6 Best Sights in USA

The heart of the Stanford University campus is its distinct Richardsonian Romanesque quad. Stanford’s signature look revolves around red-tiled roofs and palm trees. The focal point of the quad is Memorial Church, a striking memorial built by Jane Stanford to her late husband Leland. The interior boasts stunning mosaics and stained-glass windows. There was originally a bell and clock tower, but that was destroyed by the powerful 1906 earthquake, just three years after the church completed construction. Docent-led tours of the church are held Friday mornings at 11.

Built in 1847 as the founding college of what is now the largest public urban university system in America, City College was originally called Free Academy of the City of New York. Affectionately dubbed the "Harvard of the Proletariat," or "the poor man's Harvard," the idyllic Neo-Gothic campus was designed by George Brown Post (the architect behind the Stock Exchange) and has since expanded to 36 acres. At a time when private universities were predominantly restricted to Protestant students, City College became a beacon for religious tolerance, and over the years, several City College graduates went on to win Nobel Prizes, among a long list of notable alumni. It’s also the site where Albert Einstein first presented his theory of general relativity in America. Stroll between Convent Avenue and St. Nicholas Terrace to admire five landmark structures with white terra-cotta trim, four great arches, green spaces, and more than 600 Gothic gargoyles and grotesques, originally designed to symbolize the academic purpose of each building.

This nearly 450-acre university campus has a lot to do with Austin's reputation as a lone liberal island amid the roiling seas of conservative Texas. UT Longhorns are as passionate about football as they are about education, with 13 distinct colleges and schools and outstanding graduate programs that produce global leaders, Nobel Prize winners, and committed lifelong academics. Nicknamed the 40 Acres after the original tract of land set aside by the state in 1883, this now-sprawling campus is a feather in the cap of the Texas university system. Stroll the grandly picturesque grounds at your leisure, attend a home game at DKR Stadium, drop in to one of the award-winning campus museums, archives, or libraries (from the LBJ Presidential Library to the Ransom Center), or take a self-guided "Landmarks" walking tour of the campus' top-notch public art collection, which includes a Skyspcace by James Turrell.

A stroll along the tree-lined streets of this campus, founded in 1924, is a lovely way to spend a few hours. Tours of the campus, known for its Georgian and Gothic revival architecture, are available during the academic year and can be arranged in advance.

Founded in 1866, Fisk is Nashville's oldest university. In 1930, it became the first historically black institution to gain accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), and the 40-acre campus is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district. Its students were instrumental in many of the sit-in demonstrations in Nashville. The Carl Van Vechten Art Gallery has an extensive art collection worth visiting, and the Jubilee Hall, the first permanent structure in the South built for the education of black students, is where you'll find a floor-to-ceiling portrait of the original Jubilee Singers, who started touring in 1871 to raise funds for the university; they performed for Queen Victoria. Tours are available.

The UW campus is worth a stroll just to admire the handsome architecture and landscape design. The main plaza, cheekily known as Red Square due to its brick pavement, is a good hub for taking in some highlights. In the northwest corner, the building to the left of the three slender towers is Odegaard Library, home to the visitors center, where you can pick up a campus map. On the square’s east side is its most striking building, Suzzallo Library, an example of “collegiate Gothic” design that would fit in at Oxford or Cambridge (or Hogwarts). It’s open to the public and worth going inside to check out the ornate, church-like Reading Room, with its vaulted ceiling and stained glass.

To the right of Suzzallo as you face it from the square is Rainier Vista, a downward-sloping, third-of-a-mile walkway that perfectly frames Mt. Rainier on the horizon. It’s Seattle’s best-composed view of the mountain.

Left of Suzzallo, a sidewalk leads to the Quad, four academic buildings surrounding a large lawn with 29 cherry trees. When the trees blossom in April, people from far and wide throng here to revel in the beautiful scene.