Hello! I’m trying to build my list of schools right now and I want to include a few Ivies. Does anyone know which Ivy League schools are in the most walkable communities? For me, it’s essential that my school is located within walking distance of cafes, shops, and restaurants.
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Google maps can help a great deal with your question.
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It might be helpful to googlemap each school you are looking at and then do “search nearby” for the amenities you are looking for.
Some people think 1-2 miles equals walkable, some think farther than 2 blocks isn’t walkable. Doing the googlemap search will help you wihotut depending on someone else’s definition of walkable.
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Aren’t all of them within walking distance of cafes, shops and restaurants??
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I think this is the case at most schools, Ivy or otherwise.
Regarding Ivies: I live not too far from Princeton and it definitely has a nice downtown bordering the campus.
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They sure are!
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This will be 95% of schools.
So besides the big name, what are you actively seeking in a campus - size, environment - guessing suburban or urban, etc.
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All 8 of the Ancient colleges in the a certain sports league have cafes, shops and restaurants easily walkable from campus. The question is how many do you need? For example, Hanover is a tiny town, and there is a great coffee shop literally across the street and two doors down from campus, but there aren’t dozens of them in town.
OTOH, Harvard Square may have more cafes, shops and restaurants that all of Hanover combined.
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I have never visited Dartmouth so can’t speak to that first hand. But as others have noted, all of the Ivys have walkable communities near them. SO it really comes down to what kind of community you want.
Dartmouth is the most rural, but still has a decent college town around it. Columbia is in the biggest city in the country.
The rest are in-between. In addition to Columbia, PENN, Harvard, Yale and Brown are all in urban settings (NYC, Philadelphia, Boston/Cambridge, New Haven and Providence respectively).
Princeton is in a beautiful suburban setting about 50 miles from both NYC and Philly (trainable to each). But a vibrant college town with tons of restaurants and shops. Cornell is adjacent to a decent sized town (that supports two colleges, so truly a college town) but that town itself is in a remote area.
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I have…and many times. While not the size of NYC, the downtown is easy access from the college itself, and has great selections of places to eat and shop.
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Closing since the definitive answer was given
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