UNC Asheville meets all of your criteria – education program with licensure in many areas, on the larger side for a LAC (3800 students), a fun city, friendly students. Cost is a potential issue, however; the out-of-state cost of attendance is ~$33,000 a year, and I’m not sure how much financial or merit aid you’ll get as an out-of-state student.
Mercyhurst in Pennsylvania is worth a look.
I hesitate to qualify what @OHMomof2 said, since she is from Ohio . . . . but in our experience Denison is more like 25-30 min to Columbus, depending on what part you are going to. Denison runs shuttles into town and has first year events/outings in Columbus to get students in the habit of taking advantage of the city. Students can, and do, engage with city life so, if access to a city is enough then Denison could fit the bill. But, if someone wants to be “in” the city, then Denison is not the right choice.
Our experience with Wooster was different, it felt like it was basically an hour on back roads, no matter which way you went to get there, whether from Cleveland or Columbus. At the same time, the town of Wooster has a surprisingly hip restaurant scene, with a few blocks which feel plucked out of Brooklyn.
Many LACs do not have education programs, and that could be the bigger sticking point. Denison has an Educational Studies major, though I don’t know if it meets the requirements for state licensing in Ohio. Schools which offer Education majors would be schools like Ohio Wesleyan, Wittenberg, etc.
Thanks everyone! I really appreciate all of the suggestions! I think I’ve narrowed down my top two LAC choices so far to Washington and Lee and Vassar, but I’m definitely keeping all of the other ones in mind.
Odd two LACs to choose, as the vibes at these two schools are SO different that I can’t imagine someone liking both.
Your list includes thus far: Claremont McKenna, Swarthmore, Colorado College, Connecticut College, St. Olaf, Macalester, Wesleyan, Washington and Lee, Bucknell, Occidental, University of Richmond, and Kalamazoo and W&L and Vassar
Connecticut College, St. Olaf, W&L, Occidental, Kalamazoo, Bucknell, U or Richmond, maybe Macalester
Vassar, Claremont, Swarthmore, Wesleyan might be far reaches for you.
If you like Connecticut College, also perhaps consider Wheaton in Massachusetts
If you like Swarthmore, consider Bryn Mawr – BMC is test optional (and your scores are pretty high) and they are part of a consortium with Swarthmore. You could easily take classes there and choose your major.
If you like Kalamazoo, also consider Wooster and Earlham
If you like Vassar and Wesleyan, also consider Mt. Holyoke (also part of a consortium and you can take classes at five other schools with free buses)
If you like Richmond, you may also want to consider Rhodes, Sewanee, Agnes Scott, Centre.
Washington and Lee is in a small and isolated town. Lexington, VA is charming, but it is not near anywhere else. If access to city or not being remote is still a criteria for the OP, W&L does not meet it.
Also, I agree that W&L and Vassar are really different kinds of schools, attracting different kinds of students. Dominant greek life at W&L (75%+) vs. none at Vassar. An undergraduate Business school plus a Law School at W&L vs. pure liberal arts undergrad at Vassar. Center/right leaning political culture at W&L vs. center/left leaning political culture at Vassar. 85% white at W&L vs. 57% white at Vassar. One student could find their niche and be happy at both, but the overall cultures of the two schools are different.
What a fascinating top two! As others have remarked, they are pretty far apart on the spectrum of small liberal arts colleges, although they are both top small liberal arts colleges boasting of small class sizes, tight communities, and a lot of interaction among professors and students.
The differences are in the social environment.
Washington and Lee has a very strong fraternity culture. Vassar has no fraternities.
Washington and Lee is one of the more conservative leaning of the top LACs, which tend to lean liberal. Vassar is famous for being on the more liberal end of the spectrum, even among LACs.
Think about what those two colleges have in common that attracts you. That should help you to know what to look for in matches and safeties.
For instance, they both have very pretty campuses, so perhaps one of these colleges with pretty campuses might be a match: Dickinson, Franklin and Marshall, Lafayette, or Connecticut College? Conn Coll’s social ambience would be most like Vassar’s, Lafayette and Franklin and Marshall are more Greek oriented, and Dickinson would be in the middle of the road for the colleges in that group.
I think one of the reasons I ended up with those as my top two is because of how different they are, since my goal is to apply to a variety of schools.
One thing that I didn’t realize was how remote and conservative Washington and Lee was. I guess when I saw that it was in Lexington, my mind associated that with Lexington, Kentucky, and I thought it was more urban than it is. Other than those two things though, there’s nothing I don’t like about it.
Vassar I mainly picked for academics and location, and because it was one of the bigger LACs. I like that it’s more liberal, has a good education program, and that it’s in the northeast, since most of the other colleges I’m looking at are in the Midwest and south. The biggest downside is that there’s no greek life, but that’s not really that important to me.
What I really love about both of them are that they’re highly ranked, have nice campuses (from what I’ve seen online), great academics, and as far as I can tell good social environments, even if they are different. I feel like I could see myself at either of them.
If you like Greek life, and you want to be in a city, then you may want to consider Union in NY. It’s on the Amtrak line to NYC – a few hours away – and has Greek life.
Others mentioned Lafayette, another Greek-heavy school might be Lehigh, which also has a pretty campus.
Muhlenberg is a very happy school, has some Greek but that isn’t dominant, and takes a slightly lower GPA. This is a very nice school.
visit a few places - It will help make the decision more real and tangible
The “flavor” of some of the above comments address the issue of not having a #1 or #2 top choices – build your list from the “bottom” up, starting with safeties. Identify core qualities that you are looking for, and know which qualities you are flexible on. Don’t worry about deciding what your two top choices are – focus on identifying core priorities, and go from there.
some great info here, but I agree with @Midwestmomofboys (build up, not down) and @swampdraggin (visit some): LACs tend to have stronger than you might expect ‘feel’ about them, and they can not be as easy to predict outcomes at the top.
Vassar, for example, though often cited as an ‘artsy’ or ‘liberal’ school has an academic intensity those two adjectives might not reflect. It would also be a reach for you: it’s overall mid-to-high 20"s acceptance rate masks a strong skew by gender (~15% acceptance rate for females), and your stats put you in the bottom 25% of admitted students. This is true at quite a few LACs, b/c the # of females applying is substantially higher than the # of males, and the schools know that students prefer closer to a gender balance (there are ofc many exceptions, but most LACs are about 55%/45% F/M).
Another comment on Vassar v W&L: Vassar was all-female until 1969; W&L was all-male until 1972. The underlying ethos can still be felt at both places, and how you process that is very individual. My physics girl felt it was a benefit to her at Vassar, where her profs and peers in math & physics classes were pretty evenly represented by gender. There was historic visibility of women throughout the campus in all aspects of the community- from building names, to portraits in the halls, to ‘famous graduate’ lists.
I know that I should have safeties and matches on my list first, but I’m not only going to apply to LACs, and I feel like if I go to a small school I want it to be one that has the best resources, students, etc, so probably only ones that are reaches or matches for me. I’m going to apply to a couple of larger state schools as safeties.
You probably won’t get to the net price you need ($20K), at the kinds of colleges you seem to like so far (selective LACs), based on merit aid. However, there are a few state universities with low enough sticker prices (even at OOS rates) that you might get there even without much aid at all, especially after factoring in “self help” (student loans, employment). Check out Truman State and the University of Minnesota - Morris.
Especially if your scores go up a bit, you may have a shot at full tuition merit scholarships that are granted automatically for qualifying stats. But again, they probably wouldn’t be available from selective private LACs.
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
Very selective private LACs often do grant very generous need-based aid. The trick is getting in.
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2017-09-21/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need
Some of these have been mentioned above already.
Just to be precise, W&L went co-ed “late” in the game, in 1985. The Law School began accepting women in 1972. I’m tuned in to that issue because a family member attended as an undergrad in the late '70s and it was all male still.