<p>So, does it have to come down to Swarthmore or Bowdoin? Since you've clearly identified the things that concern you about these two colleges, are there any other academically-rigorous LACs with strong financial aid/large endowment that might better fit your preference for a less-isolated location, diverse student body, great financial aid and support for athletic programs? Amherst comes to mind (and perhaps several others) that might be worth a closer look.</p>
<p>Wow, thanks everyone for all of the advice! I am also looking at Amherst but I am not so sure I would be a top lacrosse recruit for that school (and I would really like to play lacrosse) so Amherst isn't as high on my list. I must say that a bunch of you pointed out the diversity issue, which I hadn't really thought about before since I have gone to a mostly white school since first grade. Now that it has been brought up, however, I must say that I guess it actually is something of concern for me. It is different between living in New York City where the diversity is all around you and living in Maine where all of the diversity is on campus. I just wanted to thank everyone for bringing that to my attention!</p>
<p>Also, HarrietMWelsch - your mailbox is full so I cannot send you a response!</p>
<p>Thank you "Interested Dad" for the link regarding endowments. It's much appreciated!</p>
<p>Somebody was kind enough to point out in a PM that Columbia University is also very diverse. That prompted me to do a little checking. Swarthmore is not the most diverse highly selective school on East Coast. </p>
<p>That honor goes to MIT, which is only 46% white US due in large part to huge Asian American enrollment. </p>
<p>Second is Wellesley at 51%, again on the basis of a huge Asian American student body. </p>
<p>Swarthmore is third at 56% followed immediately by** Columbia** at 57% and Harvard at 59%.</p>
<p>Interestingly, Barnard is much less diverse (66%) than Columbia.</p>
<p>I can't think of any other likely contenders that I haven't already checked, but feel free if you can come up with any.</p>
<p>Anyway, I wanted to correct the record. Because of College Confidential's constant database/server busy errors, I have no prayer of replying to a private message, so thanks for the heads up from Columbia!</p>
<p>Last year, Swat sent a special offer to potential URM candidates AFTER the regular application deadline offering them an additional opportunity to apply.</p>
<p>Whatever one might think of the fairness of that step to URM and non-URM candidates who got their applications in on time, it certainly is a testament to their determination to boost URM enrollment.</p>
<p>I live in Maine, and it is certainly true that the black population is small. There are actually a fair number of African refugees from Somalia et al in Southern Maine--possibly more than there are native born African Americans.</p>
<p>I would point out that true diversity is about more than race, although I can certainly understand that that is the most important type of diversity to the OP in making this decision.</p>
<p>Additional shout out to Rice at 56% white US and Duke at 58% white US.</p>
<p>Duke does well with African Americans and Rice with Latino/a students, but not extraordinarily so. Credit to both universities for attracting a very diverse students body (strong Asian American enrollment at both) in regions of the country where schools don't always show big diversity numbers.</p>