I liked Bard, but I’m concerned about the apparent massive smoking on campus. LOVED Vassar. Curious as to more colleges fitting the components above~ I’ve also already looked into Oberlin and Wesleyan 
At Haverford, Bryn Mawr (if female), Macalaster, Grinnell, Carleton, Swarthmore you will find most or all of these elements.
Clark, Wesleyan, Oberlin
Hampshire, Reed, Evergreen, Deep Springs (?!)…
If u are already super liberal, then why go to a super liberal college? Isn’t one of the objectives of college to broaden your intellectual horizons? Or do u just like being surrounded by yes-men.
How does going to a preppy college broaden anyone’s horizons?
If your goal is social justice what do you hope to gain by going to a “liberal” school? How do you think that such an environment will promote social justice. Why not go to an historically black college or take some time to work in the inner city if you want to understand social injustice? Schools like Oberlin maybe filled with like minded individuals but you will really learn little of the plight of the people you claim to care about at Oberlin or any of the universities that have been sited. They are mostly filled with upper middle to upper class kids with relatively little diversity in either race or socio economic status. I would desire to understand the problems of discriminated people’s and use my educational opportunities to help prepare me to educate and serve those who you care about. Good luck in your decision.
Smith, Swarthmore, Pitzer. Get scoot of the Fiske Guide to Colleges and read up on all these schools. Your GC or library probably has one.
“How does going to a preppy college broaden anyone’s horizons?”
Promoting Social Justice at liberal schools is like preaching to the choir. In my mind attending a university where everyone thinks as you do would become nearly cultish. If you want to protest institutional racism, bigotry, or just plain racism then go where you perceive it resides and prepare to discuss it and change minds or go where you can truly get a sense of just what the challenges are.
or attend an institution to understand others’ views and not pre-suppose that because a person is “preppy”, that they hold views that are fundamentally diametrical to yours. Is that how you’d want to be treated?
If you are looking for some safeties check out Beloit and Earlham.
@BlueNerdBird If you are really interested in all this then try one of the Catholic schools.
Going to an elite school where these topics are talked about over latte while typing on a MacBook but the actual job is left to others is pointless.
How about spending a semester on a native American reservation instead of London or Rome?
Not true. Clark, Oberlin, Wesleyan, and Vassar are all located within convenient distance of poor people.
Rather than trying to come up with a list of racist colleges, I would suggest some colleges that are actually situated near poor neighborhoods: Columbia, Trinity, Emory, Tulane, Penn/Wharton, Bates come immediately to mind.
Good suggestion on the social justice element, but are there any “artsy” Catholic colleges?
I think all of the best-known pacific northwest LACs are pretty liberal/crunchy: Whitman, U. Puget Sound, Willamette and Lewis & Clark. On the east coast, I’d add Skidmore to your list.
Also, regarding the “why would you want to go to a school where everyone is like you?” argument, I think both sides have merit. Personally, I sympathize with the desire to have a certain critical mass of like-minded individuals around you. The notion of students “challenging” themselves by going to some place where their personal world view is something of an outlier seems pretty idealistic to me. Unless you’re the kind of person that gets a charge out of finding yourself frequently out of step with your classmates and engaging them in lively debate, it sounds like a recipe for potential loneliness and alienation. Of course, most colleges have a wide range of views represented, and most students will be able find their niche, so I don’t want to overstate my case.
Bottom line: picking a college is a big and semi-terrifying commitment for kids to make. They want to feel confident they’re going to feel comfortable, make a lot of friends, and find peers who are into the same sorts of things that they are. The odds of that go up if they think the prevailing student “vibe” is a good match to their own. That seems perfectly rational to me.
@circuitrider since when was morningside heights “near a poor neighborhood”? I think the OP was thinking along the lines of small liberal arts colleges
Bates has religious roots, and roots early on admitting minority students. Good suggestion.
@circuitrider St. Michael’s comes to mind due to its proximity to Burlington, VT. It would be artsy in a relative sense.
Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
Oh please. Not another debate over whether Morningside Heights is near Harlem or not. The answer is “Yes, it is.”
@circuitrider But let’s pull it back to the point. It’s not a matter of the physical distance, it’s whether the students are immersed in the situation. If you go to Columbia with their marble libraries and manicured quad you are pretty detached from the situation. Doesn’t make it any different from any other school more than 10 minutes from a “poor neighborhood”. Morningside Heights is like living in a sanctuary of coddled wealth away from the city - away from Harlem. I live in an area that is quite similar and I can tell you that those in the “rich, privileged area” couldn’t care less about coming here. Columbia is an Ivy, mind you. I would go as far as to imagine Upenn, Hopkins, WUSTL - but Columbia? please. They take that 1 Train and back.
Thank you for making my point: the list of perfectly ordinary colleges and universities that are 10 minutes from a poor neighborhood is practically inexhaustible.