I’ve said this before, but for my money Macalester easily has one of the best locations of any US college. Of course if you want an outdoorsy/rural sort of location, not so much. But in terms of urban locations, I love the Twin Cities, and Macalester is in just a perfect spot right between them in a dense, walkable neighborhood full of lovely old homes and then restaurants and shops and such.
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I’m hopeful that it will suit our kid. (And that if it does, they like him too.)
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I note for all my love of Macalester’s location, and also very high regard for their academics, my S24 did not end up applying. Basically he didn’t like the campus itself. And actually I think for him, what matters more is campus life than the setting.
And I did sorta get the sense Macalester kids are out and about in the neighborhood a lot, and maybe less focused on campus activities specifically, than at some colleges. Interestingly, a very similar concern of his could and did arise at some more rural colleges–too much talk about leaving campus for outdoor recreation, say, could turn him off. What he ended up really liking is campuses with all sorts of funky traditions and activities and such on campus itself. And then enough other stuff nearby to mix it up sometimes, but not as the main source of entertainment and socializing and such.
Anyway, point being that even though I would personally love to go to college at Macalester, that rightly meant exactly nothing to S24.
Edit: Oh, and to sort of address the original question, I started sometimes thinking of S24 as looking for biking campuses. Like, if too many people had cars, because they lived off campus, or left campus a lot for weekends, and so on, not good. But if the campus was so small and packed into an urban area you wouldn’t bother with even a bike, maybe also not good. But if he could envision himself cruising between classes on a bike, and maybe getting out a bit into local wooded trails or a big park or such on a bike, that was the sort of campus that I think most appealed to him.
So, if you ever want a carefully considered list of biking campuses, let me know . . . .
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I went to Vassar and didn’t have a car. I did have a few friends with cars, so if I needed to get somewhere (mall, etc.) I could usually borrow one of theirs or we went together. It’s easy to uber/taxi to the train to NYC. And I had a bike to zip around campus - now they have a communal bike system with bikes parked around campus. Right off campus there is a small grocery story, cute coffee shop, pizza place, dumpling/bubble tea place, Italian restaurant, bagel place, etc. etc. So really no need for a car.
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Yes, I would love a list of biking campuses. Bonus if the biking campuses have collegiate cycling teams and biking trails nearby.
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Would love that in its own thread so it doesn’t get lost in this thread, if that’s a possibility, @NiceUnparticularMan
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Colby is a great school but not particularly walkable to the town. The school runs a frequent shuttle to Waterville, but the campus is about 2-3 miles away. When we visited, the student we talked to was happy with the shuttle but there isn’t a ton to do in Waterville so they rely on bigger trips to a town further away. One complaint was a lack of DoorDash options…but there’s a Domino’s in town that recently started delivering.
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Edit: moved to its own discussion.
Good idea, hold on . . . .
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There’s lots of lists - you can google - for top bike ability, top town.
My Kid at Vassar: easy to get around without a car, walkable restaurants/businesses right next to campus, and all students get “Arlington Bucks” to spend each year at the local shops. Busses are free with vassar ID, and there’s a stop on the corner of campus. And then when he got involved with volunteering with a local group working with recent immigrants learning English, Vassar allowed him to check out a car once a week to go each week (b/c a bus would have taken longer … and in the car, he recruited friends to come with him). When he joined a group volunteering at a local middle school, he was the “driver” for the Vassar van that would go each week. For his work study job, they let him check out a Vassar truck to drive around the Preserve. In other words - easy to be without a car, and when cars are needed, Vassar makes them available. (and there’s always Uber or the public bus systems).
Another kid at a summer program at Oberlin: car not needed. Can walk everywhere in town, and campus has shuttles to Cleveland.
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My daughter is a senior at Kenyon, she hasn’t had a car there. The campus is very walkable. For more restaurants/shopping options, one does need to get at least to Mt Vernon (about 10 minutes away by car), and she got rides from her friends when she needed to get something there. There are shuttles between Kenyon and the town, but I don’t think she ever used them (but it’s definitely an option).
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Can confirm for my kid at Kenyon as well. All housing is within walking distance of the dining hall and classrooms so most of the time, the cars just sit there. There are students with cars (every friend usually has one) and regular shuttles to Mt. Vernon. When the weather is good, there is a bike path that goes from campus to Mt. Vernon (that’s 6 miles one way though). There is also Instacart and DoorDash, on-campus delivery from the Mt. Vernon pharmacy for prescriptions, and obviously mail order for anything else.
Here’s the bike path: http://www.kokosinggaptrail.org/
I would suss out housing for campuses. It’s probably pretty walkable/bikeable if there is a lot of on-campus housing. A lot of students from the suburbs/rural areas already have cars, which I think is why there are so prevalent on campuses. My nephew brought his to college (not Kenyon), because his housing is far away and the weather and the route were not always conducive to biking.
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One other factor is, what are his walking (or running) and bicycling ranges? Those with more willingness to walk or bicycle longer distances will be less reliant on any other means of transportation.
When we toured Denison last summer, our tour guide said about half of the student body had cars on campus. My son wants to bring his next year but we aren’t sure about that. It’s a 12 hour drive so one of us will have to go with him then fly home, and honestly I don’t think he needs it. Will have to do more of a deep dive into why he thinks he wants it… probably to make it easier to visit his friend who will be at Ohio State. LOL.
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Parent of a current Bates junior here. DS did not have a car at college until midway into sophomore year. We are of the view that having a car freshman year detracts from the initial college experience, and although DS had no real need for his car after freshman year, he just wanted it. So his grandparents kindly drove it cross country, dropping it off with him after using it to explore New England in the fall.
While DS wanted to have his car there and uses it occasionally, it became an albatross when last summer arrived. He had remained on campus until end of June doing lab research and didn’t want to spend two weeks of what summer break remained driving to Seattle and back. (Plus being under 21 makes finding road trip lodging more challenging.) So DS had to scramble to find summer storage for the car.
Because the car sits unused for prolonged periods, we’ve since replaced the battery and purchased DS a WeeGo portable jump starter.
The thing is, Bates used to have Zipcars on campus but those were pulled during the pandemic rental car crunch. We are long time Zipcar members and if only Zipcar had returned to Bates, DS wouldn’t have elected to have his own car there.
Long story short: at Bates anyway a car is definitely not a necessity, and having one can be both handy and a PITA.
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Brandeis is within easy walking distance of pretty much everything a student could need. There are pharmacies, a hospital, salons, coffee houses, a movie theater, a grocery store, a farmer’s market, kayaking on the Charles… There are also lots of shops and restaurants on Moody Street, which is quite close to campus. There is a train station on the edge of campus that goes into Cambridge and Boston in one direction and out to Concord and a place called Wachusett (with skiing about ten minutes from the train station) in the other direction. There are campus shuttles for around town and a Brandeis bus between campus and Cambridge and Boston. Definitely no need for a car.
eta There is a great network of bike paths in the area too, with a path along the Charles into Boston a few blocks from campus.
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Oh interesting. I’d made the lazy assumption that Waltham was kind of suburban and not a plus. Will investigate when we are in the Boston area. Brandeis seems generally like one of those schools that would be much more selective if it had more traditional collegiate aesthetics (and maybe nicer forms?) If one is willing to forgo the traditional red brick/Gothic/Edwardian quad experience, seems like a great opportunity.
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It is definitely a different aesthetic. The first principal architect was Eero Saarinen, and I guess he’s kind of love him or hate him. He was followed by Max Abramovitz, who designed some gorgeous buildings—the Rose Art Museum, the three chapels on campus… But yeah, ivy covered “Collegiate Gothic” it is not.
They do have one new sustainable dorm, Skyline, with a magnificent view of Boston and I know they are planning others.
I think the reason Brandeis’s reputation among the general public doesn’t match its academic reputation is because they won’t play the rankings game, as it doesn’t align with their mission and values. That and antisemitism. While it is and always has been a nonsectarian university, it was sponsored by the Jewish community, so people consider it “too Jewish.” Which is interesting, because it actually has a smaller percentage of Jewish students than Tulane and AFAIK people don’t ask if you “have to be Jewish” to go to Tulane. 
I have a relative who is a professor there and I know a number of other distinguished academics who teach there. I think it is a great school, and very underrated.
eta The area right around Brandeis, while perfectly safe, is not terribly pleasing aesthetically. But that part of Waltham, like just about every other area near Boston, is rapidly becoming gentrified. I expect it will change a lot in the near future.
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Whitman is 100% doable without a car. And the wine is a lovely bonus.
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