Take a look at Tufts too. A bit further (but so is Brown)- good research, mid-sized campus and less competitive than Hopkins, Brown and Duke.
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One school that I’m not sure has been mentioned is Rochester Institute of Technology. It’s 6h31m from Fairfax, so perhaps a bit further than desired, but I think it could be a really interesting possibility. Definitely a place where quirky kids who love D&D would find their peeps. This would be a likely or even extremely likely admit for your D:
There are a variety of majors that seem to speak to what some of your previous threads mentioned as possibilities of interest:
Additionally, its English program has two concentrations that could be particularly interesting, one in Creative Writing and one in Worldbuilding and Transmedia Storytelling. For someone who enjoys writing science fiction, I suspect there could be some very interesting coursework in the department.
RIT definitely has a tech focus on the one hand, but it’s also very much focused on the arts as well (with various studio arts, furniture design, etc). And there are still traditional liberal arts majors like political science, philosophy, etc.
This family recently visited and had a very positive experience: Parents of the HS Class of 2026 - #1288 by SpreadsheetMom.
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It might be helpful if @Bantamlove could shed a little more light about what her daughter likes about William and Mary. As the mom of an out of state STEM student at William and Mary, I have to say that in a lot of ways it is a unicorn. It is a midsize public research university - which in and of itself is a rarity. It functions more like a private liberal arts college with small classes, engaged professors and an emphasis on undergraduate research. Then of course there is the beautiful historic campus and traditions that give it more of an Ivy League feel. .. and there are the intangibles - the sense of community and the somewhat quirky, intellectual and generally just super friendly student body.
For the most part, the schools I think of as being the most similar to William and Mary are more competitive private schools. At the highest level probably Yale/Brown/Rice/Wesleyan/Vassar. The latter two may be too small for OP. Wesleyan is on the larger side for an LAC and has excellent STEM programs. OP would have to run net price calculators for any of the private schools and consider some flexibility on geographic constraints. I also agree with suggestions of Tufts/Emory/Wash U/Vanderbilt but as an Emory alum with family members who attended the others would just say that all of them have a more pre professional vibe. I would consider Vandy to probably be the most “preppy” of those. I would also maybe throw in JHU and CMU if the academic rigor of William and Mary is part of the appeal for OPs daughter.
In terms of “match” or peer schools, I would say there is a lot of overlap in applications with Wake Forest, University of Richmond, Davidson (too small, more reachy). Then also Case Western, University of Rochester, Villanova, Bucknell,Lehigh, Macalester (too small?), Carleton ( too small? and maybe more of a reach).
For safety schools, and again I am rattling off a list of places where a lot of William and Mary students seem to apply: Elon,University of Vermont,College of Charleston, Miami University, Lafayette, Franklin and Marshall,University of Pittsburgh, Oberlin. My student also really liked both Rhodes and Furman. Both of those would give OPs student significant merit aid - Furman is a larger LAC. Both have beautiful campuses.
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@Greatpyrmom, you wrote everything I wanted to say, so I second your post. I didn’t write it because I was held back by the 3 hour driving range from an unknown location in Virginia and the desire not to spend as much as $60,000.
William & Mary is certainly a unicorn for all the reasons you detailed so well. It’s even more of a unicorn because this student is instate, making it uniquely affordable.
The closest match I could think of to W&M is Binghamton. It was second tier on the same original list of Public Ivies as W&M and at 14,000. It’s on the smaller side for a public research university although still twice the size of W&M. It’s a 5 hour drive from Northern Virginia without stops, so you can’t come & go in a day but it is drivable and you could come & go with a single overnight. Binghamton lists the cost of tuition, fees, room & board at $50,000. So far, so good but the OP seemed disinterested in Binghamton when it was raised in the discussion.
Cost is the basic problem. All of the matching privates are too expensive without scholarship money, which is an unknown. The best way to get scholarship money is to apply to a college for which a student is overqualified. But the OP is looking for an academic peer of W&M and I don’t know how you do that for under $60,000 without catching lightning in a bottle. This is brought into sharp focus by the fact that W&M lists on their website the instate cost at $45,000. If that’s the instate cost, I wonder how you’re going to find a peer at an out of state cost under $60,000.
If I were looking for a safety for this student, I would recommend The College of New Jersey. It is not William & Mary, but it is very good for what it is
Enrollment = 6100
Diving Time = 3 hours from Northern Virginia
Cost of Attendance = $42,000 (per TCNJ website)
Percent in top 25% of HS class = 96%
Here’s a recent review of The College of New Jersey:
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Yes, I completely ignored the geographic constraints and potentially the financial ones. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t do that and I am a firm believer that we should just ATFQ (answer the question lol). In this instance, it appears that the OP might be eligible for need based aid (at least at Brown)and be willing to make an exception to the 3 hour drive for the right school. Isn’t Providence good 6 or 7 hours from Northern Virginia? So yeah - I just gave a laundry list of other schools that tend to appeal to William and Mary students that @Bantamlove might want to research more.
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I agree with what you did. It’s what I wanted to do but didn’t. I restrained myself and wish I hadn’t. You have my envy. 
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I went to Brown decades ago and lived in northern Virginia. Traveling was super easy—I usually took the night train, slept most of the trip (around 7-8 hours as I recall because there was a looong stop-over in NYC) and was at my destination in time for an early breakfast.
Of course Amtrak schedules may have changed in the intervening years, but it was super easy.
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I am going to list the schools my son got into in addition to William Mary in case it is helpful. Colby, Hamilton, Carleton, UMASS, UVM Honors, University of Rochester and Lafayette. Waitlisted at Bowdoin. Rejected Georgetown, Williams, and Duke. He really liked W and M but ended up at Colby. I would take a look at the University of Rochester for your daughter.
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