<p>Chicago and Columbia</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! Although I disagree with the fact that the only places that have a fall season are in the northeast. As long as you don’t go too far south the fall season is pretty decent.</p>
<p>Yale .</p>
<p>
I’m defining the “northeast” as … Maine to DC and as far west as Pennsylvania/New York … that covers the state with really colorful leaves (I think) … I’m guessing your geographic range since you were not explicit. In these states there are only about a dozen or so highly selective urban research universities.</p>
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<p>Um, California? Not just California, but most of the Midwest also…</p>
<p>As far as McGill and that pic, first of all yes I am sure it was McGill, lol. My D considered it and we went on the tour and all. it is interesting that the pic link quaker gives only shows one pic with any green. They do have one lawn, I will give you that. The other pic is either from the park or their MacDonald campus. The OP asked for campuses, not parks. Lots of schools have parks near them and that is nice of course. I was just answering the question asked. If the OP wants to count parks next to campuses of course they can, but McGill itself is very concrete, with like one green space other than the park, at least as far as they showed on the tour. Maybe we had a terrible tour guide. Look at the McGill web site and you will see they don’t show much green either except for the MacDonald campus, which is not the main one, and the park. They carefully show artsy pictures of flowers very close up. That should tell you something.</p>
<p>Also if you have Google Earth, take a look. It is all buildings and streets except for the one lawn and the park. Shows it very clearly. There is nothing wrong with McGill, it just doesn’t belong on the list of beautiful campuses at all, let alone in urban settings.</p>
<p>As far as Brown, I guess the traffic issue is a matter of taste, but I get up there all the time as I live in RI and do business up there. Compared to many of the other campuses mentioned here, it suffers from not being more “walled off” from the outside world for my liking. If that doesn’t bother someone, then I agree Brown is in a great location and the campus has a lot going for it. I am just judging it compared to others that have similar beauty, history, and are more of a self-contained setting.</p>
<p>I’ll add another vote for JHU. The campus has beautiful architecture, grassy open quads and white marble steps. It’s really spectacular in the fall and spring.</p>
<p>I don’t have any vested interest in defending McGill. It’s not at the top of my list for beautiful urban campuses, but I still would include it on the list. It does have green space, pretty architecture and foliage (and then massive amounts of snow) and Montreal is an attractive cosmopolitan city. It’s definitely not for everyone (nor is college in Canada).</p>
<p>Check out the visit reports. Here are a few.</p>
<p>[McGill</a> University Visit - natmicstef](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/vibe/mcgill-university/3616593.html]McGill”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/vibe/mcgill-university/3616593.html)</p>
<p>[McGill</a> University Visit - ZFanatic](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/vibe/mcgill-university/2983906.html]McGill”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/vibe/mcgill-university/2983906.html)</p>
<p>Ok we will agree to disagree. I also think Montreal is great, but I have seen dozens if not a hundred urban campuses, and McGill is nowhere close to one of the nicest IMO. Buildings are nice for the most part, that is true. I just tend to downgrade campuses that have busy streets running through them and have little green space in proportion to the size of the campus. Maybe I am being too hard on McGill, it just didn’t make a good impression on me at all in terms of overall appearance.</p>
<p>University of Richmond.</p>
<p>The OP asked for top schools so that limits the choices. (I’m not crazy about Harvard’s or MIT’s campuses. Yale and Brown are pretty and urban but New Haven and Providence are smaller cities so I excluded them. Columbia’s campus is too small - for now.)</p>
<p>I did include Tulane on my list (though I would not recommend it for foliage). Audubon Park is nice. :-)</p>
<p>I agree with you Quaker. The only way you can count Yale is if you think New Haven is a suburb of NYC. Not entirely untrue, since the train makes it easy to get to the city, but technically it is not urban for sure. Providence has a fair amount going on, I think one can count that as urban, and Boston is pretty accessable (also by train). He did say top 50, so Tulane counts, you right. The old oaks, magnolias and other trees and plants make Tulane and the area great for “foliage” and blossoms, just not changing foliage, lol.</p>
<p>The University of Southern California is located in Los Angeles, but the campus is an urban oasis. It is known for the numerous fountains, flower filled courtyards and tropical blooming trees. Camellias are blooming in February. In front of the Leavey Library is a large refecting pool. </p>
<p>There are small outdoor cafes for casual dining. The campus is immaculate.</p>
<p>The USC Master Plan to extend the campus has just passed preliminary environmental review by the city of LA. Two metro stations will be opening at the edges of the campus.</p>
<p>In the CampusVibe on CC are posted over fifty photos of buildings, fountains and green spaces.</p>
<p>Richmond is not technically an urban campus. Its inside the city limits but its not a downtown urban setting. Its a beautiful bucolic setting, sort of like Wake Forest. Ditto for Davidson. </p>
<p>Urban means urban. Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, NYU, Fordham, Columbia, George Washington, Catholic University, UChicago, USC, are the classic urban settings.</p>
<p>Richmond also not top 50, is it? Also, I would be a little less strict on “urban”. Tulane is not “downtown”, but it is within the city limits. I think that counts. Urban should mean readily accessable to a city, and what “readily accessable” means varies from person to person. Taking the train 30 minutes or whatever it is (45?) from New Haven to NYC might be readily accessable to one person but not another.</p>
<p>University of Richmond is #30 LAC, according to USNews.</p>
<p>U of Chicago, definitely. Yale’s campus is gorgeous but New Haven doesn’t offer much as an urban center. On the other hand, it is quite close to NYC. Harvard. Brown is quite nice looking. I do not like the Columbia campus, although NYC is a great place. NYU doesn’t have much of what most people would call a campus, unless you count Washington Square Park.</p>
<p>You are right DougBetsy, the OP never did say if he meant LAC, research U, or both.</p>
<p>I know that Rice has been mentioned and with the exception of the foliage thing, I think it should be considered. Before my son considered Rice we just assumed it was out in the distant suburbs in an essentially suburban city. But if you spend a minute on Google Maps you’ll see that Rice is only about four miles from downtown Houston - which is now the third largest city in the US, having surpassed Chicago. And downtown Houston is easily accessible by mass transit.</p>
<p>Also, having lived in NY and New England for almost my entire life, let me tell you that foliage is really overrated. Most years peak foliage occurs from Monday to Friday, when you’re busy doing other things. Or it’s later than it should be, or earlier. Or it rains. Or it’s a lousy foliage year. For about twenty years in a row we’ve gone upstate every Columbus Day weekend. I think we’ve had great foliage maybe once or twice.</p>
<p>Second for WUSTL. Just attended S1’s graduation in the quad and was reminded how beautiful the campus is. </p>
<p>[Campus</a> buildings | Newsroom | Washington University in St. Louis](<a href=“http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/323.aspx]Campus”>Campus buildings - The Source - Washington University in St. Louis)</p>
<p>Scroll through for proof of four seasons, including fall and its foliage.</p>