I very much enjoy nature and would like to attend a school with a nice campus and outdoor recreational opportunities, but I’m hesitant to pass on the resources and diversity of an urban campus. what are some good schools with an outdoorsy feel and proximity to a large city? I’m very interested in Cornell but have heard a lot of negative things about its boring and homogeneous environment, and the 1 hour drive to the nearest city is also a drawback.
My daughter recently visited University of British Columbia in Vancouver and fell in love with it, in part because it is exactly what you describe. The large campus occupies a peninsula, a 20 minute bus ride from downtown. You can take the city bus to the nearest ski slopes and spectacular hiking trails. The lifestyle there is all about being active and being outdoors, yet students are living in a beautiful, cosmopolitan city. The campus has fantastic facilities and the student body is about as international as it gets.
UC Berkeley; UC Santa Barbara; CU Boulder to some extent, but don’t look to Boulder if you want diversity. These come to mind right away.
Some suburban colleges may appeal to you: “The 25 Most Desirable Suburban Schools,” Newsweek.
Vassar, Sarah Lawrence, Lewis & Clark…
Smaller schools: Colorado College, Swarthmore, Haverford, Bryn Mawr (if female)
I don’t know all these schools well, but the cities they’re in are fairly outdoorsy: Colorado College, Reed (has “the Canyon” preserve), UMinn, Macalester.
Vassar is the first college that comes to mind from your description. Vassar has a very beautiful campus, in a suburban-type setting, within an easy drive for a Saturday either in New York City or in beautiful mountains for hiking-- especially check out Minnewaska State Park near New Paltz. Amazingly beautiful hiking! (Would also be true of SUNY New Paltz.)
Swarthmore and Haverford have very pretty campuses, with wooded areas for walks, rowing at Swarthmore, etc., just a very short commuter train ride from Philadelphia.
Princeton is further out from Philly but a very beautiful campus. Drive to Philadelphia for time in the city.
SUNY Stony Brook-- 1.5 hours by train from train station on edge of campus to New York City, with the beaches and woods of Long Island at your disposal (but the modern buildings would not be everyone’s idea of attractive).
If female, add Wellesley (near Boston) and Bryn Mawr (near Philadelphia) to the mix.
I personally have not seen these two colleges yet, but Wheaton in Massachusetts (between Boston and Providence) and Sarah Lawrence right near NYC also sound like possibilities for you to explore.
UC Berkeley has an outdoorsy feel???
For descriptions of some beautiful colleges, see: “The 25 Most Beautiful College Campuses in America,” Thrillist.
Davidson is in a suburb of Charlotte, but it’s a small town and day-trips to the beautiful Great Smoky Mountain National Park, and other wilderness areas, are very feasible.
University of Washington in Seattle. Virtually all of the schools in Colorado. Duke and UNC have robust outdoors communities but are in a much larger metro area than Cornell.
“UC Berkeley has an outdoorsy feel???”
Yes. It’s not Montana or Utah in terms of that scene dominating all the other scenes, but there are tons of outdoor-focused people. Stanford, too.
Davidson has a separate 110 acre lake capus/recreation area on Lake Norman. https://www.davidson.edu/about/facilities/athletics/lake-campus
University of Vermont. Right in Burlington so you can walk to town, but very outdoorsy.
Vassar is two hours away from NYC, and Poughkeepsie is a dump. For OP, Cornell’s “1 hour drive to the nearest city is also a drawback.”
“Poughkeepsie is a dump”
I’m wondering what you are going by to make this statement. Po-town is a small city with, at a minimum, serviceable amenities appropriate for its size.
Burlington, while a lovely town, is hardly “urban.”
If you’re willing to consider the northwest, how about University of Puget Sound? It’s in Tacoma, Washington, which has about 200,000 people, and is about 30 miles from Seattle. My understanding is that the school has a very outdoorsy reputation.
I was up with my son in Poughkeepsie a couple of weeks ago. We did the walk across the Hudson which is a converted historic rail bridge longest foot bridge in the world and was incredible. Then we went to Hyde park and the Roosevelt presidential library and grave and went on a couple hour hike. Then we went to the Eleanor Roosevelt house national site. There is a lot of Poughkeepsie that is way past it’s prime but that being said there is a really nice section on the waterfront near the train station with a nice park and some great restaurants. And Poughkeepsie has Vassar, Marist, the culinary institute of America (America’s preeminent culinary school) and IBM. And about 15 miles away is New Palz which is the New York state system’s liberal art style collage and one of it’s best. And if you have a car then there is more things to see in the mid Hudson river valley then there is a lifetime to see them. I would not argue that Poughkeepsie should be nominated for America’s prettiest city but it has some things going for it. Oh and of course Vassar is drop dead gorgeous.
UNC-Asheville has excellent outdoor activity options. Asheville is a small city but Charlotte is only 1.5 hours away.