[codingdave]

I did option #1 - the liberal arts college. It does give you what you ask for, but it is not handed to you on a platter. Because no matter how diverse and interesting the environment, you get out of it what you put into it. The gap year is not a bad idea, but it will change you, not the college experience. Still, that may be what you need - right now, it sounds like you are expecting the environment to actively hand you value. College doesn't do that - college is a place where you can pull value from it when you actively seek to. It is an active process - you need to go in with focus and seek out the value it can offer.

That is the biggest change between high school and college - high school builds an environment where everyone is pushed together towards the same end goal. But college makes you become the active ingredient on your own, choosing your own path, finding your own activities, conversations, and friends, and grasping your own value from the experience.

If you are ready to do that, try another semester with that perspective and see how it goes. If you are not ready to do that, take a gap year and re-evaluate later.