<p>Similar in their atmosphere/student body?
Close to urban centres?
Open curriculum?</p>
<p>Are there any top LACs that fit this description?</p>
<p>Probably Wesleyan</p>
<p>Amherst has an open curriculum, and so does Smith, if you’re a girl.</p>
<p>Hamilton College as well :)</p>
<p>[College</a> Lists / Open Curriculum - schools with more flexible curricula](<a href=“College Lists Wiki / College Lists Wiki News and Information”>College Lists Wiki / Open Curriculum - schools with more flexible curricula)</p>
<p>That’s a nice list 
But you ought to read more about the individual colleges as some have no core curriculum, others have some requirements and some are only slightly flexible.</p>
<p>Swarthmore, Vassar, Hopkins (small, open curric, urban)</p>
<p>how about reed?</p>
<p>“Close to urban centres?”
Hamilton, Amherst, Vassar, Wesleyan??? Huh???</p>
<p>I’d agree that Reed has some overlap. Haverford and Swarthmore are truly suburban but have easy access to Philadelphia. Pomona and Occidental are not too distant from the heart of LA. If you’re a she-panda and would consider college with only she-pandas, Barnard and Bryn Mawr should be added to the list. Colorado College if Colorado Springs qualifies as urban enough. </p>
<p>Macalester may be the closest approximation of all in terms of open curriculum, student body and location.</p>
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<p>Swarthmore doesn’t have an open curriculum. Neither does Reed. Both are at the opposite end of an academic spectrum, when compared to Brown. They’d be more intense academically.</p>
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<p>This made me laugh out loud :)</p>
<p>I second Macalester–it’s right next to the twin cities (or is it in one of them? I don’t remember)</p>
<p>Also, Amherst, Massachusetts has A LOT of colleges in it; I would assume that it would be a decent urban center.</p>
<p>I don’t know what the atmosphere is like at Brown. Rhodes is, though, in the heart of Memphis is small, and the curriculum while not open is composed of 12 foundations and you can take classes that count for multiple foundations as well as your major(s) and minor(s) simultaneously. That is to say it’s far more open than a traditional distribution requirements, but it’s not as wide-open as Brown.</p>
<p>A lot people compare Wesleyan to Brown because both have an open curriculum, are very liberal, and are strong academically. The student bodies at both are somewhat similar.</p>
<p>I would add Hampshire College (open curriculum, with a similar vibe)</p>
<p>“If you’re a she-panda and would consider college with only she-pandas”
This made me laugh out loud </p>
<p>^ Me too. xDDD</p>
<p>Alas, I’d like some he-pandas in my school too. xD</p>
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<p>Colorado Springs is not Manhattan but it is a city of over 400,000 so it’s definitely urban. Plus Denver is about 90 minutes away. The curriculum is very flexible but is organized on the unusual “block plan” (one course at a time.) </p>
<p>Another Open Curriculum LAC near a big city is Sarah Lawrence College.</p>
<p>Macalester is in St. Paul, MN.</p>
<p>Brown-like?</p>
<p>I hear Manhattan has some really nice upscale pre-schools ;)</p>
<p>Oooooo
Do they have megablocks? I like megablocks! And Spongebob!!!</p>
<p>Sorry, couldn’t find a more accurate way to describe what I was trying to say. xD</p>
<p>“I hear Manhattan has some really nice upscale pre-schools”</p>
<p>And with the same 50,000 dollar price tag. ;)</p>
<p>I was told by someone in the Brown admissions dept. that the two schools they consider 'little Browns" are Macalester and Lewis and Clark.</p>