Looking for private liberal arts colleges in/very near cool cities [3.7 GPA, QB eligible]

College Search & Lists
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TL;DR - please help my daughter start putting together her list of target colleges (so not her safeties or reaches) at which she should take a close look.

Our HS junior daughter has 3.7 unweighted GPA and a 4.1 weighted GPA. She’s taken the most rigorous academic program offered at her public high school - pretty much all her classes have been honors or AP. She has really stellar and sustained extracurriculars, which include leadership positions, and she is also an accomplished violinist and also plays trumpet. She has taken a music class every single semester of high school. She will only have two years of a foreign language rather than 4 because her school only offers two years.

She takes the ACT on March 26th and is currently taking intensive one on one ACT tutoring to shoot for the best score possible. We assume she will likely take the test at least twice to see if she can beat the score she makes the first time. She also plans to apply to the Questbridge College Prep Scholars program when the application opens on February 1 (that’s the Questbridge program for HS juniors that prepares you to apply to the actual Questbridge selective college matching program that’s for HS seniors)

A whole lot of where she gets to go is going to depend on how she does on the ACT, because financial aid is critical for us. She has a goal of making a minimum composite of 32, which I think she can hit. She doesn’t know yet what she would like to study, but it will definitely be something in the arts and humanities, and nothing related to STEM, engineering, or anything like that.

She would like to attend a liberal arts school or perhaps a larger public school with an internal honors college program. Right now we are working on a list of target schools for her (so not safeties or reaches), and we would love some suggestions.

Going to school in or very, very near a real city is extremely important to her. She does not want to attend a school in an isolated or rural area or a small town. She definitely wants a progressive student body, and not a school that’s dominated by Greek life or a school known for partying being the primary way kids have fun. She would prefer a traditional looking campus, and we want to find a school with guaranteed housing for all 4 years. She won’t have a car at school, so the campus and surrounding area need to be very walkable.

We are only interested in schools within a 10-12 hour drive of Nashville, TN. She definitely doesn’t want to attend any school that identifies as having “Christian values” or anything like that. No overtly religious schools.

We would be really grateful for any and all suggestions for schools that meet these criteria. And remember - this is her target list, meaning schools to which she is likely to be admitted - schools where her stats are higher than the median admitted student so she has a better shot at scholarships and financial aid.

Thanks for any and all suggestions!

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So, that’s a highly constrained set of rules. I would challenge it because in the end every student has to give and take on their ideal school.

There are probably LACs near cities (not many in them) in Ohio, Minnesota, and the south east. But I would suggest you consider that in a larger school the students find their crowd.

My S18 had zero interest in Greek life and rah-rah sports. He ended up at Pitt and we had to drag him to football games. But within that larger school - with all of that stuff your D doesn’t want - he found his crowd in the honors college and ignored the rest of it. So, my point is there are schools within schools. A larger school like a Pitt or a Wisconsin that are embedded directly into a city can still have a smaller feel and also have lots of great liberal arts in addition to STEM.

Suggest you start now ruthlessly prioritizing the “requirements” Some are more important than other like maybe the city feel or something. Then build the list starting bottom up in cost (as you are aware)

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I can only chime in on schools in part of her target circle- but I would think she should consider Pitt, George Washington, NC State, maybe College of Charleston. What does she think of the cities in that 10-12 hour circle? You could then narrow the focus.

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It is just making the 12 hr mark away but I will put in a plug for the three LAC near me in Philly! Swarthmore, Haverford and Bryn Mawr (Swat obv very hard to get into but maybe the other two?) which all work as a consortium. They are all beautiful, contained campuses where you do not need a car and are guaranteed housing. They are suburban but on train lines and very close to Philly. Which, IMHO, is a very cool city!

Another thought I had was U of Richmond.

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Lake Forest?

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College of Charleston would be a safety for this student.

Near or in a cool city? How about UNC Asheville? It’s not a liberal arts college but it’s near a cool small town.

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Some ideas for exploring, can’t say they meet ALL your requirements esp on distance and merit options…

Agnes Scott - Atlanta
University of Puget Sound - Tacoma, WA
Lewis and Clark - Portland
Occidental - LA
Macalester - St Paul MN
Lake Forest - Chicago suburbs
St Edwards - Austin TX
Clark - Worcester, MA
Goucher - Baltimore
Ursinus - Philly suburbs
Wheaton - Mass, Boston suburbs
Simmons - Boston
Rhodes - Memphis
Austin College - Sherman, TX
Trinity - San Antonio TX
UT Chattanooga
UNC Asheville
Manhattanville - NYC suburbs

… I’m sure other posters will chime in!

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If Questbridge doesnt come through she needs a free ride based on need and or merit? Not sure how many of the colleges will offer that.

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I think the bigger issue is the $$ because not every school will meet full need - or many are need aware. So I think the ACT will be critical.

Is the student first gen ?

I live in Nashville too.

So most schools won’t have four year housing but it doesn’t mean they won’t be walkable.

A Kalamazoo can work with your criteria but likely fall short even after strong merit. A College of Charleston couldn’t from the expense POV. My daughter has an endowed scholarship worth $2500 more than tuition. But then you still have a $15k hole for living. You would need to be a part of the Charleston Fellows program to get the endowed scholarship for tuition - so that part is far from safe.

A Franklin & Marshall is one of the less competitive that meet need as is a Lafayette. Still not easy ins and they’re known to turn down families requiring too much as the strain the budgets.

You might look at some QB partners, even if she’s not matched.

A Denison (small town), Emory (Oxford), Macalester (12.5 hrs), Oberlin.

I’d throw in Vandy for good measure. They like local kids as my kid’s classmates have experienced.

UVA and UNC are the only two publics that ensure need is met.

UTK and now UTC are very popular. You say progressive and non Greek but when you have a budget, there are usually trade offs.

And my U Alabama kid, who is apolitical, didn’t see anything frightening - but OOS it’s still likely at least $18-20k-ish with max merit short of a NMF. Yea it misses some of the criteria but for some it’s cheaper than UTK. Was for my kid.

There are schools but a lot will ride on the ACT and if QB doesn’t happen and you need full support, you’ll have to make trade offs.

Then there’s schools like W&L - which meets little of your criteria - but gives its Johnson full ride to 10% of its class. Or SMU which has the Presidential full ride and there’s a # of spots.

You may have to decide if these type schools are worth pursuing - or if in state free tuition or community college is a better choice etc.

I would suggest looking at W&L. Rolls down a short hill to a neat town. And is seeking students like this !!!

Others have free rides too but not as prevalent.

Good luck with the ACT. Rooting for you.

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Macalester meets all of your criteria, but it might be in the high target/low reach range. For context, my kid with a 4.0 uw with highest rigor, excellent ECs/leadership, and no test scores was admitted with top merit EA. They are also need-aware/meet-full-need, so that will factor in. I’d recommend checking out the Macalester threads on here to get a sense of how admissions have played out so far this year.

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UNCA would be even more of a safety. It’s not at all hard to get in even from OOS. Asheville is a cool city though. And UNCA is a liberal arts college. It definitely is.

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How generous would they be financially ?

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Very much not generous unless she won a top scholarship.

UNCA is a non-selective small liberal arts public university in a cool town. It is definitely not a target for this student. It would be a target for a weighted 3.5 GPA student. The 75th percentile ACT is 28; 50th is 24. The 78th percentile SAT is 1340; 50th is 1230.

I don’t think it’s a great suggestion for a target school for this student.

We toured with my D22 and I’m happy to answer any questions. My D22 was easily admitted with her weighted 3.7 and 28 ACT. Ultimately chose a different school. There are some OOS students there. UNCA is middle bottom of the pack of UNC schools.

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I don’t think anyone has mentioned Rice yet. Rice is located in a very cool part of Houston, is need blind and meets full need. It’s not a small school, but also not huge and she might find the residential colleges system interesting.

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yes agreed - just putting some ideas out there…

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Sometimes tho - you have to be the star student at a lesser school - to get $$

That’s my daughter. She got into W&L but $0. UF, UGA, UMD, etc - but there she’s be one of a million whereas at Charleston she stands out a bit more and earned a few endowed scholarships. That’s why an admissions safety - Charieston - isn’t a safety because earning endowed scholarships are typically a reach.

This student likely needs the same but I didn’t know if UNCA has full rides or close to it.

We don’t know the ACT so we don’t know of it will be a 25 or 30 or 35, etc. Nashville publics, short of a magnet downtown, don’t perform well. Hopefully this student does. The student is tracking for 32 which would be helpful if achieved.

Of course, people think progressive and the city of Asheville comes to mind. :). And it is a very lgbtq populated area. The school itself, at least racially, not overly diverse but that can be said for many. I wasn’t sure if the school trajectory is similar to the city.

But I figured cost wise it’d be a problem regardless.

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Rice would be a reach for this student—indeed, it’s a reach for pretty much all students—wouldn’t it?

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Davidson College outside of Charlotte, NC. The town of Davidson is so charming, too.

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This is a great suggestion, although overall acceptance rate of 15% is a little low. Probably a good bet ED, though.

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I think Agnes Scott should get a hard look.

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