just can't beat iowa
The Boston area has an impressive number top colleges, almost all within running distance from my apartment in Cambridge. I've always liked walking/running through campuses - all the activity, youth - I can almost sense the hope/ambitions of the students. The hope that for more than 75% of the students will be crushed soon after graduation - when they walk into the real world and start to realize that they don't stand a chance.
anyway - I digress, the point of this blog is that I've now run through the following campuses (ranked in order of how much I liked the campus):
1. Harvard University
2. Tufts University (a top undergrad/veterinary school)
3. Boston University (4th largest private university in the country)
4. MIT (one of the top tech schools in the world)
I admit that Harvard has a great campus and Tufts is not bad, but - Boston U and MIT are amazingly bad. Both MIT and BU are surrounded by the city and they really have no campus/student feel at all.
But .. neither Harvard or Tufts compares to the Iowa Campus. I still have not been to a campus that compares to Iowa. Does anyone else feel this way? I wonder how much of my preference is based on Iowa being 'my' campus. Maybe everyone feels this way about their campus no matter where they went .. i wonder. I didn't even particularly enjoy college - it was just one stress test after another, but I love that campus.
recent branches
I have been fortunate to visit a lot of campuses around the country traveling with the athletic teams I worked with. Maybe, like Brian, I'm biased because Iowa is "my school" and maybe it's because you get to know all of the nook and cranny's of a campus and some really magical places that the outsider would never really know about. The memories during my time at Iowa obviously skew some internal feelings which I would say were primarily positive. Brian - dido on some stressful tests along the way.
But here are a few campuses that have stuck out in my mind that were up there for me:
U of Madison (the good old isthmus)
Penn St. (beautiful Happy Valley in the Allegheny Mts.)
Notre Dame (touchdown Jesus - one of the top places I have worked a football game - multiple times during the game "chills down the spine")
Cal Poly (maybe not so much the campus, but we stayed at a sweet hotel by Pismo Beach
Tulane (had that great Southern feel to it)
I just saw a sliver of campus but U. of Virginia looked pretty good (what can you say - Thomas Jefferson)
My campus is wonderful... it overlooks my bed and my tv.
Gotta say....I agree
I didn't particularly like college either but Iowa City's campus has a charm. I loved studying in the old capitol 2nd floor...it was a time when you could go up into the bell tower. Only draw back is bats lived up there and they would escape to the 2nd floor and fly around in a frenzy hitting the windows.
Also there was something beautiful about crossing the small bridge over the river to the Art building..1/2 way across there was a heat blower and it was great in an almost frozen state to stand there.
Loved my painting time and prints but the Art History was a serious challenge...the tests were slides not the work in entirety but a small portion of it and the slides went by quickly and you had to list artist time period technique etc...endless...afterwords there was this feeling of knowing nothings and being brain empty afterwords but not always with a feeling of accomplishment or even if you had succeeded.
But also think what one thinks of a home always holds something...there is no city like Chicago back before the Miracle Mile when State St and Michigan Ave held the wonderful Christmas windows with the snow lightly falling and the hustle and bustle of people
I think Kris is the most insightful family expert.
You've really seen a lot, and have great descriptions from your experiences!
I like UW Madison, too: a Union with sail boat bays underneath is pretty cool, and State Street is (was?) a great stretch. U of Iowa's beautiful river can't be replicated, but I guess the floods are a reminder that there is a price for that. The open stack libraries, and affordable food in Iowa City also spoiled me.
Gated colleges (or those hemmed in by a city) - as pretty as they may be on the inside - seem to miss the charms of the open sprawling campus at Iowa that I imprinted on. Fortunately, there is more than one way to do things well in this area: deeper thinkers than I have argued that the best campus may be a cottage in the woods, a public square, a boat, etc.