Which college campus is the best?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sewanee

100%. Kenyon not so far behind. Top 2 easily.

Of those I've seen, I also loved Kenyon's campus. We visited during the fall, and it was the most beautiful place. Kid didn't go there, but we loved it.

[Anonymous]

Colgate. So pretty.

[Anonymous]

NYU

[Anonymous]

UCLA. So many movies were filmed there and you can't beat the location when you are bordered by Belair, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There’s Duke and everyone else.

Nice. But I think Cambridge, Oxford, Princeton, Yale, and others are nicer.

The poor lil dookies…they wanted to go to Princeton but didn’t get in so off to derm and faux Princeton for them. But they can take solace in the fact it is the University of NJ/derm. So close but so faux gothic far.

Ok, Carolina grad (I think I know who you are, actually). This seems unnecessarily aggressive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sewanee

100%. Kenyon not so far behind. Top 2 easily.

Of those I've seen, I also loved Kenyon's campus. We visited during the fall, and it was the most beautiful place. Kid didn't go there, but we loved it.

Mine is going there next year. The campus is stunningly beautiful.

[Anonymous]

CU Boulder. Campus, town and surrounding area are great.

[Anonymous]

Outside of the ocean view dorms, what does Fairfield look like?

[Anonymous]

Rapid-fire:

Duke: wished there were more Gothic parts.

UVA: everything except for the main lawn area was an eyesore.

Georgetown: cramped but charming.

Columbia: cramped but some pretty architecture. Liked low steps.

UChicago: love the Gothic architecture & ivy.

Northwestern: brutalist sprawl. Nice views of the lake and downtown in the distance.

Stanford: Mediterranean resort paradise.

Berkeley: cozy, academic, textbook Bay Area aesthetic.

Michigan: fanciest state flagship campus + love how cozy AA is.

Yale: classic Ivy League gothic dark academia.

Harvard: looming buildings and a dark, powerful feeling.

Penn: ugly in an Ivy League way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rapid-fire:
...
UVA: everything except for the main lawn area was an eyesore.
...

I am a double-'Hoo, but I totally agree. Architects are to blame. They just cannot resist the temptation to have a "signature building" on grounds. I have watched it for decades. Each of those signature buildings clashes with the others.

What is missing at UVa, and by now is nearly impossible to fix, is having a single cohesive architectural style for grounds (or at least for the expanded central grounds including thr McCormick Road area).

For what it's worth, UVA is not alone with this inconsistency problem. Georgetown U's early buildings are wonderful, but their later modernist / brutalist buildings are just awful.

Princeton's campus is not perfect, but overall it is much more cohesive than the two above examples. Yale also is not perfect, but has done much better than UVA/GU overall.

MIT is worse - and the signature Geary building started leaking before it was occupied. Faculty tell me it still leaks.

[Anonymous]

Princeton

[Anonymous]

William & Mary is nice. Helps to be next to Colonial Williamsburg.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rapid-fire:
...
UVA: everything except for the main lawn area was an eyesore.
...

I am a double-'Hoo, but I totally agree. Architects are to blame. They just cannot resist the temptation to have a "signature building" on grounds. I have watched it for decades. Each of those signature buildings clashes with the others.

What is missing at UVa, and by now is nearly impossible to fix, is having a single cohesive architectural style for grounds (or at least for the expanded central grounds including thr McCormick Road area).

For what it's worth, UVA is not alone with this inconsistency problem. Georgetown U's early buildings are wonderful, but their later modernist / brutalist buildings are just awful.

Princeton's campus is not perfect, but overall it is much more cohesive than the two above examples. Yale also is not perfect, but has done much better than UVA/GU overall.

MIT is worse - and the signature Geary building started leaking before it was occupied. Faculty tell me it still leaks.

I always thought the issue at UVA was different. There has always been a push to have the newer buildings be respectful to the Jeffersonian architecture, but the end result is bland red brick buildings with columns and accents of white. UVA has never fully developed a comfortable, more contemporary style that takes greater advantage of glass, steel, and stone.

[Anonymous]

Princeton

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sewanee

100%. Kenyon not so far behind. Top 2 easily.

Of those I've seen, I also loved Kenyon's campus. We visited during the fall, and it was the most beautiful place. Kid didn't go there, but we loved it.

interesting, I was underwhelmed and the interior of the dorm was depressing and dingy. if that's the one they show tour groups....