as way nicer than the UW campus. In my subjective opinion, you gotta really love imported Mexican Fan Palm trees and serious heat to want to be here over UW.
I’ve never really understood the aesthetic appeal of either Arizona school, just like I don’t understand how my MIL can put ketchup on a finely crafted taco. But that’s how she likes it, and there is definitely an ‘Arizona or bust’ crowd up my way. That said, I’ve never heard or read anyone even in that crowd articulate a view that either campus is nicer than UW’s until yesterday. I personally don’t think they’re in the same category, though I like some of the more modern buildings on the UofA campus.
But that’s why I keep coming back to CC. I’m always learning something.
PS: Stanford may be a lesson on the limitations of uniformity but it’s hard for me to say with a straight face that it isn’t a nice campus. There isn’t a blade of grass out of place there and many of the buildings are stunningly well done.
agreed on Ketchup - which I put on nothing - and move to the other side of the table when it comes. And never understand why it’s offered for sweet potato frees.
I’m an ASU alumn - and it’s office parky.
U of A is gorgeous. UW - wasn’t my thing - and the traffic surrounds didn’t help. Hated red square - this is the US , not Moscow.
CC is 98% opinion based - so you learned someone disagrees with your opinions and really nothing more.
I’ll give you another whose opinion disagrees with yours. Niche, based on student surveys, gives U of As campus an A-, but U Wash a B+ (so even the UW kids don’t love their campus, or at least the ones that filled out the niche survey).
But - most importantly - you give UW an A+ - and in your case, that’s all that matters!!!
There may be an aesthetic factor but I think it involves mostly other things. You’d have to take the survey to really know what is being asked of the survey taker, which I might add could be anybody, including the staff at UofA. I live here. Never met a Husky who didn’t love their campus, and I’ve met a lot of them. It’s one of the school’s calling cards and everybody knows it.
Washington is the university on the hill with views of two mountain chains and set on a lake that some of the wealthiest people in the world like enough to call home. UofA is in Tuscon with fake palm trees. Ketchup on a taco.
The iconic palm trees that line the entrance to the U of Arizona campus are Desert Fan Palms and they are native to the Southwest US. There are also mountain views from campus. You also neglected to include photos of the beautiful historic buildings on campus, such as:
It’s 11:30 am central time, and the current temp in Tucson is 68 and sunny, with a forecast high of 78. It will be sunny and in the mid 70s all weekend…really lovely for early February.
Current weather in Seattle is 44 degrees and cloudy, with a forecast high of 57 and sun. However it is supposed to rain all weekend with highs in the upper 40s. I notice all your pictures of UW aren’t showing the ubiquitous rain.
You also forgot to include some other famous buildings at UW, like Condon Hall:
The current weather in Seattle is clear blue skies and high 50s, as it has been most of the week. I’m here looking at it.
Selective? I posted a photo of Old Main, which the university itself uses often in its materials, a complete overview of the quad, a picture of one of the gates with the stadium in the background and an image of a modern building that, having walked the campus myself, I thought fairly representative of UofA architecture. I didn’t selectively search in either case; I copied what Google delivered. Most universities have a variety of architectural styles and I would never say UW is uniformly pleasing to the eye. But the number of old and classically styled buildings in proportion to the unattractive functional buildings on the edges of campus, like the two you posted, is much greater at UW than at UA and it’s not particularly close. So the pictures were really not that selective; rather, they are very representative of the UW campus and, at least based on my recollection from our visit, UofA.
I’d add that every picture of the old Japanese Cherry blossoms was taken sometime in March (by definition), which further makes the point: we have many clear days during the winters and early spring. The weather here is actually a reason to live in the PNW for a lot of people but I acknowledge that it may be overcast a bit too often for many as well. Anyway, enough about the weather. Arizona is lovely this time of year; I’d rather be here in the spring, summer and fall.
As to the trees, I am repeating what our campus guide told us. Here’s what the internet says.
Yes, your photos are selective, because you used only certain pictures in an effort to make your point. Yes the cherry trees at UW are beautiful, just like they are in DC for 10 days every spring. That doesn’t mean it looks like that the other 355 days of the year.
You called U of Arizona’s palm trees “fake trees”. They are not “fake” any more than the non-native cherry trees are at UW. It’s ridiculous to call out imported palm trees but not imported cherry trees.
Ehhh - if you look at all the rankings, there are probably 300 top 100 schools. We all have our faves - like for me W&L for small, Duke for mid, and Va Tech for large.
Disagree. I used pictures that are representative of the respective campuses and frankly could have gone on further with UW. Those pictures just scratch the surface. What you did is selective: picking out two buildings on the edge of the UW campus to make the point that UW has ugly buildings too, which was never in dipsute (though I now know Condon Hall is famous), then picking two more historical looking buildings at UA, I guess to make the point that UA has some too.
You missed the point about the cherry blossoms, which is the time of year the photos were taken, in response to your assertion that I was avoiding wet or wintery weather shots. If you look closely, a lot of the picture I chose are either under a cloudy sky or the campus is wet. Blossoms are in March.
You’re jumping into a somewhat long-running discussion on this topic between me and another poster and are failing to pick up on a little sarcasm. If the trees comment is what’s getting under your skin, I’ll gladly take it back. The Japanese cherry blossoms are most certainly not native to the PNW. That is true. And if you like ketchup on tacos, I apologize for that comment, too.
But I refute your assertion that I’m cherry picking. Those are the respective campuses and the array of pictures are representative. They are what they are. UofA is proud of Old Main. You should be too.
I think one point of great variation in campus opinions is urban vs more rural campuses. I’ve found people really tend to have a preference on that variable (I myself do not) and it seem to color how they view everything.
The other is uniformity. A lot of people really like the same style incorporated throughout a campus, like Stanford. Others say (and I agree), too much is too much. You can definitely have too much red brick iMO, no matter how nice the building.
Honestly, I have not. That is an instance of being judgy w/o sufficient information on my part. I suppose I should give it a try. I always use my MIL as the example but the truth is my wife and SIL do it too and love it.
Very urban College of Charleston = ugly. Ask my kid, and it’s the nicest in America I mean, why do people like BU, NYU, GW, etc - vs. say an Indiana or Alabama or Christopher Newport - campuses with lots of green
Irrelevant but my kid’s third grade teacher had a t-shirt that said “I put ketchup on my ketchup”. I like ketchup and I could see putting it on tacos but I like more spice than that on my tacos so I’d have to add some salsa too. Never understood why people think it’s sacrilegious to put ketchup on a hotdog.
Re beautiful campuses — I like green spaces and big trees and buildings that don’t all look the same. Hate faux gothic, love actual historic buildings. I think UNC Chapel Hill is one of the prettiest campuses around with actual history dating back to the 1700s along with new buildings but find Duke’s faux gothic look fake. I’m not a city person and I don’t think I could deal with an urban campus without green spaces.
I have visited UW Seattle two times, at different times of year. Both times, it rained a bit, cleared up, then rained again. Cherry blossoms were not blooming during either of my visits. Regardless, I thought it was a very beautiful campus. I really liked the amount of greenery and trees considering it’s also a relatively urban campus. The buildings are nice enough, but the setting is what makes it spectacular… the view of Mt Ranier is so striking that it feels almost unreal.
