Does Indiana feel very rural or busy city like ??
Bloomington is suburban - and outside is very rural with Columbus (a town known for achitecture a bit east and Indy a bit northeast.
Itâs far more ârobustâ than a Miami Ohio surround, as an example.
itâs not urban - like a big city school or a college of charleston.
Itâs a nice town with everything you need and tons of restaurants.
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Biased, since my D is there but I have to agree that VT is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful campuses Iâve ever seen - especially now, when the leaves are changing. Really, the whole NRV, with the mountains around it, is lovely. My daughter sends me pictures of the amazing sunsets. Tons of outdoor activities in the area.
I think downtown Blacksburg is very charming and all the stuff a college student might need (Target, et al) is in nearby Christiansburg. Most of the buildings are made with the Hokie Stone and IMO the campus is pretty compact and well laid out for being a large university (my older D went to Chapel Hill and to me, that was more of a sprawling campus). The football stadium and basketball arena are right on campus and easily walkable from all the dorms. They have Greek life, but itâs not in your face. You would also be hard pressed to find a college with more school spirit and alumni support than VT. Despite having a struggling FB season, I think weâre up to 4 sold out games so far (60,000 seat stadium). Fans show up no matter what, with the best tailgating atmosphere ever.
If sheâs willing to consider NC, Appalachian State may also be of interest. Cute town (Boone, NC) and a big outdoor vibe.
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Iâve seen a couple of mentions of Duke. It absolutely does not meet your criteria. The buildings do not match and the campus is split into two, East and West campus, with major roads between them and they arenât really walking distance. Itâs urban and there is a lot of traffic. I am local.
Elon might be worth a look. Smaller than her wants but very matchy. It would be an easy safety admit for her excellent scores but itâs a pretty good school and the people who love it really really love it.
Iâm struggling to come up with some other campuses because we donât do matchy in my fam so it was not a criteria for us.
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There are a LOT of beautiful campusesâŠwhere the buildings donât match. And a lot of not so beautiful campuses where the buildings all match. University of North Texas has buildings that seem to all have the same architectural integrityâŠyellow brick square buildings. Not exactly gorgeous but they all match.
Is your daughter willing to consider some of the womenâs colleges? Wellesley is gorgeous, for example.
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lehigh is wonderful, but bitterly cold because of the altitude(more so than most NE schools lol), and the whole school is on a hill, so itâs pretty slanted. drop a ball and itâd roll to the bottom. that shouldnât put you off, but worth noting. wonderful music program, though!
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Yes, thatâs all true, but I still donât think you can call WS a college town.
Bloomington is a town of about 80,000, and I wonder if theyâre including the entire student population in that number. Itâs not rural, as in the middle of nowhere where cow tipping is the big exciting weekend activity. But the town does have a mall and thereâs a surprisingly wide array of ethnic restaurants (Afghani, Tibetan, Moroccan as well as Indian and Thai). But this is not Manhattan or L.A. or Chicago or even downtown Indianapolis. Perhaps perusing the cityâs webpage might give you a better idea?
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When we were looking at schools we noticed that many campuses in our state had a lot of construction going on. One of my kids ended up at one of these schools. It should be mentioned that when updates, new construction etc is happening, it is possible that the buildings will no longer match. Something to consider- it is possible that what looks a certain way now will not look that way a few years down the road.
My other kid attended UNC; parts of the campus are beautiful, while other buildings look old and run down. If those older buildings are ever replaced, I am not convinced they will match the others.
Remember that campuses are not necessarily static. Appearances may change once your daughter commits to the school. That happened to one of my kids.
This is tricky for me too as âmatchingâ was not a criteria so I never really paid much attention.
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Iâm thinking the student in the OP is looking for a campus with a mostly overall cohesive theme to the buildings vs a campus that has a bunch of buildings with differing architecture, and probably realizes that very few campuses will have every building matching. It may be easier to find at smaller colleges rather than at large universities that this student wants, so they will likely have to compromise on that.
My alma mater (a SUNY) has one building on campus that evokes the classical, Ivy-covered style of college buildings that many students look for on campuses. They use it on most of their marketing material. Imagine the surprise of arriving on campus to find that every other building has either an ultra-modern or institutional design (most SUNYâs arenât known for campus beauty).
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Iâm going to second Ohio University in Athens OH. The main college green is comprised of beautiful buildings. Itâs really quite lovely. Yes, there is different âarchitectureâ on the greens where the dorms are but those are not on the main college green. The town is a charming college town.
This college flies under the radar screen.
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I think you can often tell when a collegeâs campus plan is going for more consistent, more eclectic, or possibly different looks in different parts of campus.
With the consistent colleges, even the newer buildings often have obviously made some effort to reflect the campus style. Occasionally there will be the notorious âeyesoreâ building, but it stands out in part because it is exceptional.
So like at William & Mary, which I agree is on the consistent end, they recently built a new Wellness Center. It is modern, and yet I think you can also feel the echoes going all the way back to their Wren Building. Same deal with what they call their Integrated Science Center, and so on.
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Auburn University is a compact campus with beautiful architecture in a quaint small town setting with strong academics, and a diverse population of students from all over the country. It is getting increasingly more selective each year with about 40 percent admitted last year, so apply early! You canât beat the warm supportive community and the exciting SEC football experience! There are many strong academic programs and it should at least be a school to take a look at and consider, even though it isnât exactly in the location you described. If you take a tour you might be surprised that it is a great fit!
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Hmmm, my son is going on year five at Lehigh and has never described it as bitterly cold. Iâve been there in all seasons, never felt bitterly cold.
Perhaps itâs all in your perspective. We are from New Hampshire. The weather in Bethlehem has not come close to what we get at home in terms of cold.
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Auburn has about 30,000 students AND fits your Bonus criteria!
Check out their Raptor Center Auburn University Raptor Center - Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine,
Environmental Science programs
https://cfwe.auburn.edu/
and beautiful Arboretum!
Auburn University
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Except for Virginia tech! The board passed a resolution saying all new construction must be made with Hokie stone! The few buildings that arenât (maybe from the 50s-70s) are being slowly torn down and replaced.
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They are starting to run out of stone though so they are being creative with it
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Well, the newer buildings at CU are all built of the same materials and match as much as they can. The old old old buildings do not match, and when they build in that area of campus some adjustments to the new building style are made. The campus was self contained, but since the number of students has more than doubled in the last 40 years, they have had to build in other areas. The new engineering campus is a few miles east but if you arenât an engineering student it is unlikely youâd need to go to that campus. There are some dorms on the main campus but other (the majority) are a short distance from the east end of campus.
When a school starts getting bigger, as most of the flagships have, the building has to go somewhere and if there is a road in the way, the new building may have to go on the other side of the road. A lot of schools of the size OP is looking for (10k to 25k) are going to be private schools, often Catholic, and some of those will be urban, or the non-flagship public schools. If a school has 25k students, a supporting area tends to grow around it with stores, roads, restaurants and at some point becomes more urban.
Bethlehem resides at 360 feet above sea level, and the entirely of Lehighâs two campuses resides below 1000 feet in elevation. If Lehigh is cold at times, itâs not because of its altitude.
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Iâm from upstate NJ, but whenever I need to be at Lehigh itâs always freezing. Maybe I get the worst days! 
How does your son like Lehigh?