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I'm looking at pretty competitive schools (brown, swarthmore, haverford) where admission is certainly no guarantee, so I'm looking for some safeties that are similar but easier to get into. I live in the same town as Colgate, and I gotta say, really dislike its student body. I've heard most of the other small liberal arts schools in the upper east coast have similar students, so I'm looking for people that aren't quite so rich and loving it. Thanks!

By Mini (Mini) on Tuesday, June 29, 2004 - 09:57 pm: Edit

Earlham!

You can actually prepare a "preppy" index (for private colleges) that it likely to help you. Take (from the college websites) the percentage of students from private schools, add to it the percentage of students who do NOT receive any financial (grants or loans) from the college, and you have the "preppy index". And, yes, indeed, many schools in the northeast have high preppy indexes -- Colby, Williams, Middlebury, Trinity, Colgate, Hamilton, Yale -- just to name a few.

But there are some very fine colleges with much lower indexes as well -- Earlham and Macalester and Occidental immediately come to mind. If you also want schools with real economic diversity, you can check to see the percentage of students who receive Pell Grants (which are available only to families with incomes in the bottom 35% or so of the population.) Among fine private colleges, Occidental would top the list. (and some, like Colby, are very low.)

By Reidmc (Reidmc) on Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - 01:46 am: Edit

Mini has some very good suggestions.

You might also consider U of Chicago - bigger than an LAC but not very big for a university - 4500 undergrads and 9000 grad students.

By Bookiemom (Bookiemom) on Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - 02:00 am: Edit

You might look at Whitman in Washington State. It has a good reputation here and the student body would be about the opposite of the preppy LACs.

By Irishbird (Irishbird) on Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - 10:29 am: Edit

Consider Alleghany in PA;
however if you want less "preppy & rich" (and in the vein of what was posted above), you might want to focus on schools in urban areas where economic status is more diverse.

By Blaineko (Blaineko) on Thursday, July 01, 2004 - 06:06 am: Edit

Also look at Grinnell, Oberlin, Reed, Bard, Skidmore and Sarah Lawrence.

By Carolyn (Carolyn) on Thursday, July 01, 2004 - 07:16 pm: Edit

Carleton is about as unpreppy as they come.

By Ah213 (Ah213) on Thursday, July 01, 2004 - 08:55 pm: Edit

Is Skidmore really preppy? I had heard that it was but being grouped with the other 5 on Blainjo's list made me wonder. Thoughts?

By A2a2 (A2a2) on Friday, July 02, 2004 - 01:56 am: Edit

You might like Carlton, Grinnell, Macalester or Oberlin. Maybe Wesleyan. University of Rochester, one of the women's colleges.

By Travelr (Travelr) on Sunday, August 22, 2004 - 12:41 am: Edit

For a small NE school, Skidmore is quite diverse: you have your prep's, but you also have sophisticates and crunchies alike. I transfered there from Hamilton-what a breath of fresh air!!