Anonymous wrote:DD has a list of college preferences that are hard to match up in my opinion. She wants:
A diverse community(she's African American, but our family we white and Hispanic relatives)
In or near an urban area. she doesn't want to deal with a car in college(her words)
Not full of a lot of "preppy kids"(her words). She likes the theatre and artsy types. Also would prefer a decent amount of smart girls who don't party so she can make friends.
She doesn't like large schools. DH is a UMD alum, so we've been to the campus often and she says she feels intimidated.
She is interested in Howard, Spelman, Emerson, Arcadia, UMBC, Marymount Manhattan, Point Park, Seton Hall, and Manhattan College
VCU, Temple, etc would be on the list if the student body was smaller.
What about Towson? It's not preppy at all and I know several grads who have done very well in art-adjacent jobs with Towson degrees (working in video production and museum studies). And it's definitely walkable enough, with a lot of effort in the last few years to make the community less car dependent. Student body looks diverse and the area is very diverse as well.
It's big though (I think around 20k undergrad). But since it's close, it might be worth checking out. I personally find the UMD campus really overwhelming, especially for college freshman. I've only been to Towson a handful of times, but I didn't get that same feeling there.