large schools:
Seconding UVermint, UNH, OhioU, MiamiOhio, Ithaca, Rowan, SUNY Geneseo.
Wheaton MA has something cool involving animals& Biology.