Brown. Really any top college with an open curriculum sounds like it would suit you.
adding on to that theme of open curriculum-Grinnell and Smith (if you are female)
Grinnell, Bryn Mawr, Haverford.
match/safeties: Kalamazoo College, Lawrence University in WI, Earlham in Indiana.
If you are interested in an open curriculum, look at Hamilton.
Agree on Grinnell. More “chill” than UChicago but still rigorous and thinky.
Another safety that meets your requirements would be Beloit.
I don’t see NYU as fitting your specs.
NYU Gallatin would fit his/her specs – https://gallatin.nyu.edu/
also Hampshire-- which can be as rigorous or not rigorous as you wish. Top students go on to really change their particular niches of the world because Hampshire encourages divergent rather than convergent thinking. You have the other colleges to draw on to tailor your program. You can use the other colleges to engage in research, meet like-minded musicians or entrepreneurs or others who are trying new directions. The college motto is Non satis scire – to know is not enough. They want to ask the impertinent questions to test the age-old assumptions. This is not the school for everyone. Note in other threads on this forum how much grief Hampshire’s yurt has taken. (The yurt is the location of the Hampshire radio station but one dad took one look at the yurt and backed the car quickly out of the driveway before discovering that). But if you’re someone who is directed you can do extremely well here because there’s both the resources to assist you and the room around you, elbow room, so that you can move forward without restrictions. Hampshire has produced some amazing writers and other artists.
Also echoing others here –
Earlham
Bard for writing
Hamilton maybe for writing program
URochester – arty school, oft overlooked, open curriculum
Vassar – not competitive student body but has Ivy-level scores, excellent writing program, easy train ride to NYC–day-trips to NYC easy.
Wesleyan – wonderful creative atmosphere and writing
Bryn Mawr, Mt. Holyoke Both of these schools are known for excellent academics with low competitiveness among the students. They foster cooperation. They are also parts of consortia and you can tailor your program accordingly. Mt. H is part of the same consortium as Hampshire – the Five College consortium. Brym Mawr is part of the Quaker Consortium with UPenn, Swarthmore, Haverford – both consortia have buses to take you around the schools.
Pitzer – also part of consortium and is the more free-wheeling member of the Claremont group.
Schools I would avoid for being too edgy-angsty-competitive for no obvious reason (IMHO)
Johns Hopkins
UChicago
Wellesley
Swarthmore
MIT
School that I would avoid because of party hardy atmosphere and somewhat to-my-mind rigid values – Sewanee. Yes the writing program but also yes it’s the university of the SOUTH, as in not just south of the Mason Dixon but the more traditional South, and it has some legacy of roles that, bravely, it’s been trying to shake off, but there’s a lot of partying in those woods. It’s not for me. Although the 13000 acre campus is stunning. Just make sure that you know what you’re getting into
Iowa is known for inventing the writing program that other schools use. FYI
Columbia is known for its writing program too
Princeton
I second these questions. Answers will help posters provide useful suggestions.
Virtually all top colleges and quite a few others besides will offer very rigorous educations. High schoolers are often used to a lot of busy work in AP and IB classes; there is much less of that in college.
I’ve often wondered how much of Chicago’s reputation comes from taking pride in how much work one has to do and whether the “Duck syndrome” common at schools like Stanford leads people to wrong conclusions about relative workloads. I once compared notes with classics majors at other top universities (Brown, Hopkins, Chicago, Penn, etc.) and found that we all had to translate about the same number of lines each night and had roughly comparable workloads. Additionally, the department I’ve spent time in at Chicago is very similar to that of other top universities. I can’t speak for all majors at Chicago, of course.
The quarter system tends to be more fast-paced and stressful than the semester system, though.
With respect to your interest in creative writing, the descriptions in these articles might be worth reading through:
The 10 Best American Colleges for Writers | USA TODAY College
http://college.usatoday.com/the-10-best-american-colleges-for-writers/
The 10 Best Colleges for Creative Writers | The Freelancer
http://contently.net/2014/11/06/resources/10-best-colleges-creative-writers/
The 25 Most Literary Colleges in America | Flavorwire
http://flavorwire.com/409437/the-25-most-literary-colleges-in-america
Thanks so much everyone! What do you guys think about Stanford? Do they have a good writing program? I know they don’t have an open curriculm and aren’t on any of the lists that @merc81 posted, but what about their teaching philosophy?
I was just interested because of the cool stuff the alums have done and how chill the institution presents itself to be. Thanks again!
@warblersrule I was wondering the same thing. Do the students at UChicago actually have more work than students at other schools or is the workload just talked about more? Because as you mentioned, Stanford Duck Syndrome sort of counteracts that. Maybe it’s something ingrained within the school’s culture, but idk.
Pomona seems to fit your criteria.
I’m kind of surprised that no one has mentioned Kenyon (though I imagine it’s on the linked list of good schools for writers).
sewanee and princeton? sure …
OP,
I try not to show my bias (I like LACs), but you sound like the sort of student who might thrive more at an LAC than a larger private university. There are exceptions (Chicago, for instance), but you’ll find many who report that the environments at Ivies and Ivy-likes are filled with large classes (sometimes taught by TAs during the first two years) and professors who are not always focused on undergraduate education. Also, some students at these schools report that though they are kept busy with a lot of work, they are essentially teaching themselves the material (again, because the professors’ attention isn’t always on undergraduates).
Again, there are always exceptions, and certainly there are people who thrive at Princeton, Yale, Chicago, and Dartmouth (I am trying to list the prestige schools where the academic rigor and quality are in synch). I guess I am saying that you might at least look into LACs like the ones that have been mentioned. To be honest, most quality LACs will offer fairly rigorous academics and close relationships with professors. Lawrence U. was one named (by Time, perhaps?) as one of the most challenging schools in the country. Of course, these lists are all over the place and the names of schools on these lists vary.
Still, Reed is a place famous for its rigor and quality (though it is a very progressive environment; a typical progressive like me would be viewed as a card-carrying Republican there). Wesleyan (also very progressive) and Holy Cross (not as progressive but still liberal for a religious school, and it’s not just for Catholics!) are also well-known for being intense environments academically. Really, though, at most LACs the rigor is sort of baked into the cake.
I came upon this thread because I was going to ask something similar for my daughter. She’s really only looking at LACs for the same reason that OP stated. Of all the LACs, the only one I’ve specifically heard of described as a pressure cooker is Wellesley. Are there any other LACs that have that reputation? Reading between the lines, I’m guessing that what OP really wants is to avoid being surrounded by a bunch of type-A people obsessed with grades. (OP - please correct me if I’m wrong.)
Just to add my $0.02 to the topic, I went to Oberlin (graduated over 20 years ago) and although in hindsight it was a little too hippy for my tastes, it did provide the environment OP asked about. Most of the workload was writing based - you had to synthesize the material, provide your thoughts on it, and back it up. Professors read everything you wrote and commented line by line. Class discussions were well-informed, earnest, and rigorous but without people trying to one-up each other. The only 2 things keeping me from recommending it wholeheartedly are: (1) very hippy/bohemian which might be a bit off-putting to some people and (2) it’s fallen on hard times financially. Point (2) concerns me the most, since professors are underpaid relative to comparable schools and it will get even worse as they will not be getting much of a cost of living adjustment to account for inflation. In addition, when I last visited the campus, I noticed that a lot of the buildings hadn’t been renovated in a while - carpet was wearing thing, paint was chipping, etc.
With stats like OP’s, I’d definitely recommend looking at LACs. I’m surprised no one mentioned Bowdoin. The thing I keep hearing about that school is how friendly and cooperative the students are with one another. We visited the campus recently and found that to be the case. I’ve read later that it kind of suffers from a lack of diversity (lots of New England preppy types - but friendly ones) and a bit more emphasis on sports culture than my daughter would like, but overall it sounds amazing and just what OP is looking for.
Swarthmore has a pressure cooker rep – “Sweatmore”
Harvey Mudd is technically an LAC and it’s supposedly quite intense
Caltech isn’t an LAC but it’s been described as punishing
@dla26 My son is a sophomore at Bowdoin and could not be less into sports, as a participant or fan, and has not found the culture dominated sports at all. Statistically a lot of students participate in sports but he has not experienced any significant emphasis on attending sporting events, elitism of or catering to sports team members or any aspect of the sports team members not being as academically focused and extracurricularly diverse as the rest of the students. In terms of diversity, that’s an issue with all the LAC’s. Bowdoin’s middle of the pack I think. And the communities of under represented students are very strong and active on campus and tend to disproportionate rise in leadership positions (due to their drive and ability, not any kind of artificial promotion).
Other friendly and cooperative LACs (prob mentioned already but not defined as such) are Bryn Mawr and Haverford, Mt. Holyoke, Earlham. There are probably others.
Thanks, @citivas! Do you know if the culture is very grade-focused with lots of type-A people? We didn’t get that sense when we visited the campus, but then again, we were there less than one day. 
@dla26 It depends what you mean by grade focused. Most students aren’t obsessed with the GPA’s or competing with each other, etc. It’s less intense than HS that way. But most are serious students so there aren’t a lot of slackers that make it easy to be the top of the curve. Double majors are common (and very attainable). With what it takes to get into schools like Bowdoin that’s kind of self-selecting. Social activities and extracurriculars are plentiful for those who want them but nothing dominates to the point of being an insider or outsider. It’s very easy to party and easy to party dry and still fit in (and their are dry “chem free” dorm options). There are so many resources for so few students (plus between the majority doing study abroad Junior year or getting focused on their majors) it’s easy to attain meaningful positions in activities and clubs.