Here's a second to Bowdoin. My brother went there and as well as to medical school at Dartmouth. Darmouth is pretty but I liked Bowdoin better.. Another pretty campus is the US Coast Guard Academy on the banks of the Thames River in New London CT. Another brother went there. No place prettier, especially when the US Eagle is docked there. Then again Boston College is beautiful too. Two brothers, my sister and my sister-in-law went there. I met my husband there too so naturally I'm biased. I went to Providence College and while I would recommend it highly for its academics and its student life, its campus is nice but not beautiful.

Another vote for Vanderbilt! Top academics, beautiful campus,and Nashville!

Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA.

Actually, U VA in Charlotesville is a really beautiful. A majority of the buildings, if I'm not mistaken were designed by Thomas Jefferson.

You're right Cassidy. That's why I mentioned it-and outstanding academics. Katie Couric is an alum.

William and Mary

Glad to see there was at least one vote for Swarthmore -- which is designated as a National Arboretum and has one of the best gardener-to-student ratios in the country! When the cherries and magnolias come out, it's breathtaking! Graduations and plays take place in the lovely, leafy outdoor amphitheater.

Don't miss Wellesley -- a graceful, traditional, picturesque place where it is easy to imagine the women all dressed in white with flower garlands for Tree Day.

Duke ain't bad, having had the advantage of a main campus (west) that could be planned pretty much at the same time, and the Duke Gardens are a lovely accent to the neo-Gothic style.

University of Oklahoma. Beautiful campus and great town (Norman).

One of the ugliest has to be Salisbury State University on Maryland's eastern shore. Absolutely flat. Half-hearted attempt to beautify with trees, flowers and other landscaping. All the modern buildings are soulless blocks. On the weekend, the dorms smelled of beer and vomit. The town of Salisbury is dull and most famous for being headquarters of Perdue Chicken. Decent restaurants can be had in Ocean City (half-hour away) and Talbot County (one hour northwest). Nearly as ugly is the University of Maryland in College Park in high crime Prince George's County. The campus is rather bland and the town is in decay.

.....The one that is paid for after my childrens commencment.

Wow, what an amazing number of great replies! A number of the schools listed are in the South. Do you think a New York girl would be in for culture shock or is that stuff all exaggerated? (She is attracted to warm weather.)

Well Ducks, I am from Jersey, and spent 3 years of undergrad at SMU in Dallas. Talk about culture shock!!! I had no idea that the frat system was basically in charge of the whole school - I arrived with a full scholarship & came to LEARN - a virtue that is still highly regarded on the East Coast. I left after 3 years, finished up at Rutgers, then did my Masters at Northwestern. Aesthetics do play an important part in feeling comfortable at school. I would also have your daughter be honest about the overall vibes of a place. If she feels like she will fit in at a certain school, but it is not YOUR version of Eden, let her attend anyway. Rutgers is not on anyone's list of top 10 beauties, but I still have an affinity for it, after all these years (13!! :) ) Good luck with your choice, and remember - she can always transfer out!!

Message to Ducks:
I'm the poster who recommended Bowdoin College in Maine and Emory University in Atlanta. We live in Mass. My youngest daughter transferred after a year from Skidmore to Emory. She loves Emory! And has not suffered from "culture shock". Probably because Emory is located in Atlanta. So she's not in the back woods anywhere. She has made many friends from the south as well as from the north. I think it's a great experience living in a different part of the country for awhile, which is what she wanted. Good luck with your search! It can be stressful but fun and enjoyable as well.

Hello, Just wanted to add that my daughter prefers the warmer weather as well, which is one of the reasons why she transferred from Skidmore to Emory.

Have watched the replies with interest over
the past few days and finally decided to
jump into the fray. After nearly two years of
intensive research on college choices and personal tours (our daughter is now a sophmore at a well regarded small New England college), I have the following comments: If New England is a top option, then I agree with the posts on Dartmouth, Williams and would add the extraordinary beauty of Middlebury. We visited Bowdoin and felt it did not compare to the aforementioned three schools (either academically or location-wise). Also visited
Colby and Bates in Maine, which seemed the "poor cousins" of the NESAC. Several of
my daughter's classmates went to Yale
and Harvard, which, while they have excellent reputations, are in big city settings
(although the value of those degrees is something to be considered, ditto: Princeton). My husband was pushing for
Washington and Lee, which is truly bucolic,
but very small and definitely has a southern
feeling. If my daughter had not gone to an
all-girls' high school, I would have rooted for
one of the seven sisters, especially Mount
Holyoke or Wellesley, which takes women's
education so seriously, especially in the math and science fields. No one has mentioned Stanford, which has a beautiful
colonial California setting and ambience.
There are so many others, e.g. Cornell,
Northwestern and others mentioned. While
physical beauty is of course a consideration,
if a parent is going to pay private school tuition, then academic rating, class size,
crime rate, quality of life (dorms, food, etc.)
all need to factor in, as well as reputation
in particular fields , such as pre-med, environmental studies, etc. At the end of the
day, your own child's strenghs and priorities
are important.

UC Santa Cruz...it's set in an enormous section of forest...you can ramble through the woods to class and even spot a bright yellow banana slug (the mascot). Everything smells woodsy and clean. My housing was set in a woodsy area where several deer hung out a lot. Do deer hang out?

love
roxy

Another vote for Vanderbilt. You don't feel like you are downtown in a city, but you have all those benefits. Great in the fall!

ducks53, there are a few schools in the South that have a heavy contingent of northern students so the culture shock may be less. Over half of Tulane's student body hails from NY, NJ, CT, PA, etc. and nearly half is Jewish. The students are drawn to New Orleans (a city both good and bad for a parent's nerves, I'd guess), the warm weather, the campus itself and good academic programs. The university website states that 91% who start actually finish at TU.

Another vote for Vanderbilt (from another Vandy grad). A beautiful campus, great academics (including grad schools), decent athletics (at least basketball) and a nice city with population of 1 mill+.

Here's one that hasn't been mentioned yet: Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. An absolutely beautiful campus -- all collegiate Gothic. Smack in the middle of Memphis. Always makes US News & World Report's Top 10 small liberal arts colleges. This year named to the list's "up and coming." Check it out.

Ducks I am from upstate NY (actually central) and I wanted the big city feel and location without all the cement! Hofstra was the best for me the campus is beautiful and the security is great and the unispan across hempstead turnpike is actually a great trademark of the school that the students love! at one point the school talked about taking it down and it was met with so many protests that they left it alone!

If I lived near NYC and wanted another feel I would try Ithaca college or Cornell (if the grades were good). Otherwise I would leave NY and try NC Chapel Hill is beautiful as is Duke (again if the grades are there) or Washington University in St. Louis or Bowdoin in Maine.

Hope that helps. If you can describe a bit more of what your daughter is looking for we might be able to help more ie near a city, major,Jewish vs not etc.