Bates is very safe. I wish people would stop assuming that Lewiston is dangerous because it’s working class. It is not dangerous in the slightest. My kid is at Bates and is out on campus in the wee hours of the morning several days a week. I don’t necessarily love that she does that, but not because of Lewiston. Bates has no higher incidence of crime than any other college mentioned here.
As I happen to know a lot about Bates, I will mention that there is a very lively music scene at the college, and that Portland is pretty hip and only 40 minutes away. Boston is two hours and doable. Bates is very Eco-conscious and big on sustainability (doing away with paper cups in the dining hall, composting, local produce, only sand for winter paths, etc…) but I wouldn’t describe Bates as having the kind of soclal activist scene that you might be looking for. It is very inclusive and friendly. It’s probably best described as a good mix of outdoorsy, urban, preppy, with a good sprinkling of nerdy and arty types.
As for OP, if you do end up with a 33 on the ACT I think Wesleyan sounds right up your street, as does Brown, but those are both high reaches and if you are an unhooked white female, it will be tough to get in. I immediately thought of Macalester, Lewis and Clark, Reed, Oberlin, Clark U, Skidmore and Grinnell. Kenyon might be a good fit too. Similar to Bates I would say, with a more creative edge. Lewis and Clark and Clark U would be safeties, but none of the rest are really matches. More like a bunch of low reaches. The acceptance rates are all over the place this year, so it makes things a little harder to predict. Last year some of those schools might have been high matches, others, low-reaches. This year, things seem to have switched, especially if Skidmore is at 22% acceptance rate. Next year might be equally interesting.