<p>Please rank the group if you wish or describe your favorites.</p>
<p>I've always loved the Yale campus (minus the science area). I love its compactness, the aw(e)ful collegiate gothic, the big plaza in front of the library. It always felt more like my college at Oxford than any of the others, and I guess I like it because it reminds me of that. Felt (and still feel) like something important must be going on there. (not greatly fond of all the police and fire sirens at all hours of the day and night, though, and it now feels very much like a "gated" community, about which I have mixed feelings.) Still my fave.</p>
<p>I use to love Harvard for Cambridge, and the area around it - the little bookshops, cafes, Elsye's, etc. There were always little surprises hidden away. No more though. If you want to see Cambridge of 1970, go to Northampton. But the little clubs and opera companies and early music groups and etc. that you can always find going on around Harvard are a lot of fun!</p>
<p>Use to live near UPenn for 12 years, but haven't been there in awhile. In the 1980s, it was very rundown - both the neighborhood and the campus, and the 1970s architecture there, like virtually everywhere else, was awful. </p>
<p>Had a foster kid at Princeton. I always thought it felt kind of stuffy and country-clubbish, but that's a long time ago, and it may have changed.</p>
<p>Cornell- the natural beauty which you can see from the campus (gorges etc.). The library is fantastic.</p>
<p>I think Dartmouth's campus is beautiful.</p>
<p>Mini. of all the school we toured, I liked Yale's campus best. The surrounding area was worse than Penn's....but the interior campus was perfect. </p>
<p>My son was groaning as we drove through the area surrounding Princeton. (actually, he groaned on campus, too....but I liked Princeton's campus). He said he felt like the area was too homogenous. Then again, we didn't drive around the entire community...just to and from I95. I've always thought the campus interesting and pretty. </p>
<p>Brown's immediate surroundings were nice...but I didn't see much to write home about beyond that. Son really liked Brown's interior campus. </p>
<p>Tufts....I felt at odds while on Tufts campus...not sure why. I think I expected so much more. Maybe this is what you all mean by being out of your comfort zone. That town was certainly uncomfortable to me - with houses that reminded me of the Jersey Shore rentals. I like to see more brick and stone. The campus wasn't pretty beyond the main green - but there was construction going on.</p>
<p>Cambridge: Cambridge was cool. We ate breakfast at a really cool Mexican place with a leaky pipe in the ceiling. The stores seemed interesting. It stormed while we were there, so we missed much. But, I felt comfortable and could have been kept occupied for some time. We never made it into The Yard because son refused to tour (he was having his "ain't no way in he#%" fit at this point). Whatever....I liked the surrounding town - VERY cool!!</p>
<p>Wesleyan: really nice greens....but not so pretty buildings. This was the big surprise of our tour. I was totally shocked when I saw this campus. I pictured something totally different after reading "Gatekeepers". However, their "INfo Session" room was the best we experienced in all of the schools. That floor to ceiling glass and the HUGE fireplace were fabulous. I guess the newer looking square concrete buildings were sort of new-age minimalist artsy.....but I'm more of a traditional sort of girl. There was lots of green, which was nice. I didin't notice any campus art (sculpture, etc). I probably just missed it.</p>
<p>Swarthmore: Beautiful!!! Hmmm...maybe Swat would win for the best I saw. I don't have anything negative to say...this is one georgeous campus and one beautiful town. I think I recall parking on a gravel lot and walking to what looked like an old caretaker's cottage for registration for the tour and info session. Yes, this one wins my vote. Of course, my S said he would die from the stress of the workload.....but that's another topic. Best campus!</p>
<p>Georgetown: Lots and lots of buildings...hardly any green. </p>
<p>GW: totally urban. </p>
<p>Penn: Big, big campus in downtown Philadelphia...with a beautiful gothic quad and academic center in the middle of what Mini described....large 70s concrete buildings...not too run down though, Mini. </p>
<p>Amherst: This is one that I personally would have had to pass on if I were 17 - too small and remote. But, GEORGEOUS campus!! We drove back behind the tennis courts to check out the nature preserve. This is a georgeous place.....too bad there isn't more surrounding it.</p>
<p>I wish we could have seen placed like Dartmouth & Williams.</p>
<p>I totally fell in love with the Dartmouth campus. In my fairy tale, that's exactly what the college looks like! Perfect!! All the brick and ivy, the quaint downtown, the river, the beautiful inn with a big porch with rockers. I saw myself there every parent weekend, every big event. Unfortunately, the one heading to college did not see it my way.</p>
<p>
[quote]
an old caretaker's cottage for registration for the tour and info session
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</p>
<p>That would be the Benjamin West house. It was built in 1724 and the birthplace of colonial painter Benjamin West in 1738. The college acquired the West farm and house in 1874.</p>
<p>At one time, the entire Swarthmore campus was open farmland without a tree in sight. Now, one of the most striking things about the campus are the 17 gardens scattered around, maintained by the Scott Arboretum. I'm not sure the students take the time to go find them all, as they are tucked away here and there. Some of them are spectacular little hideaways with teak benches for reading or whatever.</p>
<p>My son goes to Yale and I spent a weekend one November exploring New Haven by myself when my "homesick" son lost his homesickness sometime during my coast-to-coast flight. Oh well. New Haven gets a bad rap, but it is really very student (and lonely mom) friendly. Lots of ethnic restaurants and clubs for the kids, many many trendy and otherwise boutiques for students and moms to browse and shop. I felt safe in the evening by myself and I know my son is in New Haven alone at nite to get a late bite to eat etc. withou problems or insecurities. (And we are from a small town)</p>
<p>Of the campuses themselves, the gothic architecture of Yale and Princeton (and Swarthmore) are awe inspiring. Especially for a Californian. The town of Princeton seemed too uppercrust and not student friendly to us. We also felt that the area around Penn looked to cater to the college kids. It seems that many of the ivys and other universities are putting some of their endowment into buying up or developing the areas adjacent to the campuses and making them much more "college town" feeling. So we really preferred the feel of Penn, Yale, Columbia over the more upper crust areas of Princeton, Palo Alto and Cambridge. I know this is not what most people think, and perhaps I would feel differently if I were looking for a daughter.</p>
<p>I love big cities. My fave Ivy campus is Harvard; my second fave is Columbia. My third fave is Brown's. </p>
<p>I have not been to Penn's, but Philadelphia is a rare big city that I don't like.</p>
<p>Cornell's campus is beautiful, but way too isolated for me. I would go stir crazy in the middle of nowhere, and would hate freezing in the winter under those gray Upstate NY skies.</p>
<p>I do not like New Haven, so that makes Yale's campus unappealing to me. I don't like Princeton's campus because there's nothing around it. The city is too small and has next to nothing for college students to do.</p>
<p>I haven't been to Dartmouth, so can't comment on that one.</p>
<p>Here's mine</p>
<p>Yale: the prettiest, awe-inspiring, reminds me of what Oxford or Cambridge might look like, love all the quads.</p>
<p>Princeton: a big campus, Yale-like but more spread out. Beautiful Gothic buildings, Nassau Street is nice but beyond that and Palmer Square there isn't much.</p>
<p>Penn: love it, spent 4 years there as grad student long ago. Actually it's not downtown Philly, rather West Phila and is a true urban oasis. Area west of 40th is still grim, but Walnut Street is much improved/more student friendly. New big Wharton bldg on 38th is weird, but the main campus and Perelman quad are gorgeous.</p>
<p>Dartmouth: everyone loves it, sorry I think it's just OK. Not a fan of red brick and brick that's painted white but mostly the town of Hanover really is tiny and doesn't have much for kids.</p>
<p>Columbia: OK, but nowhere near as nice as Penn for an urban campus</p>
<p>Non-ivy:</p>
<p>Tufts: I agree, I thought it was isolated for being so close to Boston, the walk from the train station was long and area around campus was quiet.</p>
<p>Wesleyan: The 4 old academic builings grouped together are nice, some odd newer buildings, didn't like the town at all</p>
<p>Lehigh: beautiful</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon: different, but well-laid out, compact, easy to get around, great location in Oakland section of Pittsburgh, next to UPitt. </p>
<p>Swarthmore: like Princeton</p>
<p>Haverford: nice but reminded me of a summer camp for rich kids</p>
<p>The most beautiful campus I saw, by far, was Scripps (not an Ivy). Like a Spanish Renaissance grotto, all in white, with red-tiled roofs, splashing fountains, archways, sculptures, impeccably manicured lawns, with ripe oranges and kumquats hanging from trees that could be reached and picked by hands by students standing on 2nd floor balconies with wrought-iron railings.</p>
<p>Also not an Ivy, Williams. With the exception of Griffin Hall and its golden dome, and maybe West College (built around 1792), there isn't a good building in the bunch, and it is totally eclectic. But the natural setting is virtually unparalleled, and everything fits together (except for the library, which is about to go the way of Dresden during the Great War. Amherst should do the same with theirs.)</p>
<p>Use to love Mount Holyoke, with its incredible landscaping and pond and waterfall. Now I think it is kind of spooky. </p>
<p>Smith's interior courtyard, and "the Quad" look like reduced versions of Harvard Yard (which is deliberate, and many of the same architects used.) I think their new campus center is a true marvel (others may differ.)</p>
<p>Of the few Ivys I've seen, I think I would hand it to Dartmouth - except for some horrible thing they were building a few years back (like 8 years ago?) - forget the name, but it was horrible. Everything else, just aesthetically, is gorgeous. Columbia is amazing, but, as much as I'm a city girl, I think that college campuses should be sprawling things with trees, brick, and columns. </p>
<p>Two prettiest colleges seen, by far, are Williams and Washington and Lee. (There is the rural school bias again.) </p>
<p>Wellesley, save for the science building, is gorgeous - especially love Waban and all of the trees. Architecture is phenomenal. </p>
<p>Mini - if you want Harvard-area of the '70s, wander out to Davis - small shops, used bookstores, and the like.</p>
<p>Princeton and Dartmouth are tops in the Ivy. Non-Ivy-Duke, Stanford, Williams, Bowdoin, Holy Cross, Smith College.</p>
<p>I loved the look of Dartmouth, very pretty woodsy setting & all brick & colonial looking buildings. </p>
<p>Brown has a great central "green" that is the prettiest area of campus. Not only is it pretty, it is the hub of activity in Fall & Spring; the place to run into people. Vsaried architecture: traditional brick, stone church-y, classical temple, lots of variety. Sort of flows into a high-end quasisuburban little commercial district encircling campus (not unlike Smith.)</p>
<p>Most beautiful = Vassar, Smith</p>
<p>Also gorgeous = Hamilton, Haverford</p>
<p>My father went to Princeton, so growing up we spent alot of time at football games and an occasional reunion....that became my idea/ideal of what a college campus was....it still is.</p>
<p>I believe both Wellesley's and Stanford's campuses were designed by Frederick Law Olmstead where buildings were carefully placed on the landscape. Swarthmore's campus is an arboretum and is also beautiful.</p>
<p>As for the actual Ivies--I loved Princeton's campus.</p>
<p>I would have to go with Yale. Of all the campuses that we looked at, when we toured Yale I had the strongest desire to be young again and have to opportunity to go back to school. It was the perfect blend of beautiful campus, integrated with but not dominated by a college town environment.</p>
<p>Cornell had the best natural beauty of those that we saw. The gorges, waterfalls and view of the the lake are incredible. While many of the buildings are very nice, some of the building architecture leaves a lot to be desired (those buildings from the 60's in the engineering quad should be demolished.) Cornell is VERY spread out. No need to worry about the freshman 15 with all of the walking. I liked the way Collegetown was immediately adjacent to the campus - it gives the students a town environment that they have all to themselves.</p>
<p>Brown and Harvard were OK, but nothing special in my mind.</p>
<p>Columbia is too much big city for my taste. I took a course there once and never really felt like I was on a college campus. It felt more like a "pocket park" in the middle of a big dirty city.</p>
<p>Have not seen Dartmouth or Penn.</p>
<p>Love them all, even Penn, but since we're straying beyond the bounds of Ivy, I can't resist plugging Stanford. As the redoubtable Fiske observes, the basic orientation is outward facing, not the navel-gazing inward facing quad orientation of the exquisite quads at Yale, Harvard, etc., as befits an institution that looks toward the future, rather than the Oxford/Cambridge model.</p>
<p>Yeah, "Gatekeeper's" doesn't really mention Wesleyan's "newer" buildings (actually, over 30 years old.) That isn't concrete they're made from. Each building is made from individually cut blocks of limestone that have been carefully fitted together without mortar. There are no underlying steel beams and each wall is completely load bearing, not unlike an ancient Greek temple, which is the way I prefer to look at them. Ironically, the really, really new buildings that will be going up within the year (the Fauver Field dorms, the Senior Houses, the University Center) will all have a manufactured "old" look to them, in keeping with the current fashion.</p>
<p>I just wanted to add a plug for UCLA's campus. No, it's not an Ivy nor is it an LAC, but whenever I've visited, I've found it to be clean and the grounds to be well-kept (and this wasn't even during a special event!). Some of the architecture is downright ugly but the older buildings are gorgeous--and you can't beat the weather, with the exception of the current rainstorms.</p>