<p>hi everyone. I'm going to be a senior this year and would really appreciate some advice. I just came home from a college trip and am more confused than ever. Right now, my dream schools are Pomona and Amherst College, but because I know I can't count on getting in, I would love to hear suggestions for alternatives which might be similar to these schools.</p>
<p>Ideally, like Pomona and Amherst, the school would be small-medium sized (between 2-4k students) with plenty of opportunities for undergrad research, having engaging faculty, an excellent psych dept and an active, fun social life.</p>
<p>As I am from NYC, I want to escape some aspects of city life and would prefer to go to a highly residential campus, but one that is near a large city so I don't feel caged. A school as rural as Williams would make me go CRAZY.</p>
<p>I also worry that the Ivies and comparable schools will be too pretentious and not diverse enough.</p>
<p>Thanks for all your help and I look forward to hearing your advice!</p>
<p>you could try university of miami fl. its in coral gables, not miami, its about 10 minutes away from downtown. really nice, beautiful campus, beaches are close, and its a good school, ranked #52 i think, if rankings are important to you. its a little bigger than what you want i guess, it has about 10,000 students, but its worth checking out.</p>
<p>If you're willing to come out to CA for Pomona, you should check out Occidental College. Strong academics, diverse student body, located not in small-town Claremont, but in an enclave (Eagle Rock) of Los Angeles, one of the most diverse cities in the country. <a href="http://oxy.edu%5B/url%5D">http://oxy.edu</a>. You could also look at LACs based in cities, such as Macalester or smaller universities such as Rice in Houston or Tufts next door to Boston. I'd suggest Washu also, which has a LAC feel in the humanities area, and abuts St. Louis, with metro-link connects to city venues and the airport, but it might be too big for your specifications.</p>
<p>Check out Wesleyan: We have 2,800 students, definitely engaged faculty, a really good psych department with a TINY grad program (which means lots of undergrad opportunities, because grad school funding+not many grad students=fill in the need for research assistants with undergrads), and a really active and aweosme social scene. It’s a little more quirky than Pomona or Amherst, but it’s still got a fair amount of overlap. It’s not quite as close to a big city as Pomona and probably Amherst (1/2 and hour away from New Haven, ~2 hours away from NYC and Boston), but it’s nowhere near as isolated as Williams. </p>
<p>I also really suggest you check out Carleton (which other than being tons colder reminded me a lot of Pomona), and Vassar. Oberlin too, though it might not be close enough to a big enough city for you. Haverford and Swarthmore are both smaller than you want (Haverford a lot so, but they do seem to have a lot of crossover with Bryn Mawr), but otherwise might fit the bill (they are both about 20 min away from Philly). Reed, which is 15 min. from Portland also comes to mind, though it, like Swarthmore, has a more intense edge than Pomona or Amherst, which both, as far as I know, have more laid back student bodies (Reed is also a bit smaller). </p>
<p>If you’re willing to look at slightly bigger schools, you might find Tufts appealing. Also agree about WashU. I know you're worried about Ivies, but I think that Brown might also be worth a look. </p>
<p>For some schools that would be closer to matches or safeties, I agree about Occidental, and Mac. You might also like Skidmore, Lewis and Clark (I’m not quite sure where it is in relation to the main city of Portland, but I think it’s pretty close), Dickenson (too far away from cities?) or Goucher. I’m not sure about the psych departments/research opportunities at those schools, but they might appeal to you otherwise, and you could find out more about that stuff by contacting the schools.</p>
<p>"Oberlin too, though it might not be close enough to a big enough city for you."</p>
<p>Perhaps not, but FWIW Mapquest says :</p>
<p>Wesleyan to New Haven 35 minutes
Pomona to LA is 36 minutes
Oberlin to Cleveland is 40 minutes
Carleton to Minneapolis is 50 minutes</p>
<p>As OP is from NYC, some local perspective:
Scarsdale, NY (Westchester County) to NYC -44 minutes.</p>
<p>However, if escape to a city is the goal, driving time is only the most relevant metric if you have ready access to a car.. </p>
<p>If you do not, then there is possibly a large variation in how easily accessible each college is to its respective city. Begging rides is unreliable, and buses are typically infrequent and only go where they go.</p>
<p>In that case, the schools that are on a direct train line to a city that itself has good public transportation may be much more realistic propositions for fulfiiliing OP's intent.</p>
<p>The key to "not feeling caged" in the way OP is concerned about isn't being near a city. It's having ready access. </p>
<p>Another way around this issue is to have enough going on around campus so that leaving to the city isn't such a high priority. And indeed, some of these schools are known for their active campus life.</p>
<p>
[quote]
BTW, Amherst is nearly 2 hours from Boston.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Well, if that's the case, than I think that any of the schools I listed should work on the "near a city" criteria (for some reason I thought it was closer to Boston than that, but I don't really know much about Amherst). </p>
<p>But yeah, monydad does have a point about how easy transportation is making a differance (I'm not quite sure how easy access is at all the schools I've listed. At Wesleyan, you might have to jump through a few hoops, but if you can convince someone to drive you 20 min to Meridan, or are willing to spend the 25 bucks on a cab, then you can cathc a trait to New Haven and then to anywhere you want pretty easily). </p>
<p>But he's also right that at a school where there's a lot to do on campus, and also a town big enough to have some resurants and movies, there's not so much need to get to a city (at least IMO, and that's as someone who loves cities and grew up in one, albiet a much smaller one than NYC), though it is nice to have that option in the back of your mind (but in that case, being 1-2 hours away is close enough to have it in the back of your mind, as long as there is some kind of access).</p>
<p>I agree w/ Rice (great city) and Macalaster, and if you're willing to go for a school w/ a few more students, how about JHU? It has great research facilities and opps, and only about 1200 students per class/</p>
<p>It is true that Amherst is 2 hours from Boston, but it is 20 minutes from Northampton. Between the two towns, there are quite a few restaurants, music venues, theaters. It isn't rural. As I remember it, though, there is no easy way to get to Boston without a car--no trains, no bus depot in Amherst. I never felt "caged" in Amherst or the surrounding towns I lived in, but occasional trips to cities are enough for me.</p>
<p>If you are willing to go with a slightly larger student body (6,000 to 6,500 undergraduates) both Washington Univ. and Vanderbilt have self-contained campuses and are located in cities, near a variety of urban amenities (St. Louis and Nashville, respectively). Vanderbilt is known for an active social life; I know Wash U students who say the same about their school.</p>
<p>Have you considered GW? It might be too big for your taste, but it has a strong sense of community which might make it seem smaller and is in a great location.</p>