<p>I used to hate UMass Amherst, but after spending time on campus, it’s grown on me. That 23-story phallus of a library… the Fine Arts center that makes you think to yourself, “Someone looked at the design for this building and said YES… ???”… the student-center-slash-hotel that’s shaped like a toaster… I think it’s endearing.</p>
<p>Funnily enough, Amherst College turns me off more every time I’m on campus…</p>
<p>Also, I cannot abide urban campuses in general, but that’s just me.</p>
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<p>Really? The post I saw recently on MSNBC of pictures taken on the Texas Tech campus looked really nice. They even won editor picks. But, a picture can be deceiving.</p>
<p>[Pretty</a> college campuses - Destinations - MSNBC.com](<a href=“http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20200955/]Pretty”>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20200955/)</p>
<p>Just some viewpoints based on what I’ve read here:</p>
<p>Penn: Was #1 on my list but dropped off completely due partly to campus, but mostly to overcompetitiveness at Wharton as described by the Asian Wharton lady. The campus was nice but I agree a city campus in the middle of a really large city is not for me. Like the other poster Georgetown was OK for me though.</p>
<p>Dartmouth: Someone wrote that along with Harvard, it leaves a bit more to be desired. Try telling me that when you come down Main Street in Hanover toward the Green on a crisp cool fall afternoon with the leaves changing. My ED school, though, so I’m biased. ;)</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon: Some of it is ugly. My dad worked there for 17 years and I went to daycare there. My dad’s office window overlooked Wean Hall, a cold poured concrete structure done in the Brutalist fashion. A lot of CMU is nice but some of it isn’t. Generally, historic (1930s and earlier) and recent (1990s to present) is nice at CMU, while everything in between is not so good. Location of campus is not “urban”, much like Georgetown in this regard.</p>
<p>Pitt: This is my safety school (I’m from Pittsburgh, BTW) and some of it is nice but probably most of it isn’t. William Pitt Union, etc. (again, historic buidings) are nice. So are recent buildings, like Mervis Hall, home to the Katz MBA program. But buildings like Posvar Hall (another brutalist poured concrete “masterpiece” :P) and Litchfield Towers (read: freshman housing in the “cans of Comet cleanser” where your room is like a pie slice) leave a lot to be desired.</p>
<p>Just my $0.02.</p>
<p>^^^ you go to 'Dice?</p>
<p>For some reason, I didn’t really like Cal Tech’s campus. Everything seemed really scenic (the stone bridge and the fountains) but it just gave me this dark and gloomy feeling. Perhaps there was too much shade there XD.</p>
<p>However, has anyone ever seen Guilford College, in Greensboro, North Carolina? Holy cow I did not like it! </p>
<p>++++</p>
<p>Wow…I have seen some comments before that I thought interesting…but this one is truly strange.</p>
<p>Guilford is a GORGEOUS campus of stately southern style mansions and georgian architecture. Its on 250 acres and has STUNNING trees and walking paths. Goodness gracious…maybe you prefer modern buildings or a more urban look. </p>
<h2>Its a tremendous school and one of the gems that is off the beaten path. </h2>
<p>Tulane is also a pretty campus, though it sustained its fair share of damage with Katrina. </p>
<p>Some schools are more urban and offer a modern look to them, like Seattle University. </p>
<p>Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. </p>
<p>Some are country club look alikes and some are historical…going back hundreds of years, like Washington and Lee or University of Virginia. Some are gothic like UChicago, Fordham and Duke. </p>
<p>Some are just tall buildings like NYU. </p>
<p>What is important is that you go to a school that is a good fit for you academically, socially, financially, geographically…and maybe architecturally.</p>
<p>I know people who hated Washington University in St. Louis and St. Louis University. I thought both campuses were gorgeous, though very different.</p>
<p>What is the setting? And what do you want? Big city fun things to do? Or rural and stately and clubby like Furman or Sewanee? Or a mix of both like Vanderbilt?</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon is an urban campus that is a superb school. But I would never beat up on it. </p>
<p>Some people like big and tall, and some prefer small and intimate. At U Georgia you have to ride a bus to get from one class to another on time. Literally. Not an option to walk. </p>
<p>One man’s heaven is another man’s hell. Its all subjective.</p>
<p>Personally, I would rather judge a school by how many smiling faces I see…or are they grumpy, stressed and paranoid?</p>
<p>UCF…looks like a giant community college and was pretty depressing with all the abandoned frat houses… but in general most florida colleges are pretty fugly!</p>
<p>Around here, the communtiy college is actually in better shape than the universities, which look like dungeons and parking garages.</p>
<p>For OP (or others) who didn’t like the ASU campus, can I ask why?</p>
<p>It’s funny that people are saying Harvard. I went by after my visit to Tufts (which I hated) and LOOOOOVED the campus. I’d never go there, but I thought it was beautiful.</p>
<p>Wow, you all have found a thread from my freshman year of college…</p>
<p>I live in Philadelphia, and Drexel is an ugly campus. I was going to apply there but I don’t even enjoy driving by it when I go downtown. My mom went to Penn, and I’ve spent alot of time on the campus. I think it is really pretty if you don’t mind the city life, or old buildings. I think Philadelphia gets a bad reputation, but if you want to visit a lot of colleges all at once, come to Philadelphia. I can easily name off 10-15 in a 10 mile radius.</p>
<p>I agree with russiasaurus on Amherst:</p>
<p>Quote:
“Funnily enough, Amherst College turns me off more every time I’m on campus…”</p>
<p>And I feel similarly about Wesleyan.</p>
<p>Also throw BU and, especiallly, UMass into the mix.</p>
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<p>Temple’s campus is much nicer. Drexel is a dump.</p>
<p>Brandeis U</p>
<p>Hartwick has got to be one of the worst campuses in the country. It is literally built into the side of a cliff. I got lost looking for a museum once and wondered around that campus for an hour. All the roads are one way and wind up said cliff.</p>
<p>Ithaca College in New York has a pretty ugly campus, although the view of the finger lake region from there is nice.</p>
<p>Every single Texas A&M location and Texas Tech.</p>
<p>UNLV is terrible (saw it during Speech nationals last year, lol)</p>
<p>in a different vein, Hampshire is awful, IMO. It’s like a run-down farm turned into a school for hippies lol</p>
<p>I visited Hampshire during the summer before my Junior year ( I was in a sort of pseudo-hippy-rebellious stage of my life…). </p>
<p>I think to go to Hampshire you don’t go for the campus (which really is antiquated and ugly), you go for the intellectual experience and the sense of intellectual community present there. </p>
<p>The buildings are of the 1960’s-70’s era, so you can imagine that they would be very unpleasing to the eye. I loved my tour guide though…</p>
<p>SUNY Stony Brook
Cheyney
Lincoln</p>
<p>And I like Drexel and SUNY Binghamton. And I absolutely love Temple’s campus!</p>
<p>@ DV, c’mon now, I would expect more out of you as a Plan II acceptee!
I mean, if by “intellectual experience,” you mean “smoking weed 24/7 and not getting actual grades on anything,” then YES, Hampshire offers an “intellectual experience.”</p>
<p>lolz ;)</p>