<p>Definitely Columbia–gorgeous campus.</p>
<p>Miami is self contained but is actually in more of a suburb about a 15 minute metro ride from downtown. Great school though! University of Texas in Austin is a great option too. Very self contained within a fantastic city. </p>
<p>My vote is for the University of Texas-Austin. But I am bias. OP…what are your son’s stats, his desired major, etc, that might help folks narrow it down for you.</p>
<p>It’s a smaller city, but my middle son loves U Rochester - nice well-defined campus.</p>
<p>Syracuse University. Also in a smaller city.</p>
<p>As mentioned earlier, McGill in Montréal. In the middle of downtown but still a green, defined campus. </p>
<p>Wow - thanks for all the responses. Will have to go look at these in more detail to see which ones might fit him best. </p>
<p>@Haystack - good question on how big the city has to be. Don’t have a good answer to that - he’s in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere right now, so a decent sized town/city might just work for him 
As a parent, I’d like him to be in a place where he can get to without me having to drive him all the time - some place where flights are easy for him to get.</p>
<p>@collegeshopping - he’s a sophomore, hasn’t taken the tests yet, so no stats. He’s a good student and I’d expect him to have good stats, not mind blowing ones. One of my concerns with a lot of the schools mentioned here on this thread are that they are tippy top schools that only accept a very small percentage of applicants. I’d like to find two-three safety/match kind of schools for him first - the reach ones are easier to find :)</p>
<p>Not for a boy but I’ll throw it out anyway - Barnard. Across the street from Columbia (with its own quads and such) but they share campuses - classes, libraries, dining halls, sororities, athletics, etc. Temple U in Philly.</p>
<p>RPI, though I wouldn’t consider Troy a plus. Gonzaga in Spokane and UPS in Tacoma both have nice campuses.</p>
<p>Adding Lewis and Clark in Portland.</p>
<p>I had the same type of criteria. I really liked Georgetown, UPenn, and Columbia. Out of those, Columbia was probably my favorite…it didn’t feel like you were in Manhattan at all…and yet, you were. </p>
<p>OP- just a heads up- since your son is only a sophomore, he’s likely to adjust his criteria several times so don’t get too far down the road with the “defined campus in a city” business. One of my kids was only going to apply to schools with a strong engineering school- until he saw U Chicago and engineering went out the window (thought he’d study Math at Chicago instead). One of mine wanted a pretty, bucolic campus after seeing Dartmouth as a HS Freshman (for an event competition, not a college visit) and ended up only applying to gritty, urban campuses.</p>
<p>Marathon, not a sprint!!!</p>
<p>Not sure how we got 30 posts in without a mention of Macalester. </p>
<p>Second… or third… UChicago… D had same criteria as OP’s S. Was there last month and found it to be a beautiful, well-defined campus in an urban setting… 15 minute train ride to downtown. D was admitted EA and will be attending in the fall unless she receives a very unlikely acceptance to H or Y.</p>
<p>Trinity University in San Antonio, TX. Easy 10 minutes to downtown, 10 minutes in the other direction to the airport.</p>
<p>University of Wisconsin… In Madison… A great town, the state capital, everything is walking distance or you can take the city bus for free for students…Urban campus but in the middle of two lakes…</p>
<p>Maybe a safety - DePaul in Chicago. Lovely camps in a great part of Chicago.</p>
<p>SMU well defined campus with easy access to Dallas</p>
<p>OP - I was just thinking what Blossom said earlier. We live in a small New England town and my older son knew he wanted a larger school in a big city. We toured 2 or 3 colleges meeting that criteria and nothing really excited him. We toured UMass/Amherst one morning and on a lark - and since we were in the neighborhood - we stopped by Hampshire College. We parked next to a cornfield and the admissions presentation was in a barn and I’m thinking “great way to waste everyone’s time!”. He loved it! He’s now in his third year and thriving. So you never know.</p>
<p>To throw in another chip for Tufts, it’s got the best of two worlds: hip and happening Davis Square/ Somerville a short walk from campus, plus easy-peasy access to downtown Boston. My D is always out and about in either locale and loves coming back to the very navigable (if hilly) and charming Tufts campus after her excursions. </p>
<p>Maybe it has already been mentioned, but both Carnegie Mellon and the U. of Pittsburgh are just a stones throw from downtown Pittsburgh, which apparently is a very nice town (except for the weather).</p>