Campus beauty and design matter.
The beauty of a campus can sway students in their college choice and play a significant role in first impressions, experts say. But what makes a college campus beautiful is in the eye of the beholder, says Stefan Hyman, associate vice president of enrollment management at San Diego State University in California. “In general, I think if there’s one term that sums it up, it would be a campus that has some form of character.” Here are 25 U.S. colleges known for beautiful campuses with attributes such as stunning architecture, picturesque settings or spectacular landscaping.
Aurora University (IL)
Situated about 45 miles west of Chicago, Aurora University‘s 37-acre campus features the landmark Eckhart Hall, which houses the school’s administration offices and its carillon, and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Opened in 1912, it’s named after donor and Civil War veteran Charles E. Eckhart, who specified that the hall and all major buildings on campus feature distinctive red tile roofs. AU’s formal entrance is lined with more than 50 Greenspire linden trees and more than 140 Dakota Pinnacle Asian birch trees. The campus was recognized for its beauty by the Professional Grounds Management Society, winning the 2023 grand honor in the small university and college grounds category.
U.S. News rank: 273 (tie), National Universities
Baylor University (TX)
Baylor University features many buildings with Georgian-style architecture, giving it a uniform look across campus. Founded in 1845, the campus sits in the heart of Waco in central Texas. Pat Neff Hall, with its 23.5-karat golden cupola, and the 137-year-old red brick Old Main, with its pyramidal spires, are its most iconic landmarks. The campus features both exterior and interior beauty, as many buildings showcase ornate copper ceilings and other intricate designs. Waco Creek runs through the campus and is a picturesque and relaxing spot for students, and the football stadium sits next to the Brazos River, making for a unique tailgating and game-day experience.
U.S. News rank: 91 (tie), National Universities
Berry College (GA)
Spanning over 27,000 acres, Berry College in Georgia is the largest contiguous college campus in the world. It also has something most schools can’t claim: a mountain on its campus. Lavender Mountain, over 1,500 feet, features a diverse habitat of forest, fields and wetlands as well as hiking and biking trails.
The campus is full of lush greenery and boasts English Gothic architecture, reflecting pools, fountains and the Old Mill — a large wooden waterwheel. The school has used natural resources on the land, including timber, clay and limestone, for development. Several feature films, including “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Remember the Titans” were filmed on the Berry College campus.
U.S. News rank: 4, Regional Universities (South)
Denison University (OH)
Founded in 1831, Denison University sits on 900 acres in Granville. The university’s defining architectural landmarks include the 1924 Swasey Chapel, built in English Stuart Revival style, and the 1894 Barney-Davis Hall. The white Vermont marble Swasey Observatory was funded in 1909 by Ambrose Swasey, who designed some of the most powerful telescopes of his time. The hilltop campus is also home to a 550-acre biological reserve and a college cemetery established in 1833. Designed by the Frederick Law Olmsted landscape architecture firm, the campus has been recognized by the PGMS with several national awards for its beauty and sustainable maintenance practices, including the Olmsted Property Honor Award in 2024.
U.S. News rank: 36 (tie), National Liberal Arts Colleges
Duke University (NC)
Spanning nearly 8,700 acres in Durham, the Duke University campus was also recognized by the PGMS for its landscaping and beauty with the large university and college grounds grand award in 2023. The Duke Forest is home to more than 900 species of plants, including more than 100 species of trees, and more than 7,100 acres of the forest are dedicated to research and environmental study. At the edge of Cameron Woods stands an oak tree estimated to be about 350 years old. Duke’s East Campus features Georgian architecture while the West Campus features Gothic architecture and the towering Duke Chapel, with 77 stained glass windows, ribbed vaults and a 50-bell carillon.
U.S. News rank: 6 (tie), National Universities
Flagler College (FL)
Flagler College in St. Augustine traces its campus roots to 1888, when the Hotel Ponce De León was built by industrialist Henry Flagler, co-founder of the Standard Oil Company. The hotel, which features Spanish Renaissance-style architecture with a tan stucco facade and red tile roofing, was an early project of architects John Carrère and Thomas Hastings, who designed the House and Senate office buildings in Washington, D.C., according to the school’s website. The interior features stained glass windows by Louis Comfort Tiffany. Flagler College was established in 1968, with the hotel serving as its main campus building.
U.S. News rank: 3, Regional Colleges South
Georgia Institute of Technology
A haven amid bustling traffic and skyscrapers in the heart of Atlanta, Georgia Institute of Technology‘s main campus spans more than 400 wooded acres with more than 15,000 trees. The university’s Kendeda Building is net-positive energy and water, and was designed to be “the most environmentally advanced classroom and teaching lab building ever constructed in the Southeast.” Its 4,300-square-foot rooftop garden includes a honeybee apiary, pollinator garden and blueberry orchard. Kendeda earned the Living Building Challenge certification, said to be the world’s most ambitious green building achievement. In 2023, the PGMS awarded Georgia Tech its grand honor for urban university grounds as well as its sustainability award.
U.S. News rank: 33 (tie), National Universities
Harvard University (MA)
The oldest university in the U.S., Harvard University‘s architecture offers more than a glimpse into the past. Roughly 660 tight-knit buildings make up the Boston-area campus, showcasing Romanesque, Colonial Revival, Federal, High Victorian Gothic, Greek Revival, Collegiate Gothic, Art Deco and modernist architecture. “A walker can sample almost 300 years of innovative designs in an easy stroll,” The Harvard Gazette notes. Massachusetts Hall, built in 1720, is the oldest building on campus and served as a military barrack during the Revolutionary War. Today it houses a freshman dormitory and the president’s office. The striking Widener Library was designed by Julian Abele, one of the first prominent Black architects in the U.S., and opened in 1915.
U.S. News rank: 3, National Universities
Indiana University–Bloomington
Nearly every building on the Indiana University–Bloomington campus is made from local limestone, and the campus features about eight different styles of architecture. Many of the school’s first buildings were built in Collegiate Gothic style — a modified version of High Victorian Gothic — though other buildings feature styles such as Romanesque, Art Deco and Modern, according to the school’s website. The building design creates a uniform look and feel as students stroll the campus, often passing through the Sample Gates, which were built in 1987 with Indiana limestone and now serve as the campus’ iconic entrance.
U.S. News rank: 73 (tie), National Universities
Kenyon College (OH)
The oldest private college in Ohio, Kenyon College was founded in 1824. Its Gothic-inspired buildings sprawl across a 1,000-acre rural campus on a hilltop surrounded by wooded areas in the central Ohio city of Gambier. Rosse Hall, built between 1829 and 1845 in Greek Revival style, is Kenyon College’s first chapel, according to the Society of Architectural Historians. A fire destroyed it in 1897, and the building was later converted to a gymnasium, then renovated in 1975 to resemble its original form. It’s now a 600-seat concert and lecture hall. Ascension Hall, an elegant Victorian Gothic “castle” built in 1859, is home to five academic departments and a study lounge.
U.S. News rank: 45 (tie), National Liberal Arts Colleges
Mercer University (GA)
The oldest continuously operating university in Georgia after its founding in 1833, Mercer University features blooming azaleas, magnolia and pink Yoshino cherry trees, vibrant fall foliage and Victorian Gothic-style architecture across its 150-acre campus. The 168-feet spires atop the Godsey Administration Building can be seen across the city of Macon, and the Walter F. George School of Law building on Coleman Hill is modeled after Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed. “There’s a magic formula in the intersection of a historic tree-canopied oasis and the modern amenities necessary for a campus of Mercer’s stature,” university president William Underwood wrote in an email. “It’s a formula that can’t be manufactured.”
U.S. News rank: 165 (tie), National Universities
Pepperdine University (CA)
Sometimes a school’s geographic location can give the campus a leg up. One school that can stake that claim is Pepperdine University in California. Formed in 1937 and situated atop a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Malibu, Pepperdine gives students and faculty a view most college students don’t get. The university’s buildings “were designed to complement the ocean-side setting by using a modern interpretation of the Mediterranean Revival style,” according to the Los Angeles Conservancy. The campus is also lined with a wide variety of tree, bush, succulent and flower species, including Canary Island palm trees and Moreton Bay fig trees.
U.S. News rank: 80 (tie), National Universities
Princeton University (NJ)
One of the oldest universities in the U.S., Princeton University in New Jersey is home to a mix of Gothic, neo-Gothic and modern architecture. Inspired in part by the architecture at the University of Oxford and University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, the campus offers an Old English feel that many others can’t replicate. The Ivy League school is also known for its scenic views and natural beauty, including the fox gloves, white rhododendrons and hydrangeas of The Class of 1936 Garden and the stone fountains, wild geranium, ageratum, Japanese spirea, lamb’s ear and wild geranium of the Wyman Garden. The campus is also home to several American colonial-style buildings, including the house where Albert Einstein lived from 1935 until his death in 1955.
U.S. News rank: 1, National Universities
Salve Regina University (RI)
The waterfront campus of Salve Regina University in Newport is built across seven grand estates established during the Gilded Age, a time of remarkable innovation and extravagance that spanned roughly from 1877 to 1896. Fronting the Atlantic Ocean, the 80-acre campus is surrounded by tide pools and museums. It features “more than 20 historic structures that have been sensitively adapted to meet University needs while also preserving their status as treasures of the 19th and early 20th centuries,” according to the school’s website, including Stonor Hall, which was built in 1885 as an estate henkeeper’s cottage. The stately Ochre Court mansion and the rocky Cliff Walk are popular with campus visitors.
U.S. News rank: 27 (tie), Regional Universities North
San Diego State University (CA)
Like many universities in California, San Diego State University features Mission-style buildings with white stucco facades and red tile roofs that blend with the city’s architecture. The campus design plays off its sunny environment, Hyman says, with open outdoor corridors lined with palm trees, flower gardens and buildings with large windows. Hyman says SDSU uses “value-sensitive design,” which aims to accommodate the values of those it seeks to attract. One way it does that is by providing skateboard-specific lanes for skaters to get across campus. “So it’s not just the beauty, it’s the character that’s displayed in the values,” Hyman says. “Whether on a conscious or unconscious level, that impacts student perception.”
U.S. News rank: 109 (tie), National Universities
Spelman College (GA)
Founded in 1881 as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, Spelman College occupies 39 acres near downtown Atlanta and tops U.S. News’ list of historically Black colleges and universities. The all-women’s school features a variety of historic and modern architecture styles, including the red brick Rockefeller Hall, built in 1886 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The newest addition to campus, opened in January 2025, is the $86 million Center for Innovation and the Arts, a two-story, 84,000-square-feet modern structure featuring a network of connected spaces to encourage research, experimentation and collaboration.
U.S. News rank: 40 (tie), National Liberal Arts Colleges
Stanford University (CA)
Another picturesque California college setting can be found at Stanford University in Palo Alto, just south of San Francisco. Featuring a blend of Romanesque and Mission Revival architecture known as Richardsonian Romanesque, the general plan for the campus’ ambitious and architecturally brilliant design was conceived in 1886 by renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, who designed Central Park in New York City, according to the school’s website. Founded in 1885, Stanford spans nearly 13 square miles and is full of grassy fields, eucalyptus groves and rolling hills as well as native California plants, exotic trees and rare cactuses. The Main Quad, the heart of the campus, features eight palm-filled oases.
U.S. News rank: 4, National Universities
Swarthmore College (PA)
Located southwest of Philadelphia, Swarthmore College is centered around the campus’ first building, Parrish Hall, a Victorian-style granite and slate structure built in 1869. The Scott Arboretum is a popular spot to visit, with gardens of hydrangeas, lilacs, tree peonies and many other trees and shrubs, according to the arboretum’s website. Swarthmore’s campus also features an amphitheater with multiple levels of lawn-covered stone tiers shaded by tulip trees. Throughout the school’s 425 acres are many wooded areas and walking trails.
U.S. News rank: 3, National Liberal Arts Colleges
Texas Christian University
Founded in 1873, the campus of Texas Christian University features a mix of historic and contemporary buildings. One landmark on the Fort Worth-based campus is Frog Fountain, which consists of four flutes topped with stylized lotus leaves — one for each class of students, with the shortest symbolizing freshmen and the tallest representing seniors. The water flowing from flute to flute represents the sharing of knowledge from class to class. TCU won a 2023 PGMS award and in 2024 was named a Tree Campus Higher Education Institution by the Arbor Day Foundation for the eighth consecutive year, recognizing commitment to caring for the university’s trees.
U.S. News rank: 105 (tie), National Universities
University of Colorado Boulder
As visually appealing as the campus itself may be, with its sandstone buildings and tile roofs in a romantic Italianate style, perhaps one of the biggest perks of attending the University of Colorado Boulder is the view of the Rocky Mountains in the distance. Fans attending evening games at Folsom Field are often greeted with a sunset just behind the mountains, creating a colorful setting for college football. Hiking and skiing enthusiasts can feel right at home in Boulder with Eldora Mountain Resort just a 35-minute drive away and eight ski resorts within a 2 1/2-hour drive.
U.S. News rank: 98 (tie), National Universities
University of Notre Dame (IN)
Inspired by Notre Dame Cathedral in France, many of the buildings on the University of Notre Dame‘s campus in South Bend are modeled after Gothic architecture. At the center of campus is the 187-foot tall Main Building, with its iconic gold dome. Topped by a 19-feet-tall, 4,000-pound statue of Virgin Mary, the current building was built in 1879 after the previous one was destroyed by fire. Originally a center for teaching, dining and residences, Main Building today primarily houses offices for administration, though some classrooms remain. The Fighting Irish football team wears golden helmets as a nod to the dome.
U.S. News rank: 18 (tie), National Universities
University of Vermont
Founded in 1791, the University of Vermont is the fifth-oldest university in New England. Its 460-acre campus features buildings constructed in various architectural styles. The Old Mill — home for the economics, English, geography and political science departments — is one of the oldest buildings on campus. The university’s first college building once occupied that site but was destroyed by fire in 1824, according to the school’s website. The campus sits near Lake Champlain in the middle of Burlington, in northwest Vermont. Snow typically covers the campus in colder months, while vibrant and colorful trees line the campus in the fall.
U.S. News rank: 121 (tie), National Universities
University of Virginia
Founded by former U.S. President Thomas Jefferson in 1819, the University of Virginia is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its iconic red brick buildings and white columns were inspired by Greco-Roman architecture and Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladia, according to the Cultural Landscape Foundation. Jefferson designed the famous Academical Village to foster cross-disciplinary exchange; faculty from a range of specialties were housed in pavilions around a central U-shaped lawn, and students lived between professors’ homes. Its centerpiece, the Rotunda, is modeled after the Pantheon in Rome. The campus’ Pavilion Gardens, with their curving brick walls, include various designs “from Renaissance-derived elements to naturalistic designs typical of 18th-century English parks,” according to the university.
U.S. News Rank: 24 (tie), National Universities
University of Washington
Situated next to Lake Washington in Seattle, the University of Washington gives students a big-city experience along with a taste of just about everything associated with the Pacific Northwest — lush greenery by a large body of water with mountain views in the distance. You can see Mt. Rainier from various spots on campus, and blossoming Yoshino cherry trees line the liberal arts quadrangle with bright pink each spring. UW calls the cathedral-like Suzzallo Library, with its vaulted timber ceilings and 65-feet-tall stained-glass lancet windows, “the soul of the university.” Other retreats include mini beaches and the rhododendron- and azalea-filled Greig Garden where, University of Washington Magazine notes, “they ‘unpaved’ a parking lot and put up Paradise.”
U.S. News rank: 46 (tie), National Universities
Villanova University (PA)
The twin spires of the St. Thomas of Villanova Church may be Villanova University‘s most recognizable architectural features, but the 260-acre campus in the Philadelphia suburbs also boasts collegiate Gothic-style buildings and award-winning groundskeeping. The Commons, made up of six residence halls, features natural-cut granite and decorative cast stone details, and campus planners hold the ideal of “a beautiful, amenable, and sustainable campus to support the Augustinian ideal of living and studying amongst friends.” The school received the 2024 PGMS grand award for urban university grounds and was named the sustainability award winner for its natural pest management, including use of a bee-protection program as well as bat houses and pollinator gardens that use native flower plantings.
U.S. News rank: 58 (tie), National Universities
Other Campus Resources
Learn more about college living by checking out the U.S. News guide to campus resources. Connect with U.S. News Education on Facebook and X/Twitter to get more advice on making the college decision.
Colleges With Beautiful Campuses
— Aurora University (IL)
— Baylor University (TX)
— Berry College (GA)
— Denison University (OH)
— Duke University (NC)
— Flagler College (FL)
— Georgia Institute of Technology
— Harvard University (MA)
— Indiana University–Bloomington
— Kenyon College (OH)
— Mercer University (GA)
— Pepperdine University (CA)
— Princeton University (NJ)
— Salve Regina University (RI)
— San Diego State University (CA)
— Spelman College (GA)
— Stanford University (CA)
— Swarthmore College (PA)
— Texas Christian University
— University of Colorado Boulder
— University of Notre Dame (IN)
— University of Vermont
— University of Virginia
— University of Washington
— Villanova University (PA)
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25 Beautiful College Campuses originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 01/31/25: This slideshow was published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
