COLLEGE TOWNS & CAMPUSES
The 2016 Readers Choice Awards poll by 10Best (www.10best.com), a USA Today travel site, ranked college towns as follows:
Best College Small Towns
1. Athens, OH
2. Ithaca, NY
3. Williamsburg, VA
4. Flagstaff, AZ
5. Lawrence, KS
6. Iowa City, IA
7. San Luis Obispo, CA
8. Santa Fe, NM
9. Oxford, MX
10. Yellow Springs, OH
Best College Town Weekends
1. Lafayette, LA
2. Athens, OH
3. Madison, WI
4. Oxford, MS
5. Fredericksburg, VA
6. Flagstaff, AZ
7. Fayetteville, AR
8. Ithaca, NY
9. Charlottesville, VA
10. Duluth, MN
“College towns make near-perfect getaways. Cities with a college or university have a fun, youthful vibe and unexpected shopping options. Restaurants, bars and entertainment are typically plentiful and affordable. Throw in a beautiful campus, a culturally diverse population, some regional surprises and voila – you have a great recipe for a weekend.”
Most Beautiful College Campuses in USA Photo Gallery
Most Beautiful College Campuses in USA
The following are the most beautiful college campuses in the United States (sources: Forbes, Princeton Review, Travel + Leisure, and various online sources):
• Agnes Scott College (Decatur, GA)
• Amherst College (Amherst, MA)
• Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY)
• Belmont University (Nashville, TN)
• Berry College (Mount Berry, GA)
• Brown University (Providence, RI)
• Bryn Mawr (Bryn Mawr, PA)
• College of the Atlantic (Bar Harbor, ME)
• College of William & Mary (Williamsburg, VA)
• Cornell University (Ithaca, Ny)
• Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH)
• Duke University (Durham, NC)
• Elon University (Elon, NC)
• Emory University (Atlanta, GA)
• Evergreen State College (Olympia, WA)
• Florida International University (Miami, FL)
• Florida Southern College (Lakeland, FL)
• Florida State University (Tallahassee, FL)
• Furman University (Greenville, SC)
• Gallaudet University (Washington, DC)
• Gettysburg College (Gettysburg, PA)
• Harvard University (Cambridge, MA)
• Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago, IL)
• Indiana University (Bloomington, IN)
• Kenyon College (Gambier, OH)
• Lewis & Clark College (Portland, OR)
• Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles, CA)
• Miami University (Oxford, OH)
• Mount Holyoke College (South Hadley, CT)
• Northwestern University (Evanston, iL)
• Occidental College (Los Angeles, CA)
• Pepperdine University (Malibu, CA)
• Princeton University (Princeton, NJ)
• Rhodes College (Memphis, TN)
• Rice University (Houston, TX)
• Rollins College (Winter Park, FL)
• Saint Mary’s College of California (Moraga, CA)
• Scripps College (Claremont, CA)
• Sewanee, The University of the South (Sewanee, TN)
• Sonoma State University (Sonoma, CA)
• St. Olaf College (Northfield, MN)
• Stanford University (Palo Alto, CA)
• Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, PA)
• Sweet Briar College (Sweet Briar, VA)
• Texas A&M University (College Station, TX)
• United States Military Academy (West Point, NY)
• United States Naval Academy (Annapolis, MD)
• University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa, AL)
• University of California (Santa Cruz, CA)
• University of Chicago (Chicago, IL)
• University of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, OH)
• University of Colorado (Boulder, CO)
• University of Hawaii (Manoa, HI)
• University of Minnesota (Minneapolis and Saint Paul, MN)
• University of Mississippi (Oxford, MS)
• University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC)
• University of Notre Dame (South Bend, IN)
• University of San Diego (San Diego, CA)
• University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA)
• University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA)
• University of Washington (Seattle, WA)
• University of Wisconsin (Madison, WI)
• Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN)
• Wake Forest University (Winston-Salem, NC)
• Washington University (St. Louis, MO)
• Wellesley College (Wellesley, MA)
• Whitman College (Wall Walla, WA)
• Yale University (New Haven, CT)
Travel For College Football Games
The annual football game between the Universities of Florida and Georgia is hosted by Jacksonville and played at EverBank Field. An economic impact study by Visit Jacksonville (www.visitjacksonville.com) assessed that the game draws 133,000 out-of-town visitors and generates $33.3 million in economic impact for the city. There are over 37,000 room nights bloged throughout the city for the game, generating $3.5 million in room revenue.
Tripp Umbach (www.trippumbach.com) assessed that Penn State football games generate $50 million in direct business spending annually for Centre County and $70 million for the State of Pennsylvania.
Several universities display outstanding collections of public art. The Americans for the Arts’ Public Art Network (www.americansforthearts.org) and Public Art Review note the following as the best university public art collections:
• Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ)
• Florida International University (Miami, FL)
• Johnson County Community College (Overland Park, KS)
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA)
• Pratt Institute (New York, NY)
• Texas Tech University (Lubbock, TX)
• University of California (San Diego, CA)
• University of Minnesota (Twin Cities campus)
• University of South Florida (Tampa, FL)
• Western Washington University (Bellingham, WA)
• Wichita State University (Wichita, KS)
Maybe You Like Them Too
- Top 10 Islands You Can Buy
- Top 10 Underrated Asian Cities 2023
- Top 10 Reasons Upsizing Will Be a Huge Travel Trend
- Top 10 Scuba Diving Destinations
- World’s 10 Best Places To Visit
