This story was produced by LawnStarter and reviewed and distributed by Stacker Media.
Largest college campuses in the US by acreage
When you think of the biggest college campus in the U.S., think small – really small. Tiny Berry College in northwest Georgia is our reigning champ with the most acres and one of the smallest student bodies.
How large and how small? Well, Berry College, pictured above, has 27,000 acres and about 2,200 students. That's just over 12 acres per student.
Runner-up SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse has 25,000 acres. In third place, the U.S. Military Academy, in Colorado, has 18,500 acres.
LawnStarter ranked the largest campuses of four-year colleges and universities in the U.S., based on acres listed on school websites and 2022-2023 enrollment figures (the latest available) from the U.S. Department of Education.
To qualify for the list, the pieces of land making up the main campus didn't have to be touching, but they did have to be close enough to form a cohesive campus.
Where does your college, university, or alma mater – or the campus where your kids are attending college – land on the list? Check the table below and read more about the schools and their land holdings.
Campus Rankings by Acreage
See how the campuses fared in our ranking:
Top 5 Close Up
Berry College
- Rank: 1
- Location: Mount Berry, GA
- Size: 27,000 acres
- Enrollment: 2,232
Highlights: Berry College is set amid natural features such as woodlands, meadows, and streams. The campus has 47 main buildings, including 15 classroom facilities and 10 residence halls, a wildlife sanctuary, and a working mill with a waterwheel. The college has been a film set for productions including "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Remember the Titans."
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
- Rank: 2
- Location: Syracuse, NY
- Size: 25,000 acres
- Enrollment: 1,604
Highlights: SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry hosts a seven-day event called Earth Week, students log more than 70,000 service hours annually, and there is easy access to Syracuse University.
United States Air Force Academy
- Rank: 3
- Location: Air Force Academy, CO
- Size: 18,455 acres
- Enrollment: 4,085
Highlights: The U.S. Air Force Academy boasts an iconic aluminum, glass, and steel chapel with 17 spires; winding roads through forests; and a 27-acre garden.
United States Military Academy
- Rank: 4
- Location: West Point, NY
- Size: 16,000 acres
- Enrollment: 4,328
Highlights: The U.S Military Academy is located on the Hudson River, features statues of U.S. presidents throughout campus, and includes the world's largest chapel pipe organ.
Paul Smith's College of Arts and Sciences
- Rank: 5
- Location: Paul Smiths, NY
- Size: 14,200 acres
- Enrollment: 668
Highlights: Located in the Adirondacks, it offers accredited bachelor's degrees; is close to Lake Placid, Saranac Lake, and Montreal; and home to the Adirondack Watershed Institute.
Key Findings
Big Man (or Woman) on Campus? These are just Big Campuses. For comparison, the average yard size in the U.S. is half an acre. Cities with the Biggest Yards have on average just over 1 acre.
Berry, Berry Big: Berry College (No. 1) covers more than 27,000 acres — nearly twice the land area of Manhattan. Not surprisingly, Berry College boasts not only the largest contiguous college campus in the U.S. but the largest in the world. In 2024, Architectural Digest listed it as one of the Prettiest Campuses in the U.S.
How did Berry College get so big? Founded in 1902 by Martha Berry, the daughter of a local business owner, the college's footprint ballooned in the 1930s to 30,000 acres. The expansion was made possible through Berry's relentless fundraising efforts, which included a landmark gift from Henry and Clara Ford.
Will Berry College be atop this list next time around? President Steve Briggs has announced he's retiring in June 2025. He's been at the helm since 2006. A new leader might decide to sell some of those 27,000 acres when she or he takes over.
New York State of Mind: Three of the top 10 college campuses by acreage are in the Empire State. SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) at No. 3, United States Military Academy (No. 5), and Paul Smith's College of Arts and Science (No. 6). All three are small but mighty:
- ESF describes itself as a small college with BIG ideas – the study of the environment, which includes developing renewable technologies and building a sustainable future.
- West Point aims to develop leaders. Members of the Long Gray Line live by the motto "Duty, Honor, Country" and serve as leaders both in and out of uniform.
- Paul Smith's is famous for its extraordinary location and hands-on degree programs in fields such as natural sciences, sustainability, forestry and recreation.
Big Campuses Across the U.S.
Every region of the U.S. is represented in the Top 20 Largest College Campuses by Acreage.
- West: California Polytechnic (No. 8), Stanford (No. 11), Palo Alto University (No. 12), Utah State University (No. 13), University of California – Davis (No. 18).
- East: SUNY ESF (No. 3), U.S. Military Academy (No. 5), Paul Smith's (No. 6), University of Connecticut (No. 22).
- Southeast: University of the South (No. 7), Berea College (No. 9), Duke University (No. 10), Tuskegee (No. 19), Mississippi State (No. 21).
- Southwest: University of New Mexico – Grants (No. 15)'
- Midwest/Upper Midwest: University of Illinois – Urbana/Champaign (No. 14), Michigan State University (No. 18).
- Plains: U.S. Air Force Academy (No. 4), University of Nebraska – Lincoln (No. 16), Colorado State University Global (No. 20), Eastern Oklahoma State College (No. 23), Oklahoma State – Norman (No. 24).
Greenspace – and these campuses have a lot of it – is great for taking a break from classes and hiking in nature or relaxing on a blanket on the quad. Getting away from classrooms, dorms, and even campus offices is good for the mind and soul.
But where will these campuses be on the list next time the rankings are updated? Small colleges are closing at the rate of one every week in 2024.
Methodology
First, LawnStarter gathered the list of most recent institution-level data from the Department of Education's College Scorecard, then it set out to find the acreage for each campus. This involved checking the websites of just over 6,000 colleges and universities.
If the acreage was not found on the college or university website, the school's media relations office was asked for that information. (Not all campuses had contact info listed on their websites, and in many cases, the inquiries received no reply.)
Though just over 6,000 academic institutions were surveyed, many of these are trade schools, online universities, community colleges, or religious colleges, not traditional four-year colleges and universities.
The rankings do not include campuses with fewer than 10 acres to keep the table from being overly long.
