UofC does have Greek life.
Denison. Small town, but proximity to Columbus and a great program for students to rent cars. (Skip Wooster - too focused on sports) Kenyon would be good, except it’s in the middle of nowhere. Oberlin offers the arts and could be a good choice. All are in OH. You could also venture into KY and check out Centre College.
Haverford, Swarthmore and Bryn Mawr Consortium might work if she’s willing to travel between the three schools.
Another vote for Conn College and Smith. Conn College has strong visual arts; Smith for music and for visual arts. Smith has a high level of academic rigor plus the possibility of merit money. (See their STRIDE program.)
I also like Hamilton for visual arts, and Kenyon for both visual and performing arts, though they’re both become more selective in recent years. Also Trinity in Connecticut for excellent academics, but I don’t know much about their arts programs.
Is Williams on her reach list? Obviously not urban, but very strong visual arts, music and theater programs with ample opportunities for non-majors. Excellent need-based aid.
Does she have Wellesley on her list? They have excellent need-based aid (no merit though).
Bates, Kenyon, Oberlin, Dickinson. Lots of great suggestions in the first 5 pages of the “where do the cool kids go to college” thread, if you do a search.
Our niece who graduated from Columbia recommended Barnard to our daughter. She said better dorms and advisory and more course flexibility at Barnard. Also, my daughter performed in a play with a Columbia guy who said he took most classes at Barnard and would have preferred it over Columbia if that had been possible.
Like many of the the other schools suggested, Barnard (for top students) transitions from a target ED to a reach RD. They fill almost half the class in the ED round from a mere 10% of the applicant pool leaving one to compete for the remaining RD spots with 90% of the applicant pool which would now include some of the 90+% of the women who were rejected from tier one schools like HYP etc…
Also Sarah Lawrence, Bennington
Thank you all very much! I think some suggestions were actually rolling in while I typed my last post. 
@Lindagaf, I have read your thread and found it very helpful indeed.
ED is a real issue. D will probably do SCEA at the super reach where her dad went to college, which would eliminate the possibility of using the ED advantage elsewhere (Swarthmore, Barnard, etc.). Also, we are concerned about the financial consequences of committing to a school ED. And we can’t use our state flagship as a safety because it is too expensive. 
Barnard immediately sprang to my mind as a great fit, but although it doesn’t sound as if it would be a reach–depending on what you mean by “high stats”–it isn’t a safety either. Wellesley also. Smith would probably be her best bet as a solid or low match with the kind of arts scene and intellectual atmosphere she wants, and the consortium would help.
I can think of a number of coed LACs that she would probably love that also have good FA–Williams, Bowdoin, Swarthmore–but none of them are safeties.
Here’s a thought: has she considered McGill?
She ought to look at Grinnell – no matter that it’s in Iowa. A very fine LAC with (reputed) good financial resources and aid. And Reed (my alma mater) may be far away but my roomie was from Philly and guess what, is now back in Philly. Portland has one of the best airports in America. Reed students are often quirky but to me – who came as a typical middle-class kid from suburban Los Angeles – this made Reed all the more interesting. The demands of the Reed curriculum are well known (including junior qualifying exams and required senior thesis of all students).
My son attended UChicago. It’s hard to get into but is world-class. It has one of the leading economics departments (my son majored in econ), but really it’s the whole curriculum and intellectual environment that makes UChicago what it is. My son was interested in it in part bec of what the CITY had to offer, including major league sports.
I certainly agree that this student would likely love the U of C, but right now they are looking for safeties and matches.
I’d toss out Kalamazoo as a possibility. I always thought of Carleton as more “sporty” than St. Olaf so if it’s safeties you are looking for I’d review St. Olaf and Kalamazoo. Beloit would be another good one. Grinnell, too. Obviously Chicago would be a good choice, but I don’t know that it’s a safety.
For your D, Barnard should be considered as you’ll get the best of both worlds…small Women’s college, LAC, and access to most of Columbia U’s classes/resources.
In practice, Barnard and students from other Columbia undergrad divisions(SEAS, College and GS) have access to most undergrad classes offered at each others’ respective institutions. As a grad student, the Barnard library was great not only to borrow books needed for my classes/research, but also as a good study space alongside other Columbia U libraries*.
And for her majors/minors, there’s not likely to be any issues.
- Most undergrads, including Barnard undergrads seem to prefer Butler which I found to be too crowded and noisy to study while there.
These are the sorts of pages D looked at when looking for artsy-sciency schools. Here is comparing St Olaf and Carleton. These have been mentioned and are quite different schools, so make a good comparison:
http://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/st-olaf-college/academic-life/academic-majors/visual-and-performing-arts/#
http://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/carleton-college/academic-life/academic-majors/visual-and-performing-arts/#
http://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/st-olaf-college/academic-life/academic-majors/foreign-languages-linguistics/
http://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/carleton-college/academic-life/academic-majors/foreign-languages-linguistics/
D looked at these sorts of pages for all the schools on her ‘maybe’ list in order to find a group of schools that were particularly strong in her interests. Particularly for small schools, they can’t be strong in everything.
My D is at St Olaf, btw. A few things she commented on:
- She knew it was known for vocal music. But she is did not expect it to be like living in a musical. She LOVES this aspect. Her dorm mates are constantly breaking out in song.
- She was in 3 student theater productions in semester 1. Multiple student theater companies is common at other LACs too, of course.
- If you look at the school events calendars, you can get a sense of the ‘artsy’-ness of schools—at least that is one thing my D and I looked at when looking for LACs with strong arts opportunities.
- St Olaf has an unusual number of double majors (arts + something else, like science, econ, math, CS). That’s is one of its trademarks. If you look at the ‘outcomes’ page the school lists students’ majors and what they are doing after leaving school. This may be a common page for schools, so you might look for that for schools on your ‘check-out’ list.
Ditto Case Western…though it’s mid-sized, not small. Known as a STEM school, but excellent in other areas and I think it’s trying to attract more liberal arts/arts students. A friend’s daughter goes there and loves it…the girl’s freshman roommate was a theatre major and my friend thinks that gave her an edge in admissions. Definitely an intellectual environment. Friend’s daughter is a deep, quiet, confident, intense physics/ballet girl and says of Case “I’ve finally found my people.” No bucolic, green campus, but that part of Cleveland is close to museums and other cultural offerings.
One additional suggestion as a near-safety, where she’d probably receive a decent merit package is Eugene Lang College at The New School in NYC. It’s weak in Sciences, and has no sports whatsoever, but is in a great Manhattan location. Imagine Bennington or Hampshire dropped onto lower Fifth Avenue. I second Goucher as another near-safety. My son is at New College of Florida, and I can recommend it if you’re willing to venture south.
Bard is missing the urban setting, but it’s got everything else she is looking for. Vassar is more urban, more hipster, less granola, and perhaps less political, but also harder to get into. I agree that Sarah Lawrence might be worth a look. It’s got real limitations in STEM, but it is an easy-peasy commute to NYC and located in a fairly dense residential area with plenty of nearby shopping, movie theaters and restaurants about a mile away.
Skidmore sounds like a good fit, Saratoga is a fun college town. Neither Smith or ConnCollege are in good sized towns and many others listed here don’t fit that criteria either. Trinity in CT is of course in a small city but the parameter of the campus is not safe/friendly IMHO. Same with ClarkU in Worcester. Is University of Vermont on your radar as a safety? Not sure about their arts/music departments, but another great college town!
One may want to check to see how much the merit aid covers and if it’s a full-ride, how long it lasts.
The New School seems to be having some funding issues for many areas ranging from facilities(bathrooms in disrepair for long periods) to student scholarships/FA from what I’ve observed on campus in the last few years(4-5 and from dozens of friends who attend the New School for undergrad and/or grad school.
Not too surprisingly, the school seems to be populated mostly by those from very well-off background or students heavily stressed about debt or whether their scholarships/FA will get cut back or taken away altogether. .
If one has any interest in STEM, Econ or foreign languages, I would seriously recommend other options for financial and academic considerations.
Their academic strengths mainly lie in overwhelmingly in the Social Sciences and the Arts.
So many interesting leads…I have been running around so haven’t had a chance to dig into these more, but D and I will definitely be doing a lot of research in the next few days. I should mention this artsy kid is surprisingly mathy (in BC calc right now) and has been known to watch science videos for fun, so I think it is important for her to go to what she calls a well-rounded college. I doubt she will end up in a STEM area, but she may want to explore those areas a bit to enrich her experience. Anyway, all these comments are extremely helpful!!