<p>TCU not only finished 2nd in end-of-season football pools but is 1st in the preseason baseball polls. Good place for a preppy sports fanatic. And Fort Worth is a great town – smaller, less pretentious than Dallas.</p>
<p>ETA: Tulsa has about 3K undergrad but another 1,100 or so grad students. It’s a little under the 5K minimum, but not too far.</p>
<p>Lafayette is not even close to being the smallest DI school.</p>
<p>Northwestern would be a high match/low reach for an A- student. It’s Big Ten football and of course a solid music program.</p>
<p>William & Mary?</p>
<p>The University of Miami meets many of your requirements. There’s also the University of Rochester with DIII football. Both have excellent music schools.</p>
<p>Check out Ithaca college. Football and music.</p>
<p>Coastal Carolina is a small, public liberal arts university just outside of Myrtle Beach, SC. My D is a musical theatre major so takes voice with the wonderful voice faculty there. For an A- student it might not be academically rigorous enough but D is in the Honors program so that would be an option for your S as well I am sure. Nice merit aid for OOS. Less preppy than Elon (we visited there as well.) The Chanticleers play in the Big South conference and have a nationally ranked baseball team to go along with football, basketball, soccer, tennis, etc.
[Department</a> of Music](<a href=“http://www.coastal.edu/music/]Department”>Music - Coastal Carolina University)
[Coastal</a> Carolina Official Athletic Site](<a href=“http://www.goccusports.com/index-main.html]Coastal”>Coastal Carolina University Athletics - Official Athletics Website)
[Honors</a> Program](<a href=“http://www.coastal.edu/honors/]Honors”>Honors Program - Coastal Carolina University)</p>
<p>Obviously not right for everyone but my D loves it there.</p>
<p>TCU just won the Rose Bowl…it is a great school in Fort Worth which is about 30 minutes from Dallas. It is named Texas Christian University, however, it is no longer has a religious affiliation. There are about 8000 undergrads (I think), but it is very preppy and has a strong greek presence.</p>
<p>TCU is still affiliated with the Church of Christ/Christian Church, formerly known as the Disciples of Christ. The church is an offshoot of the Presbyterian Church and is pretty mainstream. Don’t confuse the DOC with contemporary evangelical Christian denominations. The DOC-affiliated colleges and universities I am familiar with welcome students of all faiths, as well as agnostics and athiests, and one can be either involved or not involved in religious life as they see fit. For more:</p>
<p>[Texas</a> Christian University](<a href=“http://www.tcu.edu/96.asp]Texas”>http://www.tcu.edu/96.asp)</p>
<p>Holy Cross, Lehigh, Fordham, Tufts, Army, Navy, the Citadel. Does Bucknell have football?</p>
<p>Bucknell plays football in the Patriot League along with Holy Cross, Lehigh, Fordham, Lafayette, Georgetown and Colgate. (Army, Navy and American are also Patriot League members in all sports except for football).</p>
<p>I was gonna suggest Wake Forest, but it’s probably too preppy.</p>
<ul>
<li>Fordham and Georgetown are “associate members” of the Patriot League’s football conference. They play their other sports in the Atlantic 10 and Big East respectively.</li>
</ul>
<p>Already mentioned, but U.Tulsa was the first one that came to mind.</p>
<p>Rice has good all-around excellent academics - including the humanities and liberal arts. A smidge small (but fo’ sho’over 5000 if you include grad students). Not a bit preppy. Very rah-rah sports - but not so much as spectators, but as participants in club, inter-res-college, etc. sports. Great D-1 baseball, not so great football…</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins has a decent D-III football team, a great D-I lacrosse team, and a high-quality music conservatory. And great academics, of course. And not terribly preppy (although hardly prep-free, either).</p>
<p>Tulane, Syracuse (a bit big), W&M, Boston College, CMU, Northwestern, Rice, WashU, Vanderbilt, Tufts…</p>
<p>Someone mentioned Villanova. It had occurred to me, but I know they don’t have a music major, since a kid I know transferred out for that reason. How strong their music program in general is, I don’t know.</p>
<p>Thanks again everyone–passed on some great ideas to my son!</p>
<p>Actually, Vanderbilt does have an excellent school of Music. It might be too preppy, however.</p>