What college most closely resembles Hogwarts?

College Search & Lists
181

<p>I can’t believe no one has mentioned BC. They call it the Jesuit Ivy, but it looked more like Hogwarts than any Ivy I visited. Some pics I found online …</p>

<p>Gasson Tower (you can see this huge Gothic tower from anywhere on campus and even from the Longfellow Bridge in downtown Boston):</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.bc.edu/offices/omc/phdb/meta-elements/jpg/gasson_exterior600.jpg[/url]”>http://www.bc.edu/offices/omc/phdb/meta-elements/jpg/gasson_exterior600.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://www.bc.edu/offices/omc/phdb/meta-elements/jpg/gasson_night600.jpg[/url]”>http://www.bc.edu/offices/omc/phdb/meta-elements/jpg/gasson_night600.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://www.bc.edu/offices/omc/phdb/meta-elements/jpg/gasson_morning600.jpg[/url]”>http://www.bc.edu/offices/omc/phdb/meta-elements/jpg/gasson_morning600.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Ford Tower (another one of the “towers on the heights”):</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.bc.edu/offices/omc/phdb/meta-elements/jpg/ford_tower600.jpg[/url]”>http://www.bc.edu/offices/omc/phdb/meta-elements/jpg/ford_tower600.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://www.bc.edu/offices/omc/phdb/meta-elements/jpg/burns_ford_tower600.jpg[/url]”>http://www.bc.edu/offices/omc/phdb/meta-elements/jpg/burns_ford_tower600.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://www.bc.edu/offices/omc/phdb/meta-elements/jpg/burns_lawn_dusk600.jpg[/url]”>http://www.bc.edu/offices/omc/phdb/meta-elements/jpg/burns_lawn_dusk600.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Bapst Library (probably the nicest place I saw on any campus tour. The main reading room is called Gargan Hall … even the names are Hogwartsesque):</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.bc.edu/publications/atbc/features/innerfire/slideshow/01.html[/url]”>http://www.bc.edu/publications/atbc/features/innerfire/slideshow/01.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://www.bc.edu/offices/omc/phdb/meta-elements/jpg/bapst_lawn_fall600.jpg[/url]”>http://www.bc.edu/offices/omc/phdb/meta-elements/jpg/bapst_lawn_fall600.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Other campus shots:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.bc.edu/offices/omc/phdb/meta-elements/jpg/burns_lawn_baseball600.jpg[/url]”>http://www.bc.edu/offices/omc/phdb/meta-elements/jpg/burns_lawn_baseball600.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://www.bc.edu/offices/omc/phdb/meta-elements/jpg/stone_wall_ivy600.jpg[/url]”>http://www.bc.edu/offices/omc/phdb/meta-elements/jpg/stone_wall_ivy600.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://www.bc.edu/offices/omc/phdb/meta-elements/jpg/a-025-051-35h.jpg[/url]”>http://www.bc.edu/offices/omc/phdb/meta-elements/jpg/a-025-051-35h.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Here’s a blurb from the Miami Herald I couldn’t agree with more:</p>

<p>“More than any other ACC school, Boston College carries its architecture inside. The place could double for Hogwarts. A lofty reading room within the stone walls of Bapst Library is accented with stained glass windows, allowing light to dance against the walls. The soaring Ford Tower – named for Margaret Ford, a domestic laborer who left her estate of $25,000 to the college just in time to finish the building – is adorned with stained-glass windows telling the stories of such epics as The Divine Comedy, Beowulf and Parsifal. An exquisite little chapel with crafted oak ceilings is tucked inside St. Mary’s Hall, home to most of the college’s Jesuit staff. A marble statue of the Archangel Michael, murals and a rotunda form the centerpiece of Gasson Hall.”</p>

182

<p>The analogy stated earlier in this post that Harvard is Gryffindor, Stanford is Hufflepuff, Princeton is Slytherin and Yale is Ravenclaw is half correct. Harvard is truly closer to Slytherin and Princeton is Gryffindor. This can be substantiated in several ways.</p>

<p>Firstly, Harvard is the oldest university in the country, the same way Slytherin is the headquarters for most of the old wizarding families. Also, in conversation with an MIT student on my summer visit to Harvard, he revealed that Harvard students are fundamentally power-hungry. Also, most of Harvard’s courses are, according to my counselor, graded on a curve, which would mimic the intense competition of Slytherin students. Besides that, and this is a negative reason it’s similar, Ted Kaczynski (the unabomber) went to Harvard, which parallels Voldemort being a Slytherin alum. Besides this, my first impression upon entering the Harvard campus was that it was very austere, something which was subtantiated in an article in the Crimson by a student who mentioned the perceived Harvard superiority to all other schools. Is it just me or does this perceived “Harvard superiority” not parallel the elitism of students like Draco Malfoy in Slytherin? Also, no disrespect meant to President Summers, but he’s not exactly the most tactful person and the faculty seem to think he’s as abrasive as Professor Snape. On a personal note, however, Harvard’s incredible similarity to Slytherin was one reason why I fell in love with it, which is why I feel so compelled to explain the mistake in comparing it to Gryffindor.</p>

<p>Also, if you look at the Princeton website and compare it to the Harvard one, you’ll notice the Princeton website has brighter colors and just seems to make more of an effort to feel friendly, whereas the first thing you see on Harvard’s website is headlines about its faculty/student achievements. Princeton also has no dark secret in its alumni and while it is known to be snobby, there’s no such thing as dropping the “P bomb.” Returning to alumni, Bill Gates went to Harvard and he’s the richest man on earth, whereas a famous alumnus of Princeton is Donald Rumsfeld, whose current job as secretary of Defense is a position dependent on courage, the main value of Gryffindor house.</p>

<p>However, in terms of which school is most like Hogwarts, I’d say the UK colleges already mentioned probably outstrip any American university, which is why I’ll focus on which one is most similar in America. Yale most certainly has the most Hogwarts-esque architecture, whereas Harvard has the most Hogwarts-esque dining hall and uses “houses” as opposed to “residential colleges,” as well as has a Durmstrang/Beauxbatons relationship with MIT and Wellesley. However, Wellesley did make the attempt to appear similar and I’ll be the first to admit I was cracking up looking at that slideshow. I’d say it all depends on whether you want a school which parallels Hogwarts in terms of student life, or architecture or divisive housing arrangements. If you want a Gryffindor/Slytherin rivalry, however, I’d suggest either Harvard or Yale, since they both feel the same way about each other as Gryffindor and Slytherin do.</p>

<p>Sorry about it being so long, but I had a lot to say. I guess I’m just a loser. :)</p>

183

<p>yale, absolutely</p>

184

<p>omg this thread is so sad that i cant even make fun of it.</p>

185

<p>thanks for the pictures everyone!! I think all pictures are amazing!! I’m so excited to go to a college next year</p>

186

<p>dreamysugars–I’m pretty sure that is just a fancy way of saying you can’t.</p>

187

<p>If we are really talking about architecture, IT IS Oxford, or at least one of the colleges there, because the movie-makers used this oxford college as a model for Hogwarts in the movie ;)</p>

188

<p>i love this thread. :slight_smile: </p>

<p>it’s not “sad” at all! some people, like me, need to live, learn, and work somewhere that is architecturally breathtaking…and just beautiful and inspiring in general. hogwarts happens to be a place like that…</p>

<p>now that i think about it, a lot of the schools i want to apply to are very hogwarts-esque: yale, princeton, cambridge, st. andrews…</p>

189

<p>you people deserve to be laughed at for obessing over a poorly writen kids book that rips off eveything on god’s green earth that is good and then peverts it. read something better like heinlein or tolkien
anything else HA HA HA</p>

190

<p>And I assume by your extensive knowledge of the character names that you have read the books as well?</p>

191

<p>You are very welcome. What has Heinlein written, by the way, I’d like to check one of his/her books out of the library.</p>

192

<p>The moon is a harsh mistiress
Stranger in a Strange land
Starship Troopers
many others those come to mind</p>

193

<p>Thank you. I can only assume that Starship Troopers the book was horribly destroyed by the movie?</p>

194

<p>Yeah the book was much better. the movie was almost a parody of it.</p>

195

<p>That’s what I’d heard. Sad, really, what Hollywood can do to a good book. </p>

<p>Well, I suppose that concludes our discourse. No hard feelings on this side of the room, of course.</p>

<p>Now, returning to the subject of this thread, anyone have any other photos or comments?</p>

196

<p>" an Ohio school that not only has more than its share of phantoms and spirits… but I would say that it is infested with them!"</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.prairieghosts.com/oh-keny.html[/url]”>http://www.prairieghosts.com/oh-keny.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>And, the aforementioned Peirce Hall. Note the four longitudinally placed rows of tables in the hall.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www1.kenyon.edu/tour/peirce.phtml[/url]”>http://www1.kenyon.edu/tour/peirce.phtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

197

<p>The Harry Potter movies were filmed at Uni of Durham. So, I’d say that school.</p>

198

<p>I think they were filmed at Oxford</p>

199

<p>they were filmed in numerous locations, especially from one film to another.</p>

<p>christ church college @ oxford is the site of several scenes in the film; the staircase leading to the dining hall is where filch finds harry and ron in the second film, for example.</p>

200

<p>compton community college…haha sorry i thought id add a little humor.</p>