The 53 Prettiest College Campuses in America

Did your alma mater make the list?

By Stefanie Waldek and Katherine McLaughlin

With their vast collections of buildings, it’s no wonder that universities are architectural gems. And though many are impressive, only some can be considered the prettiest college campuses in the United States. Many schools have beautiful elements—like immaculate dining halls, otherworldly dorms, or jaw-dropping libraries—but the schools on the following list stun across the board. Like a well-styled outfit, from the entry arches to academic halls and manicured lawns, everything on these grounds works in harmony to create a place as beautiful as it is educational. To that end, AD recently scoured the country to find the prettiest college campuses in the United States, taking into consideration both architectural legacy and setting.

What are beautiful university campuses?

The United States, in particular, has an immense collection of colleges with impressive dorms, academic facilities, and other stately structures. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, higher education institutions started to feature beautiful unified styles—oftentimes of the Collegiate Gothic movement, which drew from historic English buildings, but also the Federal, neoclassical, and even Romanesque movements. Campuses also had elegant landscape design, whether well-manicured quads or more natural woodland.

While most universities have gone on to include incredible modern builds by 20th-century starchitects (Eero Saarinen’s Ingalls Rink at Yale, anyone?), they’ve also worked hard to maintain their visual legacies. For this collection, AD looked for college campuses that have an aesthetic vision, whether that’s a unified look—like the Georgian-style buildings and structures found across Baylor University in Texas—or a well-thought-out mix of aesthetics—like the modernist marvels that perfectly balance out the the large number of collegiate-gothic style buildings at Yale University.

What college has the coolest campus?

Though all of these schools are beautiful, for a college campus to be considered the coolest, we think it has to transcend aesthetics alone. Perhaps the award should go to Mount Holyoke with its strong focus on sustainability. All new constructions on campus are built to meet LEED™ silver requirements, and older ones have been renovated where appropriate to conserve energy. However, a modernist devotee may push back and say Florida Southern College is the coolest—not just because of the 13 beautiful Frank Lloyd Wright–designed buildings on the ground, but because it’s the site with the highest volume of Wright structures in one place. All 53 schools on this list are AD-approved; read on to decide for yourself which campus should be crowned the coolest.

an academic building with large white columns

University of Hawaii at Mānoa (Honolulu, Hawaii)

Located right outside of downtown Honolulu within the lush Mānoa Valley, the University of Hawaii at Mānoa is the oldest of the schools within the University of Hawaii system. Though the campus has many beautiful buildings, its view of Diamond Head truly stands out.

Joycerey image — St. John’s College Santa Fe (Santa Fe, New Mexico)

The Santa Fe campus of St. John’s College features low-slung, Southwestern-style architecture. As the institution describes it, the “Santa Fe [campus] hugs the slopes of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in northern New Mexico.” For those looking to explore the mountains more, the campus has a number of hiking trails that lead into the surrounding nature.

a stately brick building with a flagpole on top — St. Olaf College (Northfield, Minnesota)

Two buildings on St. Olaf College’s 300-acre campus are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including the 1877 Old Main, shown here. Edward Sövik, a prominent institutional architect and professor at St. Olaf, designed (or assisted with the design of) 20 buildings on the school grounds. The campus, known to locals as “The Hill,” is surrounded by wetlands, woodlands, and tall prairie grass.

a long row of redbrick gothic buildings — Mount Holyoke College (South Hadley, Massachusetts)

Mount Holyoke, the first of the historic Seven Sisters consortium of schools, has a bucolic campus lined with redbrick buildings. The architecture firm Olmsted and Sons designed the impressive grounds between 1896 and 1922. Among the many beautiful buildings, the campus is also home to an 18-hole, Donald Ross–designed golf course.

stone and brick buildings in the evening light — University of Vermont (Burlington, Vermont)

In the distance, you can see a redbrick Federal-style Old Mill, which happens to be the University of Vermont’s oldest building. Erected in 1825, the building was constructed after the original from 1802 burned down.

Chapel of the Trinity College in Hartford Connecticut during summer day — Trinity College (Hartford, Connecticut)

Trinity College’s “Long Walk” comprises several early examples of Collegiate Gothic architecture by British designer William Burges, the first two buildings of which were constructed in 1878. The campus also features a quad by Frederick Law Olmsted and a chapel by the same firm who designed the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, Frohman, Robb and Little.

a stone Ushaped institutional building — United States Naval Academy (Annapolis, Maryland)

The incredible Beaux Arts Bancroft Hall at the United States Naval Academy isn’t a museum nor even an academic building. It’s actually the largest dormitory in the world, with 1,700 rooms spread over 33 acres of floor space. Among the many beautiful buildings on campus, you’ll also find a large collection of monuments and memorials.

Photo: Amy Drill/Wikimedia

Lewis & Clark College (Portland, Oregon)

The forested campus of Lewis & Clark College makes plenty of sense given its Pacific Northwest location. While historic buildings, like the Frank Manor House, shown here, are beautiful, the newer buildings also impress with their sustainability initiatives. The campus is on top of the Palatine Hill in Portland’s Collins View neighborhood.

a large brick mansion with white columns — Belmont University (Nashville, Tennessee)

Belmont University, which originally opened as a women’s college, sits on the former Belle Mont estate. The Belmont Mansion, shown here, is a 19,000-square-foot antebellum home on campus that’s open for tours. The campus is roughly divided into two areas, with one half surrounding a pristinely kept lawn and the other dotted with gazebos where students are often found playing music.

the front of a gothic chapel in the fog — Sewanee: the University of the South (Sewanee, Tennessee)

Another one of the prettiest college campuses in US, the massive 13,000-acre campus of Sewanee mainly features Collegiate Gothic architecture, the highlight of which is the All Saints’ Chapel, shown here.

a large brick building with a spire and columns — Baylor University (Waco, Texas)

Baylor’s campus features primarily Georgian-style buildings, including Pat Neff Hall, shown here, named after the former Texas governor who later became president of the university.

a red brick building with a central clock tower — College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, Massachusetts)

Noted for its incredible landscape design, the College of the Holy Cross also has a number of historic buildings, including O’Kane Hall, shown here. The area around O’Kane and its neighbor, Fenwick Hall, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Photo: Wikimedia

Rice University (Houston, Texas)

You might mistake Rice University for being in California, thanks to the campus’s Mediterranean Revival style, but it’s actually located in Houston. Shown is the elegant Lovett Hall with Byzantine and Romanesque elements.