Anonymous wrote:I have a new favorite - Middlebury. Just gorgeous.

+1

Anonymous wrote:Duke hands down!

I went there as a highly recruited athlete. It was the deciding factor for me.

The golf course (lots of trails) and the incredible trails in Duke Forest are, as one of their recent recruits stated, like a beautiful national forest.

The east west campus thing can be a pain and I can see why riding on a campus drive bus could be a negative for some. It is also a very social place where wealth matters. Far from perfect. But it is a beautiful place. As a very poor kid from a Chicago apartment, I used to ride the bus in silence thinking I was the luckiest guy to go to such a beautiful place at no cost.

I am surprised App State not mentioned. A true mountain campus and Moses Cone state park a few miles away. Moses Cone the best place I have run and hiked east of the Mississippi. Seems like a string statement until you go -

Anonymous wrote:I went on a lot of tours where I thought, two full-time gardeners and one lawn expert here would make a world of difference.

So weird to spend tens of millions on a gym an don't a tiny fraction on some bushes and well pruned trees.

Capital budget vs operating budget. Operating budgets, including maintenance, can be squeezed even at relatively well off schools because there are so many competing uses.

Colorado, Mount Holyoke, Wellesley

I went on a lot of tours where I thought, two full-time gardeners and one lawn expert here would make a world of difference.

So weird to spend tens of millions on a gym an don't a tiny fraction on some bushes and well pruned trees.

Duke hands down!

Anonymous wrote:Cornell

Nice setting, if you can handle the cold, but mid architecture.

Cornell

Anonymous wrote:Out of the colleges I've visited, this is my list in tiers:
One of the benefits of touring colleges is getting to see the architecture, which I love.

-Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Duke, Oxford
-Cornell, W&M
-Columbia, UVA, Washington
-Colgate, Santa Clara
-Berkeley, UCLA, MIT
-Dartmouth, Fordham
-Harvard, Brown, Emory
-UNC, UCSB
-Stony Brook

I've never seen UChicago, but photos show that it is also a stunning campus.

It used to be but lately looks like there hasn't been a maintenance man or gardener in about 3 yrs. Weeds everywhere, peeling paint, etc.

A lot depends on the time of year and the specific context. Almost all of the New England schools are pretty ugly for most of the actual school year, but stunning in the early fall and late spring. The schools in the better weather area are often. UCB nicer during the school year. So while Yale, for example, looks very pretty in May or September it is pretty bleak much of the school year.

Richmond, Miami of Ohio, Boston College, Wellesley were the best we saw.

Cornell. Yale. UC Santa Cruz. University of British Columbia.

Anonymous wrote:UVA needs some lawn maintenance

Also where are the Colorado schools?

Naval Academy and West Point?

Red clay soil makes for nice red bricks and struggling brown grass.

Anonymous wrote:I wasn't really impressed with UVA or UNC. I thought UGA was much prettier.

+1

Anonymous wrote:Cambridge, at least the central colleges with backs on the river.

+1
My DC studied there for a semester and said it was like a fairytale.