Hi everyone!
I’m a junior living in MN. I would really appreciate help finding some more colleges to add to my list! I feel like I have a solid selection of reach and match schools, but I am open to more suggestions. I am mainly looking for safety schools that are smaller and have more of an artsy campus vibe (similar to my reaches/matches).
Requirements:
collaborative classroom culture
small to medium size
warmer weather (if possible), but avoiding the south
ability to continue some EC’s
opportunity for some merit aid (don’t qualify for financial aid)
greek life only if it doesn’t dominate the social scene
My list so far: Occidental, Pitzer, Scripps, University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin
Major: undecided
GPA: 3.5, unweighted
ACT: 33
AP Classes:
-AP US History (4)
-AP English Literature (taking both AP Lit and AP Lang tests this year, scores TBD)
-AP Physics 1 (TBD)
-AP Physics C (TBD, senior year class)
EC’s:
-School newspaper writer and podcast host (4 years)
-Varsity soccer goalie (2 years) - trained extremely hard this past summer because there was no goalie for the team, no previous soccer experience
-Certified yoga instructor - took certification classes last summer (200 hour requirement), teach occasionally during the school year, hoping to get a part-time instructing job this summer and next, have been doing yoga since 7th grade and almost every day since 9th grade
-I spend a lot of time writing and creating art when I have the free time!
Alfred University (the private one) -- best ceramics in the country, small arty interesting school with the only glass-engineering program in the country. They would give you mad merit money. https://www.alfred.edu/
NYU Gallatin -- this is the NYU version of Hampshire College. You create your own program. https://gallatin.nyu.edu/
UNC Ashville--arty, wonderful town, public LAC in the mountains https://www.unca.edu/
Bennington (too cold probably but they have a January term the requires you leave campus) https://www.bennington.edu/
Bard (too cold probably, but super arty and fairly easy access to NYC, also highly intellectual) https://www.bard.edu/
Southwestern University outside of Austin--very arty, students go to Austin all of the time, they give great merit FA, beautiful historic campus with a river running through it. https://www.southwestern.edu/
Ithaca -- really freaking snowy and cold but very good arts. FA is spotty at best.
University of Southern Oregon in Ashland -- theater theater theater. https://sou.edu/academics/theatre/ the town of Ashland has one of the best theaters in the entire country and it is located in a blissfully rural area
College of the Atlantic -- tiny school, arty, in Bar Harbor, ME -- uses Acadia National park as its classroom. Highly respected for what it does. https://www.coa.edu/
Marlboro College -- very arty, would give you mad merit money probably -- in southern VT -- Brattleboro the town nearby is super duper arty, also has music festival nearby, also Bennington College nearby https://www.marlboro.edu/
Lewis and Clark in Portland, Oregon. Maybe also Willamette in Salem, OR but of the two I think Lewis and Clark has more of the vibe you are looking for.
I’ll second UNC-Asheville, a public LAC with a relatively low OOS sticker price. Maybe also Kenyon and Oberlin in Ohio. You might also look through Colleges That Change Lives (CTCL). Good luck!