U Mass Amherst often comes up in linguistics threads (example threads: 1, 2) as one of the top schools for linguistics in the country. You might take a look at that, even if it’s larger than you’re hoping for.
A medium-sized school (~7,000) with happy, quirky kids (like Rice), emphasizing values/community, that isn’t quite as hard to get into, and that has a strong linguistics program is William and Mary, in Virginia. (It is an out-of-state public, so there’s some friction there, but it’s not as reachy as some of the smaller LACs with good programs, like Pomona, Swathmore, etc.