Welcome to the Hardcore Husky Forums. Folks who are well-known in Cyberland and not that dumb.
Forget about academic smack...
PurpleBaze
Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 29,938 
PurpleBaze
Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 29,938
Comments
Every big school has a nice quad, some even have quad alums (Hi PL_SS!)
1. They are spot on about the Michigan thing. The quad at Michigan that would give UW a run for its money is the law quad. The other, "main" quad, is nothing to write home about. So they evaluated the wrong one.
2. UW has just about the most beautiful campus I've ever seen, and I've seen a few. Blows everything else in the Pac 12 away. Stanford is like a country club. Not a blade of grass out of place, and is an amazing place. But it lacks the scenic surroundings of UW, and I prefer collegiate gothic over spanish mission, so fuck it. UCLA has pretty cool digs, and Westwood is nice, but again, no Rainier Vista, and the architecture is comparably cool. They have the Italian Rennaissance architecture thing going, which fits nicely in a warmer setting like LA. But again, no Lake, no Rainier Vista to go w/ it. That means UW wins there too.
God knows I'm no UW homer, but when it comes to the physical campus, just about the only place I've been that compares is Yale, and Yale is located in a giant shit hole. UNC Chapel Hill and Duke are very nice too.
Off the grid a bit, but Mt. Holyoke college in South Hadley Mass is pretty fucking amazing too, and about 1200 girls practicing to be dykes have it all to themselves for one big giant carpet chewing party.
There's better on the West Coast.