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My problem with colleges in LA (UCLA and USC), is that LA is not an intellectual city. Compared to San Fran, Boston, Chicago, or New York, LA is dumb.
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<p>I don't know that LA is "dumb," per se. It's just diverse and very spread out. There's plenty of culture to be found, but you can't just hop on a train and go to it every night.</p>
<p>For every stupid reality show that some LA exec comes up with, there is a LACMA or an LA Phil.</p>
<p>But if you like red brick, LA's two top schools are great.</p>
<p>My husband and I were driving through Stanford yesterday and I remarked to him how Stanford is one of the worst planned out campus I've seen. Hundreds of buildings are scattered about, some huge some tiny, so difficult to find and parking is a nightmare. And I've been there hundreds of times.Construction and detours are omnipresent, traffic is horrendous in the middle of the campus. In some areas, there are stop signs every 30 yards.
There are of course, some very picturesque spots, after all, Palo Alto is a very pretty area.</p>
<p>Stanford poorly planned? cbreeze, you and I obviously have very different ideas of what make campuses beautiful; to me, Stanford rates right near the top... I mean, did you ignore the beautiful old quad with it's Spanish-Romanesque inner-quad structures all layered from 1 to 2-story buildings? What the old Church with the gorgeous mural of Christ (?) on the side? about the Hoover (Institution) tower -- though I hate what Hoover stands for, it is picturesque.... I don't know how anyone could rip Stanford's campus; to most people, present company included, it's idyllic.</p>
<p>For example, I think that it's much easier to figure out where a building is going to be at UCLA than at UCSD, simply because the layout (in my mind) is more sensical.</p>
<p>Most people seem to be listing US universities but in terms of all the places I've visited I think Cambridge has the most beautiful campus. The lawns are pristine, the gardens amazine and the buildings are breathtaking. The fact that the 'campus' has a small river flowing through the middle just adds to the atmosphere. Whereas most US universities build buldings to look old, there they were actually properly old including many over 400 years old. As we were visiting we passed a group of students walking down the street in their gowns and that was just the icing on the cake... it's was like walking onto the set of Harry Potter or something! </p>
<p>The one thing that was different though (relative to places in the US) is that it was much harder to actually get into most of the campus. Whereas most US schools allow just about anyone to walk about the grounds, tourists could only go onto the University grounds at certain times of day and even then there were many outdoor areas that were off limits. When I asked why this was, I was told that the University strictly protects the privacy of its students and dosen't want tourists getting in the way or bothering them. Whilst there, there were students looking at their exam results on some boards in one courtyard with two beefy 'guards' in suits and tophats keeping the tourists away and telling off anyone who tried to take photos of the students.</p>
<p>I'm currently at a State U, and I'm really impressed with how pretty the school is. It's alright during the summer, but in the winter after it snows, it's goes straight to beautiful.
and it has some really great castle-like architecture.</p>