<p>I really like this list from U.S. News called A+ Schools for B Students - basically they’d be good safety/match schools for you. They are often overlooked, fairly high ranked schools with less selectivity than you’d expect for schools of their caliber.</p>
<p>[A+</a> Options for B Students | Top National Universities | US News Best Colleges<a href=“National%20Universities”>/url</a>
[url=<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges/a-plus]A+”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges/a-plus]A+</a> Options for B Students | Top Liberal Arts Colleges | US News Best Colleges<a href=“Liberal%20Arts%20Colleges”>/url</a>
[url=<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/regional-universities-north/a-plus]A+”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/regional-universities-north/a-plus]A+</a> Options for B Students | Top Regional Universities North | US News Best Colleges<a href=“Northern%20Regional%20Colleges”>/url</a></p>
<p>Oberlin definitely has that sense of community that you are looking for, along with the fact that it isn’t in a big city (in fact it’s in a really cool, rural town). They are part liberal arts college and part music conservatory. Although they aren’t quite on the east coast, they aren’t too too far from where you live, roughly the distance to W&M.</p>
<p>In my opinion, many of the public colleges in VA are pretty swell. Have you considered Virginia Commonwealth, James Madison, or George Mason? I don’t know too much about any of them, but I think their locations might be conducive to that community feel in a not-urban location that you are looking for.</p>
<p>If you are interested in Catholic colleges, they tend to be in suburban locations and lots of them are really great. <a href=“http://www.stirenes.org/information/college_list.html#NE[/url]”>http://www.stirenes.org/information/college_list.html#NE](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/a-plus]A+”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/a-plus)</a></p>
<p>A quick CollegeBoard search turned up UNC Chapel Hill (really hard to get into out-of-state) and University of Maryland College Park (which has a really good honors program with scholarships, I believe).</p>