Agree with looking into Fordham LC (Lincoln Center campus) if NYC is of interest. Very artsy, thriving LGBT community. Plus a strong liberal arts curriculum. My LGBT S22 is thriving there.
Also agree that there are some great choices in MN if willing to expand geography. Minneapolis/St. Paul have tons of music, theater, art and are very LGBT friendly. Macalester, in particular, can be a real gem. Just minutes from the MSP airport which is a travel hub so lots of direct flights. And if you wonder if Mac would be a good incubator for LGBT punk rockers, you need only look at Husker Du. Also located close to the state Capitol if getting involved in politics is of interest. Even if not, plenty of activism/social justice.
Yes, this is an inside joke in my circles, but Macalester is VERY high on what we sometimes call the Purple Hair Index. It is meant in the spirit of good fun, the idea being it is a positive indicator for some kids to be walking around a campus and seeing a ton of people with creative hair, clothes, and so on.
And then the Twin Cities in general are just a very friendly, cosmopolitan, artsy, global sort of place. Seems like a really solid combination for people looking for both smaller and larger communities along those lines.
Your son’s interests align very well with Oberlin. My oldest went there, so I’m happy to answer any questions. I know technically it’s Midwest, but it’s only a few hours from the NY border, so not too far Midwest. LOTS of East/West coast kids from NYC, Bay Area, LA, Boston, etc. Only 30 minutes from Cleveland, which is a very cool city with a great arts and music scene- Oberlin operates regular shuttles. I would suggest your son at least check it out. It’s a great school and a beautiful campus with an incredibly artistic, musical, worldly and accepting student body.
Clark and Holy Cross-- not preppy. There are bunch of the Catholic colleges in the northeast that do have a preppy vibe- Fairfield, Villanova, for example. But Holy Cross is more intellectual/arty.
Ithaca isn’t a true LAC, but might fit the bill (and I would guess a good likely school if looking at those other schools). American is also very liberal and has a social justice streak..
This is also a good one even though not a tiny school. I really liked it when we toured, felt more like a LAC than a big state school for sure.
Tufts could also be one to look at, also a bit bigger but they have a big citizenship/political engagement focus (and do some cool work with prisons
) and very strong international relations. Has a preppy side, but certainly they aren’t all by any means.
It has a big communications school and pre professional stuff which makes if feel very different than a classic NE LAC in my mind, but agree it’s not a hard distinction!
I feel the same way about Bucknell, but it’s classified as an LAC despite having substantial engineering and business schools. Ithaca has a similar total enrollment as Bucknell and with a 10:1 student:faculty ratio, offers the same kind of small class size that we expect of an LAC.
When I look at Ithaca’s common data set, only 10% of their graduates were awarded business degrees last year and another 4% Education degrees - most of which were Music majors with some teaching courses and student teaching added on. Engineering (0.4%) and CIS (1.4%) are almost non-existent.
Is Communications, most of which is one form or another of Journalism, really in conflict with what an LAC does? It’s applied Writing and other related skills. And the other pre-professional stuff is largely pre-health which is hardly different than the pre-med stuff that every LAC does. It’s not like they have a School of Nursing or the like.
I thought that you made a valid suggestion for someone who is looking for an LAC because at its core that’s what it looks like to me. Their Pathways program looks like classic LAC to me.
I was thinking Kenyon, too (my daughter graduated from it last year, and the OP’s description sounded indeed a lot like Kenyon students). I realize it’s not the Northeast, but they have a lot of students from the NE and Mid-Atlantic.
