The Most Attractive College Campuses in the United States

The most beautiful college campuses include great architecture, ample green areas, and historic structures. The East Coast, with its large concentration of prestigious colleges, consistently tops lists of the most beautiful campuses. However, beauty is not restricted to a particular coast; therefore, the colleges listed below are spread throughout the nation, from New Hampshire to California and Illinois to Texas. Discover what makes these college campuses unique, from modernist marvels to stunning gardens.

Berry College

Berry College in Rome, Georgia, has a little over 2,000 students and the country’s biggest continuous campus. The school’s 27,000 acres feature streams, ponds, forests, and meadows that may be explored via a vast network of pathways. The three-mile paved Viking Trail links the main campus to the mountain campus. Berry’s campus is difficult to top for students who prefer hiking, bicycling, or equestrian riding.

The campus has 47 structures, including the beautiful Mary Hall and Ford Dining Hall. Other parts of campus have red brick Jeffersonian architecture.

Bryn Mawr College

Bryn Mawr College is one of two women’s institutions on this list. The college’s campus, located in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, consists of 40 buildings spread over 135 acres. Many structures, notably College Hall, a National Historic Landmark, use Collegiate Gothic style. The Great Hall was designed after Oxford University structures. The lovely tree-lined campus is recognized as an arboretum.

Dartmouth College

Dartmouth Hall, Dartmouth College. kickstand/Getty Images
Dartmouth College, one of the eight prominent Ivy League colleges, is situated in Hanover, New Hampshire. Dartmouth College, founded in 1769, is home to several historic structures. Even subsequent buildings adhere to the campus’s Georgian architecture. The scenic Dartmouth Green lies in the center of campus, with the Baker Bell Tower dominating the north end.

The campus is located on the brink of the Connecticut River, and the Appalachian Trail flows through it. With such a desirable location, it should come as no surprise that Dartmouth is home to the nation’s biggest college excursion club.

Flagler College

While there are dozens of lovely college campuses with Gothic, Georgian, and Jeffersonian architecture, Flagler College stands out as unique. Ponce de Leon Hall is the main structure of the institution, which is located in historic St. Augustine, Florida. Henry Morrison Flagler built the building in 1888, and it houses the works of prominent nineteenth-century artists and technologists such as Tiffany, Maynard, and Edison. The structure, one of the most spectacular specimens of Spanish Renaissance architecture in the nation, is a National Historic Landmark.

Other prominent structures include the Florida East Coast Railway structures, which were recently transformed into residence halls, and the Molly Wiley Art Building, which just had a $5.7 million refurbishment. Because of the school’s architectural attraction, there are typically more visitors than students on campus.

Lewis and Clark College

Despite its location in Portland, Oregon, Lewis & Clark College offers lots of opportunities for nature enthusiasts. The facility is located between the 645-acre Tryon Creek State Natural Area and the 146-acre River View Natural Area on the Willamette River.

The 137-acre woodland campus is located in the hills on the southwest outskirts of the city. The institution is particularly proud of its ecologically friendly structures, as well as the ancient Frank Manor House.

Princeton University

All eight Ivy League institutions have stunning campuses, but Princeton University has featured on more lists of beautiful campuses than any other. The 500-acre campus in Princeton, New Jersey, is home to nearly 190 structures, many of which have stone towers and Gothic archways. Nassau Hall, the campus’ oldest structure, was erected in 1756. More modern structures have attracted architectural giants, such as Frank Gehry, who constructed the Lewis Library.

Students and tourists like the variety of flower beds and tree-lined paths. Lake Carnegie is located on the southern side of campus and is home to the Princeton crew team.

Rice University

Even though Houston’s skyline is visible from campus, Rice University’s 300 acres do not seem metropolitan. With 4,300 trees on campus, students may easily find a shaded location to study. The Academic Quadrangle, a huge grassy space, is in the center of campus, with Lovett Hall, the university’s most recognizable structure, on the eastern border. Fondren Library is at the other end of the quad. The bulk of the campus structures were built in the Byzantine style.

Stanford University

One of the country’s most competitive colleges is also one of the most appealing. Stanford University is located on more than 8,000 acres in Stanford, California, on the outskirts of Palo Alto. Hoover Tower rises 285 feet above campus, and other notable structures include Memorial Church and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hanna-Honeycomb House. The institution contains around 700 buildings and a variety of architectural styles, but the Main Quad in the middle of campus has a unique Californian Mission motif with rounded arches and red tile roofs.

Stanford’s outdoor settings are similarly stunning, including the Rodin Sculpture Garden, the Arizona Cactus Garden, and the Stanford University Arboretum.

Swarthmore College

Swarthmore College’s approximately $2 billion endowment is immediately evident as one comes upon the neatly groomed grounds. The 425-acre site contains the gorgeous Scot Arboretum, open greens, forested hills, a brook, and several hiking paths. Philadelphia is just 11 miles away.

Parrish Hall and many of the campus’s other early structures were constructed in the second half of the nineteenth century using native gray gneiss and schist. The building reflects the school’s Quaker background, emphasizing simplicity and classic proportions.

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is located in the Hyde Park district, about eight miles from downtown Chicago, near Lake Michigan. The main campus is divided into six quadrangles, each surrounded by magnificent structures in the English Gothic style. Much of the early architecture of the institution was influenced by Oxford University, but more contemporary structures are decidedly modern.

The site has numerous National Historic Landmarks, including the Frank Lloyd Wright Robie House. The site, which covers 217 acres, is classified as a botanical garden.

University of Notre Dame

The University of Notre Dame, situated in northern Indiana, has a 1,250-acre campus. The Golden Dome of the Main Building is undoubtedly the most iconic architectural element on any college campus in the nation. The enormous park-like complex includes several green spots, two lakes, and two cemeteries.

The Basilica of the Sacred Heart, perhaps the most spectacular of the 180 structures on campus, has 44 huge stained glass windows and a Gothic tower that stands 218 feet above campus.

University of Richmond

The University of Richmond has a 350-acre campus in the suburbs of Richmond, Virginia. The university’s buildings are largely made of red brick in the Collegiate Gothic style, which is common on many campuses. Many of the early buildings were designed by Ralph Adams Cram, who also worked on structures at Rice University and Princeton University.

The university’s artistically beautiful buildings are located on a landscape characterized by abundant trees, crisscrossing walkways, and rolling hills. Tyler Haynes Commons, the student center, acts as a bridge over Westhampton Lake and has floor-to-ceiling windows that provide stunning views.

University of Washington Seattle

Located in Seattle, the University of Washington is undoubtedly most lovely when the numerous cherry blossoms bloom in the spring. The campus’s early buildings were built in the Collegiate Gothic style, as were many of the other colleges on the list. Notable structures include Suzzallo Library, which has a vaulted reading room, and Denny Hall, the oldest building on campus with peculiar Tenino sandstone.

The campus’s excellent position provides views of the Olympic Mountains to the west, the Cascade Range to the east, and the Portage and Union Bays to the south. The 703-acre tree-lined campus has multiple quadrangles and pathways. A design that relegates the majority of automotive parking to the campus’s edges adds to the visual attractiveness.

Wellesley College

Wellesley College, located in an affluent community near Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the nation’s finest liberal arts universities. Along with its superb academics, this women’s institution offers a lovely campus overlooking Lake Waban. The Gothic bell tower of Green Hall sits at one end of the academic quadrangle, while residential halls are spread around campus, linked by roads that run through woodlands and meadows.

The site has a golf course, pond, lake, rolling hills, a botanic garden and arboretum, and a variety of elegant brick and stone structures. Whether ice skating on Paramecium Pond or watching the sunset over Lake Waban, Wellesley students take great pleasure in their magnificent campus.