Honestly, there are nerds everywhere.

I mean Northwestern literally sells shirts that say "Nerdwestern".

My nerdy smart kid is at Drexel in Philly, non-STEM, and has found his tribe.

DC looked at and liked:

Carleton
Grinnell
Haverford
St. Olaf
William & Mary
Wesleyan
Kenyon
Oberlin

May add: Vassar, Davidson

Adding safeties too

Carleton would be a reach but sounds like a great fit. Also suggest looking at women’s colleges. Smith and Mount Holyoke can be visited in he same day, both might be options (although different vibes).

Our HS senior son is not traditionally nerdy - aka he's not a super-brainy kid - but he's also not into partying or sports. So he's looking mainly at schools that don't have big Greek scenes. A lot of them mentioned here, but I'll add Bard, Skidmore, Grinnell, Lewis & Clark, Macalester.

Johns Hopkins

Oberlin, University of Rochester, St. Mary's College, Wooster, Allegheny (could get merit aid at the last two). My friends with nerdy, shy kids have loved schools in the midwest - perhaps less pretentious than the east coast and found students to be friendly.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know of MIT, Caltech, Swarthmore, etc. The issue is 1. my daughter is not STEM-y and 2. she does not have the scores/grades to get into those schools (which are kind of a long shot for everyone). But she loves to learn, super shy, kind hearted, a bit of a dork. She wants to major in psychology and sociology. 4.2 WGPA, 3.82 UWGPA, 30 ACT. Suggestions? Prefers small, no real preference on geographic location.

I thought Brandeis seems promising. The tour gave a lot of specifics about favorite courses and great professors, which is not something I've run much elsewhere.

Love our tour guide at Brandeis and their passion for education, but several of the buildings looked in disrepair. We loved Muhlenberg -- genuinely friendly, kind students, passionate about education, and nerdy seemed cool there. DD is applying to some of the top nerd schools, but cut Brandeis and kept Muhlenberg.

Hm, Brandeis poster here. Agree about its shabby look. I grew up right by the Muhlenberg campus and know tons of kids who went there and lots of professors. I think you could get a great education there, and maybe we should add it to our list. But nothing about it suggests nerdy to me. I knew a lot of sporty, heavy drinking, all-around-type kids there. It does have a great theater scene and maybe a quiet kid could find her own path. I do think it’s a nice school, I’m just surprised at that impression.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Davidson

+1 My DC loves it. Same GPA, but my DC's ACT was higher. I believe they are test optional for another year or two.

+2 Another Davidson parent here and I agree.

Georgetown was pretty nerdy when I went there in the late 90s.

Anonymous wrote:Davidson

+1 My DC loves it. Same GPA, but my DC's ACT was higher. I believe they are test optional for another year or two.

My nerdy girl loved Pitt and found her nerd herd there.

Anonymous wrote:University of Rochester

Other ideas: Case Western; many state universities honors colleges. Some of the honors colleges probably do a pretty good job of creating a small college feel.

Any college in the top ~20 will have a large contingent of "nerdy" students.