UMaine is small for a state university. With her stats they’d match your instate uni tuition.
Maybe Hobart and William Smith? They have football and hockey is also popular.
I don’t know how many go to games, but Susquehanna in PA also has football and they had a great year this year.
penn state! it’s close to the NY area and they have good academics and a very very spirited sports culture.
Since when is 40K+ undergraduates “small”?!
Even though I thought my son would thrive at a smaller school and did a big search for smaller schools with engineering programs, my son did not want to go to a small school or live in a small town. And, he is thriving at an urban mid-sized university. Sometimes our kids do know what what is best for themselves. (I do understand your concern about attending a large school. If she does attend a big university, you could make sure she has a handle on how to access resources if she needs help - attend office hours, find study groups, make appointments with TA or professor, etc.)
I’d thought I pushed the small boundary with Elon . . .
It’s a little far, but Northern Kentucky University or the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater came to mind right away, and might be good fits. Closer to home, Salisbury University in MD, James Madison University in Virginia, Appalachian State in NC, Winthrop University in SC, and Berry College in GA might suit. Maybe some of the smaller SUNY schools like Alfred or Cortland. Hard to know how big is too big, or how small is too small. Good luck! Despite what some are saying, it’s as good a starting place as any.
Look at the Colleges that Change Lives schools. Many are small, but have sports teams and lots of spirit. https://ctcl.org
Another angle on this would be to look at Drexel. It’s not small (17K undergrads) but not as huge as the big public U’s. It’s not a big-time sports school, but it’s in a big-time professional sports city, and it has a co-op model Sports Management and Sports Business majors that are well-connected with professional teams for co-op experiences. Both of these programs reside within the business school, which has only 2,800 undergrads in its own right. Median GPA is 3.66, but they admit 80% of applicants overall, 90% of ED applicants, and 95% of EA applicants (I don’t get why the EA rate would be higher than ED but that’s what the Common Data Set says!!), so it should be a realistic admit if the concept were appealing.
Siena (near Albany, NY) has D1 basketball and they have made the Elite 8 in the past. Just over 3,000 undergrads.
I’ve heard Dayton has a lot of school spirit and is in the realm for a B student.
I’ll second Siena (basketball is huge) Small campus, happy students
SUNY Cortland (very sporty… B student)
U Delaware (larger but spirited)
Siena’s a fine school but their best NCAA finish is the 2nd round
@scoop85 Oops - you’re right about that. But lots of school spirit at basketball games regardless.
Wofford college I was think it’s in South Carolina. They are just coming off a big basket ball year I believe.
Merrimack College has about 3500 students and is transitioning to D1 sports. They recently upset Northwestern in basketball.
U Vermont is relatively small
Perhaps a bit of a reach, but look at Bucknell.
SUNY EFS (Environmental Science and Forestry) is small and located on the Syracuse campus, even shares facilities. It maybe reachy and have limited majors, but the SUNY tuition is wonderful.