I downloaded the file of the schools and initially eliminated them if they did not have space for freshmen, did not award financial aid (this took out international schools), and lacked housing. Keep in mind that awarding aid might mean offering the standard loan or it could actually mean the school will discount tuition in some capacity.
After I eliminated those schools which were not listed in either the Princeton Review’s Best 380 Colleges and/or with the USNWR. For national universities the school had to be ranked in the top 160, liberal arts colleges needed to be in the top 134, regional universities in the top 30, and regional colleges in the top 10 (frankly, most of the colleges listed in this category are average, at best). There are a few schools that missed the arbitrary cutoffs but I included anyways. I did not use the Fiske Guide to Colleges as my copy is from 2013 and the full list of schools included is not available online like with the PR’s Best 380.
Here are the schools that made the cut:
-Asbury University (Christian LAC)
-Augustana University (South Dakota)
-Bellarmine University
-Berry College (The list has this in South Carolina, but Berry College is actually in Georgia)
-Birmingham-Southern College
-Bradley University
-California Institute of the Arts (this is a special exception since CalArts is a specialty school and an extremely highly regarded one at that)
-California Lutheran University
-Carroll College
-Centenary College of Louisiana (I’m cautious about recommending this one owing to some probable financial challenges in the near future)
-Christian Brothers University
-DePauw University
-Dominican University of California
-Florida Southern College
-Green Mountain College (environmental school)
-Grove City College (Christian LAC)
-Guilford College
-Hampshire College
-Hofstra University
-Houghton College (Christian LAC)
-Illinois State University
-Jacobs University Bremen (Special exception. German school that I’ve read is quite academically intense)
-John Carroll University
-Juaniata College
-Kettering University (Special exception. Has an outstanding hands on engineering program)
-Knox College
-La Salle University
-Lake Forest College
-Lawrence University
-Linfield College
-Lipscomb University (Christian university)
-Loyola University Maryland
-Loyola University New Orleans
-Luther College
-Lynchburg College
-Marietta College
-Messiah College (Christian LAC)
-Michigan Technological University
-Mills College (all women LAC in Oakland, CA)
-Monmouth (NJ)
-New College of Florida
-Ohio Wesleyan University
-Oregon State University
-Pacific Lutheran University
-Pacific University
-Penn State University (is this a listing error?)
-Presbyterian College
-Prescott College (sort of an environmental LAC)
-Queens University of Charlotte
-Randolf-Macon College (not Randolf College, also in VA)
-Regis University
-Ripon College
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I have to go back to doing work now. I’ll post the rest later tonight.