While the Comm. Ave. corridor thru BU has scant grass, behind the buildings on the north side there are supposed to be patches of green.
Zin, Notre Dame has some uninspired buildings, but I’d hardly call the campus “generic.”. It has several distinctive features that set it apart: the golden dome, the historic stadium, the graceful basilica, Touchdown Jesus, the grotto, the lakes, etc.
@moooop Patches is the correct word.
I was never a fan of inner city college campus’. They just do not gather that inclusive feel I like most about college campus’.
“but the Spanish architecture with its red tile roofs made it feel more like a hotel or resort than an educational institution.”
yeah, we get that a lot. i liked it when I was there, but it’s a very common observation.
as to the comment that a poster’s son found Stanford’s campus “jarring” in the inconsistent architectural styles … are you sure your son saw Stanford? or Samford? because Stanford’s architecture style, use of consistent stone, tile and other materials, is about as homogeneous and consistent as you’ll find on any campus anywhere. like Connecticut College, Stanford looks like it was all built on the same day by the same guy using the same supplies.
if anything, it’s a knock on Stanford’s campus and people cite that very thing as the primary reason they find it boring.
I do admit that there is a country club feel on the Stanford campus … it is about as clean and manicured as they come.
but inconsistent? Stanford is the paradigm of the consistent and planned out campus. almost, arguably, too much so.
I like Vassar’s campus myself. Bryn Mawr is right there with it. Swat is also a nice one.
I’m pretty comfortable guessing that very few of us have been to all top-20 schools. I’ve been to a lot of them, but not all.
^^^ I have been to all of them … I even graduated from all of them.
Cornell’s landscape is breathtaking. Princeton’s campus is fantastic as well. It’s a pity UMich is not being considered here, as the first thought that comes to mind when thinking about Ann Arbor, especially in the fall, is charming.
I would guess that at the SECOND 20, the sports are better, the students are more attractive, the parties are more fun, and (gasp) you can still get a fine education. But, since this group lacks the wow factor of the Top 20, some people here might scoff that the students in this group lack the magic pixie dust that makes them Ivy-worthy; and their parents drop them off wearing bib overalls and driving vehicles with orange triangles on the back.
I went to Michigan and I loved it there, but I would not call it a beautiful campus, with the obvious exception of the Law Quad and a few individual buildings.
@moooop that was a weird comment in the context of this thread. I think someone at the THIRD 20 would probably say the same thing about the SECOND 20, and so on.
@moooop , that’s a pretty big chip on your shoulder.
I expected to be wowed by Dartmouth and Harvard…was definitely not. I’ve been to Stanford more times than I can count for water polo and have found it boring every time. Liked Yale and Berkeley very much. Found BC and UCLA to be stunning.
^ Ditto on BC. That is a beautiful campus and it’s in one of the nicest parts of Boston. Great looking school.
ThankYouForHelp, while Michigan’s campus isn’t necessarily pretty or gorgeous, it is quite beautiful, and certainly impressive, beyond the Law Quad. The Diag is quite attractive, the Medical and Business schools are impressive, the Arb is beautiful, the Burton Tower is impressive, both Rackham buildings (the graduate school and the library) are beautiful, the Art Museum is beautiful, the Union is very nice etc…Again, the campus isn’t necessarily pretty or gorgeous, but it is very nice.
I agree, Michigan is nice and Ann Arbor is great. I have great memories from being there for three years.
But the sprawling Michigan campus, which is divided into three parts, has beautiful buildings adjacent to many pedestrian ones, and doesn’t really match up to the schools at the top of my list like Yale, UChicago, Princeton, etc. And while it definitely is one of the nicest large public university campuses, Berkeley, UVA, UCLA, UWashington, Indiana and others are even nicer.
But it is all a matter of taste, of course. Dartmouth did almost nothing for me, but half the people in this thread think it is amazing so what do I know?
First off I would like to see the best campus quality. But not sure what that means.
Second I don’t know why that would be limited to some magazine ranking of schools that doesn’t focus on campus.
Third I don’t know why Bard what make a list (Alexandre). And why Lehigh would not?
Hahaha nice one
Stanford architecture is… Taco Bell-like! *
Cal grad here. We’re not to be trusted in our opinions about that other, inferior Bay Area school.
@katliamom Anyone who has a hillside view of the Golden Gate Bridge from most anywhere on campus, has a right to look down (both figuratively and literally) on the Jr University in Palo Alto.
A dozen thumbs up for ya, @Capecodder2014
@moooop Defensive much?
Also, much of the schools in the top 20 (Northwestern, Duke, Stanford, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Berkeley) have exactly what you’ve described, so… what’s your point?