By Josh Bieber
Thanks to social media, high school students can visit colleges long before they ever set foot on them. But many campuses are featured in well-known movies, which expose viewers to the quad, a dorm room, the library, or even the streets that crisscross campus, and can shape one’s early impressions of them. By the time we actually step onto a campus, we are rarely arriving without context. We are bringing a feeling with us, whether we realize it or not.
Campuses can feel familiar even when we have never been there, and they often fix an image of a school at a particular moment in time.
Some of my favorite movies have iconic schools as their backdrop, but how close did they actually come to capturing the place they were meant to represent?
Here is a review of the best college movies — not a ranking of them, but of how accurately each captures the feel of the school it uses as its setting.
(Disclaimer: The very first film I ever saw that would fit in this category, Animal House, 1978, is not included here, but fictional Faber College, filmed at the University of Oregon and meant to be Dartmouth College, set the blueprint for optical foolery.)
No. 5: The Social Network (2010)
Harvard University
The unusual thing about “The Social Network” is that it feels convincingly like Harvard though much of it was not filmed there. Because access to Cambridge was limited, the production relied on stand-ins including Johns Hopkins University and Phillips Exeter Academy to create its version of Harvard Yard.
Even so, you feel like you are at Harvard with young Mark Zuckerberg. The competitiveness, the hierarchy, and the intensity are all palpable. Most campus scenes are shot at night, which captures the nocturnal nature of college life for many students.
I do wonder about fans of the film who visit Harvard for the first time and attempt to retrace the steps of the filming, which don’t exist. The Social Network is adept at evoking Cambridge’s Ivy institution.
No. 4: The Graduate (1967)
University of Southern California
USC appears throughout “The Graduate,” playing the role of UC Berkeley, but the film is not particularly interested in the school itself. The campus functions more as atmosphere than as subject, though it matters to the storyline through Elaine Robinson.
As a representation of either school, the film is incomplete, with the exception of California looking particularly golden to this Northeasterner. As a representation of post-college drift, privilege, and quiet uncertainty, it has endured far longer than many films of its era. Then, of course, there’s that title.
The specific details blur over time, but the mood remains intact. That persistence is often how college impressions survive.
No. 3: Back to School (1986)
University of Wisconsin — Madison
With the late Rodney Dangerfield as its centerpiece, it is easy to dismiss “Back to School” as an exaggerated comedy (and to no one’s surprise, the only film of these five not to win an Oscar). However, if you look past the jokes, the movie’s fictional Grand Lakes University captures Madison with surprising accuracy.
The scale of the campus, the openness of the setting, and the ease with which life flows between the university and the town all feel true. The behavior is intentionally outrageous, but the sense of place is not. In this case, comedy ends up revealing more about the campus than many earnest portrayals ever do.
Along with Dangerfield’s appeal, much of the box office success could be attributed to the premise. Who wouldn’t want to go back to school when it looks like this? When I visited the University of Wisconsin for the first time, I remember thinking how wise the location managers were for their choice.
No. 2: Breaking Away (1979)
Indiana University
Very few films understand a college town as well as “Breaking Away” understands Bloomington. The tension between the university and its aimless protagonists from the surrounding community, the campus’ domination of the local imagination, and the desire to belong all feel deeply authentic in this coming-of-age masterpiece.
Although many of the details reflect another era (when Indiana football was perennially awful), the emotional structure has held up remarkably well. The dynamic it portrays still exists in college towns across the country, which is why the film continues to resonate decades later. And oh, what a beauty of a campus, with its limestone architecture.
No. 1: Good Will Hunting (1997)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Despite taking liberties with filming locations, “Good Will Hunting” succeeds at something most campus movies never quite manage: capturing the inner life of the place. The pressure, the imposter syndrome, the quiet brilliance, and the intensity of the environment all feel right.
The movie does not simply show where MIT is located. When Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were growing up in Boston, they long associated The Great Dome with higher learning, and that image brings you into that world. Stellan Skarsgård’s underrated performance as the professor who discovers Will feels particularly authentic and emblematic of the unique generational, mentor-protégé relationships that propel collegiate dynamics.
These films endure not for how they get campuses exactly right, but for how they shape how we see them. When we ultimately arrive, we are often testing the real place against something already familiar. The best college movies have compelling plots, but also help explain why certain places continue to draw us back for another look.
Josh Bieber is director of college advising at Brigham Learning.
