Thrift stores are very popular in college towns across the U.S.
The vast majority of the students at Vanderbilt and Rice will not meet this stereotype. Besides the fact that tons or young people in those states love all sorts of music and aren’t wearing cowboy boots, the majority of the students at Rice and Vandy are not coming from TX or Tennessee. So if a school isn’t the right fit, it’s totally okay to eliminate it. But make sure you do research to see what the school is actually like rather than creating generalizations based on stereotypes.
If you make the effort to reach out to your professors (i.e. attend office hours, ask questions, etc), then you will be able to interact and get to know your professors no matter how big your classes are. But, do you prefer small classes or are you just mentioning small classes because that’s how you think you’ll be able to interact with professors?
I’ll think about some possibilities and post more later.