<p>There are plenty of LACs that don’t make a big deal about athletics. My D is at Wellesley, and we never heard one word about athletic recruiting, although I’m sure they do it. (disclaimer: my daughter was never at risk of being recruited for her athletic skills!) This was also true for other LACs we toured.</p>
<p>Sarah Lawrence is near NYC, is now coed, and really quite artsy…</p>
<p>My D was / is a recruited DIII athlete. Many of the prior posters hit the nail on head, when they pointed out it’s more about culture of the school v. the presence of athletics on campus. Not all DIII schools are created equal. While D was hotly perused by one particular school, another coach told her point blank that she wouldn’t even be considered as a “walk-on”. </p>
<p>My advice, go to campus. Spend a ton of time on campus and not just with folks admissions puts in front you. Seek out seniors and juniors and ask them, point blank what they love and what they hate. Listen carefully. Along with the music rooms, Pop into the study-aboard office if that appeals to you. Check out the art studios, if that’s your bag. Bring along someone who knows you well, mom dad, sister, brother. Four eyes are better than two. Once you get in, go back and do it again. DO NOT ignore the “vibe” of the school. Trust your feelings. GOOD LUCK!</p>
<p>If I were a student at Barnard, I’d be the one celebrating the losing football team! Thanks for all the suggestions. I have been considering some of them already, and I will consider the others. However, my parents won’t pay for a school that’s too artsy. They like Bard, which they say is well run by a great college president and is very academic, but not some of the others.
Thanks!
Ariadne</p>
<p>If you aren’t sure about women’s colleges, maybe look at Bryn Mawr? With Haverford a mile away, and fully integrated class schedules so that you can easily study at both schools, it may not feel as isolated as I personally find Holyoke, W and Smith. Athletics not a big deal at BMC or Hford. Plus, Philly a 20 minute train ride away.</p>
<p>Seems to me you’re going about this backwards. Don’t look for what you don’t want, look for what you do want. If you want a school with a strong music culture, take a look at Oberlin, Tulane, Bard, St. Olaf or Lawrence.</p>
<p>I was going to say Oberlin, St Olaf, Lawrence, but qialah beat me to it. 
None of these schools have a strong jock culture - at St Olaf, to be “the big man on campus” you better be a good musician, preferably a great singer. 
As for Oberlin, it strives on rejecting jock mentality and would very much cheer its team to defeat. 
(Okay, I may be exagerating a bit, but you get the idea.) Williams it isn’t.</p>
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<p>It’s no exaggeration. Check out the extraordinary second verse of Oberlin’s fight song, which dates to 1852:</p>
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<p>Ariadne, my sentiments about sports are similar to yours; frankly, I think big time sports will eventually be viewed as a mistake by schools.</p>
<p>A small anecdote that you might find amusing: I was speaking with an athlete who was recruited by Columbia. He was not stupid, but his eye hand coordination was probably better than his academic skills. He was wallowing in self pity about how he gets mocked at Columbia for being a jock and that he doesn’t get the respect that he got in high school.</p>
<p>You would be best at a Liberal Arts College. There are plenty that don’t offer fantastic musci programs.</p>
<p>I would also suggest looking at Berklee College of Music in Boston. It is one of the top music programs in the country and it focuses solely on music.</p>
<p>Check out Shimer College in Chicago. They have zero athletic programs, by design. They also do not allow fraternities or sororities–nothing exclusive is allowed, period. And they share a campus with Van der Cook College of Music (among others), so you could cross register for classes there. Reed is good–my oldest daughter graduated from there–but they do have a drug problem (as in, her senior year the students living next door to her were heroin addicts, and Reed seems to have regular overdoses). Shimer accepts about 80% of applicants, but almost 25% of Shimer graduates ultimately get doctoral degrees–best in the country except for two technical colleges. My youngest daughter happens to hate the deification of athletes (and cheerleaders), which made Shimer an attractive choice for her (she also skipped her last year of high school–Shimer has accepted “early entrants” since 1950–starting college at 16, and will graduate at 20). Check them out–definitely worth it! Oh, and Shimer’s “fight song” is two lines long: “Plato, Aristotle, Socrates–We kick ass on GRE’s!” Irreverence is considered a virtue at Shimer (and classes are limited to 13 students max).</p>