March 23, 2017

"The Most Beautiful College in Every State."

According to Travel + Leisure.

Lots of pretty photographs, but the one chosen for the University of Wisconsin–Madison is a bit puzzling. It shows the roof line of the stock pavilion against the sky. You should show the placement of the campus on the isthmus:

47 comments:

Original Mike said...

Bizarre.

David Begley said...

The Creighton picture shows Omaha Central High School. We don't have a football field and our nickname is the Bluejays; not Eagles. Central, however, is about three blocks south of Creighton. Fake news.

DanTheMan said...

Flagler for Florida? Seriously?

Or is this a 2nd thread on "Most trivial arguments?"

madAsHell said...

The University of Washington has much prettier vistas then the Quad in spring.

Wince said...

Lots of pretty photographs, but the one chosen for the University of Wisconsin–Madison is a bit puzzling. It shows the roof line of the stock pavilion against the sky.

Isn't there a broken window in that photo? Top arch, third pane up from the bottom, center right.

Grant said...

Complete clickbait. Of course, I clicked--but not the first two times I saw it, only after Althouse linked to it. So there's that.

Ann Althouse said...

I have 2 big memories from the stock pavilion:

1. A meeting of the whole university faculty over the hot debate topic of whether the U.S. military should be excluded from recruiting on campus because of its discrimination against gay people. This was around the time of the Solomon Amendment.

2. Taking my older son to his first rock concert: L7 and The Melvins.

Henry said...

I'm impressed they got Rhode Island right.

Original Mike said...

Siegel–Schwall Band concert.

DrSquid said...

University of Louisville is the most beautiful campus in KY? Really?! It is even the most beautiful campus in Louisville. Likely the most gritty, urban and industrial looking campus anywhere in America.

dreams said...

"University of Louisville is the most beautiful campus in KY? Really?! It is even the most beautiful campus in Louisville. Likely the most gritty, urban and industrial looking campus anywhere in America."

Yeah, I wasn't expecting to see that.

Brando said...

Naval Academy beats Johns Hopkins? And no entry for D.C. colleges? Rigged!

David Begley said...

Georgetown won for D.C. Scroll down.

My name goes here. said...

I took my daughter to visit the College of Charleston, in downtowm Charleston, SC. The student population is about 62% female. It would get my vote.

Brando said...

"Georgetown won for D.C. Scroll down."

Damn violation of alphabetical order!

Though Georgetown's a good choice for D.C. Their campus is beautiful.

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

I wonder how many colleges in Wisconsin were even considered. I'm guessing only 1.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

"It doesn't look like that then, kids."

Because nobody knows that it snows and gets cold in Wisconsin.

It's our big secret.

Tari said...

Colgate wins for NY, and yes, it is beautiful at certain times of the year. But that's one of the only nice things about it. If you want to pick a school based on nothing more than how it looks for maybe 6 weeks of the school year, go right ahead. I won't laugh at you or anything: promise.

MadisonMan said...

Shout out to T&L for not making you click through 50 times!

I'm partial to Old Main at Carroll University as far as iconic and beautiful buildings go.

Portlandmermaid said...

At least you got a building, some of them were mostly trees.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

"To be fair, you should show that picture in Sept through May."

And, actually, it's a fall picture, taken in September or October, not a summer one. The leaves are turning colors.

TWW said...

Texas - Rice over SMU (although both are beautiful)
Louisiana - LSU over Tulane...not even close.

Chuck said...

Kalamazoo College instead of the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor?!?

Althouse, even you know the answer on that one.

Take it from me; Kalamazoo College is cute, in a bland sort of way. Although I can hardly think of where I'd take a picture in order to show it off. They have a pretty tennis court. But Kalamazoo College has a hard time claiming it is the most beautiful campus in Kalamazoo, much less all of Michigan. (Western Michigan University shares Kalamazoo with K-College.)

How did I never know about Berry College in Georgia?

traditionalguy said...

FYI: Berry College in North Georgia is the main beneficiary of family owned Chik-Fil-A.

Fernandinande said...

"The Most Beautiful College in Every State."

Since the cited college isn't in every state, shouldn't that be "in ANY state" ?

J. Farmer said...

I think the University of Tampa is more beautiful than Flagler College. Interestingly, both were former hotels. I grew up just across the Hillsborough River, and the college's minarets were my bedroom window view for 18 years, so maybe I'm biased.

buwaya said...

My fantasy college is made of plain reinforced concrete, and mostly laboratories. Reinforced concrete to retain structural integrity if the activities in the labs get a bit too boisterous. And a large wasteland around, to give room and reduce damage from the more difficult experiments. And machine shops, fabrication facilities, etc.

THAT is a place for learning, not the lovely grounds of these pleasaunces.

Men should also be separated from women, the womens colleges similarly bleak, isolated on islands difficult to get to. And run by nuns devoted to Latin instruction.

mockturtle said...

I see both our UWs made the grade. But there are many lovely private colleges around the country that were passed over in favor of the state universities.

buwaya said...

Real learning is discomfort, obsession, and destruction - or at least the risk and consequences of repeated failure.

Comfort and beauty, not to mention courtship and mating, are not in it, or shouldn't be. These are distractions from what should be a single purpose.

This approach should lead to better results at much lower costs, not to mention less controversy.

Ann Althouse said...

The photo for the U of Chicago seemed like it was intended to make us laugh at Illinois.

mockturtle said...

Buwaya, you may be missing the point. You have the naive idea that learning is the goal. The goal is to attract more parents to send their kids there and also to attract more alumni to send their money there.

Freeman Hunt said...

Two that I attended are on there. The problem with Georgetown is that it is in Georgetown.

Freeman Hunt said...

Also included are the school where I took one son to camp and the only two schools I seriously considered (but did not apply to) besides the first one I attended.

buwaya said...

Caltech is not on these lists, and has no shortage of applicants. It gets the worlds finest brains. Its campus is fairly grand though.
Cal Poly is solid and very desirable in spite of a rather prosaic campus, though the area around Cal Poly is very pretty.

Brian said...

The choice of photo for Ole Miss has been the subject of much head-scratching around here, too. From the place it was taken, there are interesting buildings in every other direction --- our main library to the east, a Gothic academic building to the south, a very pretty chapel to the west. But the photographer stood in that spot and faced ... north, to give us a picture of a cafeteria. Good job.

Stoutcat said...

Althouse said... "The photo for the U of Chicago seemed like it was intended to make us laugh at Illinois."

Well, yeah, if T+L thinks that's the most beautiful, then I DO laugh at them. But there are far more beautiful campuses in IL, the most beautiful in my opinion being Principia College in Elsah. Right on the bluffs, dorms designed by Bernard Maybeck, gorgeous chapel, it has it all.

MadisonMan said...

The photo for the U of Chicago seemed like it was intended to make us laugh at Illinois.

Agreed. What an ugly building. Why not show a Parking Garage?

Greg Hlatky said...

The most beautiful college in each state is the one not taken over by PC Red Guards. The one without Grievance Studies departments. The one without Vice Chancellors for Diversity and Climate. The one where speakers aren't shouted down, if not physically assaulted.

Crimso said...

Spent 11 yrs at Louisville. You need only drive down the street to Spalding to see a university not nearly as beautiful. But I think Bellarmine looks better.

Spent 6 yrs at Vandy, and have lived now for almost 15 yrs just minutes from Sewanee. Not even close. Sewanee beats Vandy like a rented mule.

Kenneth Burns said...

T+L is right to praise University of Wisconsin's Bascom Hall, Music Hall and Memorial Union, but all three are in a compact area at the campus's northeast corner. The rest of UW, like about 90 percent of it, stretches out south and (mainly) west of there and, apart from a few highlights, isn't especially lovely.

Kenneth Burns said...

By comparison my alma mater the University of Chicago is both beautiful and architecturally unified (mainly). Gothic is the theme, and I can't imagine why the Brutalism of Regenstein Library was chosen to represent the campus in this listicle.

Chuck said...

I sort of admire the choice of U of C, and I very much agree that choosing a picture of Regenstein instead of one of the great Rockefeller gothic structures was wrong.

The tricky substitute choice I would have made, for the state of Illinois, would have been the Mies van der Rohe-planned IIT campus.

Tiny, by comparison to other things listed. But a singular architectural jewel, on a scale unlike anything else.

DKWalser said...

I think that many, if not all, of the photos would be surprising selections to those familiar with the campus. I went to school in Utah and can agree with their selection of Utah State University in Logan as the prettiest campus. (I wouldn't have disagreed with the selection of BYU or Southern Utah University. All three have beautiful campuses.) But the photo they picked to illustrate USU doesn't show the mountains! The campus would be nice if it were set somewhere in the middle of a Kansas wheat field, but what makes it spectacular is its setting in a high mountain valley. The picture they selected is unrecognizable as being in Utah -- it could have been from another campus located in a state without mountains.

Again, my suspicion that someone who is familiar with the other campuses would have the same thought: the picture is okay, but it doesn't capture the beauty of the campus.

JaimeRoberto said...

UChicago is a beautiful campus, but they chose the worst possible picture of it.

Salve Regina in RI made me chuckle. My dad went to Officer Candidate School in Newport and always refers to Salve Regina as Slimy Vagina. I guess that's where the Navy guys went for entertainment.

320Busdriver said...

Son # 2 is off to UW in the fall. Biomed Engineering. Looking forward to all that follows.

320Busdriver said...

I think the professor has posted some pretty neat UW pics from her seat on the shore at the union. I would rank that experience high on my list, as long as it is on a nice warm day.

Steven Wilson said...

WVU in West Virginia, despite being my alma mater, wouldn't be my first choice. Probably West Virginia Wesleyan of all the campi I have visited. Citing Woodburn Circle as the reason for selecting WVU and then displaying virtually every part of the downtown campus except for Woodburn undermines the assertion.