Personally I believe, to a certain extent, the “Top 10” ratings. I take them with a grain of salt and in combination with other sources like unigo, niche, etc., mentioned above.
I was not aware of Earlham having a stoner reputation and that is not our family’s experience. Perhaps in the past? Earlham has 20% international students, who in general are very focused on their education. I have to admit that Earlham is not in a very exciting location, for better or worse, and I think it lacks in student social programming. It probably offers plenty of theater and music options. Very progressive. Very diverse. Lots of internship and research opportunities. Almost everyone spends some time overseas.
I would look for a smoke free campus. Yes, there are still edibles, yes students can still go off campus or into the woods to smoke, but it just makes it harder to do. Most users of pot smoke it and that’s harder to do if the entire campus is smoke free.
Someone will probably bring up Grinnell (all campuses in Iowa have to be smoke free) to disprove my point, but it may be the exception that proves the rule. Earlham just went smoke free a year ago.
If it were my son, I’d look for smoke free campuses in states that have not legalized marijuana. I would encourage him to at least consider substance free or other specialized housing (wellness type, maybe not crunchy granola type). My D did quickly learn that the wild parties (which she avoids) all occur at one of the residential language houses, so proceed with due diligence.
Yes pot is everywhere, but I agree with your premise and think it’s feasible and worthwhile to at least stack the deck in a certain direction, no guarantees of course.