{"id":137269,"date":"2026-03-13T11:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T11:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/137269\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T11:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T11:24:09","slug":"2-pa-schools-on-us-news-list-of-30-beautiful-campuses-in-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/137269\/","title":{"rendered":"2 PA schools on US News list of 30 beautiful campuses in US"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Students<\/p>\n

Students sit on the lawn outside of St. Thomas of Villanova Church at the campus of Villanova University in Villanova May 8, 2025. (Photo by Matthew Hatcher \/ AFP) <\/p>\n

MATTHEW HATCHER<\/p>\n

AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Two Pennsylvania colleges were placed on a U.S. News & World Report\u2019s list of \u201c30 Beautiful College Campuses\u201d<\/a> in January.<\/p>\n

The schools, Swarthmore College and Villanova University, are less than a dozen miles apart off Interstate 476 in Delaware County.<\/p>\n

Swarthmore, a small, selective liberal arts college, was cited by the publication<\/a> for its Reconstruction-era administration building, Parrish Hall, which also has two floors of student housing. The Victorian-style granite and slate building, which has more modern design cues inside despite being built in 1869, is the central-most building on campus and overlooks a quad dubbed \u201cthe beach.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u201cParrish \u201cParrish Hall at Swarthmore College is seen in this file photo. aimintang Getty Images\/iStockphoto <\/p>\n

Also cited was the Scott Arboretum<\/a>, one of many arboretums housed by Philadelphia-area colleges. The arboretum, which takes up three-quarters of the college\u2019s acreage, boasts more 4,000 plant species, according to the school. It offers guided tours<\/a> on weekdays.<\/p>\n

\u201cSwarthmore\u2019s campus also features an amphitheater with multiple levels of lawn-covered stone tiers shaded by tulip trees. Throughout the school\u2019s 425 acres are many wooded areas and walking trails,\u201d U.S. News wrote.<\/p>\n

But the campus, often recognized for its looks<\/a>, has other dimensions, with architecture ranging from short, Tudor-style dorms to giant glass boxes. It is nestled in a residential area with heavy greenery and sometimes-narrow streets.<\/p>\n

\"Swarthmore Swarthmore College\u2019s campus is seen in this file photo. aimintang Getty Images <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time Swarthmore\u2019s campus was lauded, Cond\u00e9 Nast Traveler named the college among those with the most beautiful campuses in the U.S. last year.<\/a><\/p>\n

Villanova, a significantly larger research university, was also cited by U.S. News for its sharp Gothic architecture and landscaping.<\/p>\n

St. Thomas of Villanova Church is the most iconic of the university\u2019s structures, and its clean exterior stone and tall white ceilings can give a more modern feel than some European cathedrals. Last year, the church\u2019s bells rang for hours<\/a> after a 1977 Villanova alumnus, Robert Francis Prevost, took on a new name: Pope Leo XIV.<\/p>\n

While the campus is decidedly less wooded than Swarthmore and is bisected by a busy highway, some nooks and crannies can give the vibe of a small suburban park, like the Rowen Campus Green. U.S. News shouted out the native plants that dot Villanova\u2019s landscape.<\/p>\n

\u201cCampus planners hold the ideal of \u2018a beautiful, amenable, and sustainable campus to support the Augustinian ideal of living and studying amongst friends,\u2019\u201d U.S. News wrote, citing the university.<\/p>\n

Villanova is set to expand in 2028 with its acquisition of Rosemont College<\/a>, a more tucked-away school within walking distance.<\/p>\n

The Centre Daily Times has reached out to the colleges for comment on the U.S. News listing.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Centre Daily Times<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Students sit on the lawn outside of St. Thomas of Villanova Church at the campus of Villanova University…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3530,11713,539,28,30,29,63204,302,33650],"class_list":["post-137269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-best-colleges","tag-college-campus","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-swarthmore","tag-us-news","tag-villanova"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}