We’re going back to school with a movie marathon of films featuring faculty, freshmen, fall, football, great sweaters and hard-earned wisdom. Our expert on all things cinematic, Abbie Martin Greenbaum, has curated a list of the best new and classic movies set on a college, boarding school or graduate school campus, all of which are perfect for a movie marathon with a back to school theme.
What are the Best Movies Set on a College or University Campus?
School is back in session! You know what that means: shiny new notebooks, cute fall clothes, and a year’s worth of memories to be made.
The best new and classic movies set on a college or university campus, all perfect right now for a movie marathon with a back to school theme.
College is a liminal space – one of the few times in our lives that is isolated from the rest of the story, set aside for personal growth and transformation. Because of this, it is an extremely fruitful topic for movies of all genres. They can get serious, they can be earnest, and they can explore territories that might otherwise seem silly or overdramatic. College is the stuff that cinema is made of.
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And if you want to experience some of that nostalgia and grandeur for yourself, here are 14 of the best movies to help you do it. We have cult classics, serious cinema, and even a few great films you might not have seen yet. (And okay, we also snuck in a few movies about boarding school – because they tap into all those same emotions). No matter how old you are, it’s time to go back to school.
14 Best Movies Set on a College Campus
1. Legally Blonde
This girl power blockbuster is always worth another watch. Reese Witherspoon famously stars as Elle Woods, the Malibu sorority girl who applies to Harvard Law School in the hopes of winning back her ex-boyfriend. Though Elle borders on ridiculous at times – as she trots into an environment she is totally unprepared for, with her Chihuahua under her arm – she is also someone we root for from beginning to end. This movie’s longevity is due in part to the feeing it inspires of uncomplicated, ecstatic triumph. When Elle wins – after months of hard work, good intentions, and learning from her mistakes – we all win. If school is about self-actualization, then Elle Woods is an all-star example.
2. Everybody Wants Some!!
If your desire for a college flick revolves mostly around a need for aesthetically pleasurable, pain-free nostalgia, then Richard Linklater’s baseball movie is the one for you. What it lacks in plot, it makes up for in costumes and charisma, with its irresistible tale of orientation weekend, sportsmanship, first love, and friendship. If you want to travel back to the 80’s without experiencing any kind of angst along the way, this is one brand of sentimental we can all get behind. And don’t worry, you don’t need to be a sports fan to hop on board.
3. Good Will Hunting
This is the kind of movie that comes along once in a lifetime. If we choose to think of college as a time for exploring character, then Good Will Hunting takes this literally: the heart of the movie is the relationship between Will (played by Matt Damon) and his therapist (played by Robin Williams). Will is trying to fly under the radar as a janitor at MIT, but when he solves an impossible math equation, he is discovered by one of the professors. Though the film’s core is its commitment to exploring its characters’ emotional lives, the world of academia looms large as a motivating factor for all them.
4. Social Network
Anyone who thought that a movie about a website (even if it is Facebook) would be boring was proved wrong in 2010, when this film from Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher exploded into cinemas. It is the kind of airtight, quick-witted drama that never loses its appeal. Over time, it has become emblematic of a particular moment in history (after all, social media changed the world), and showing the way in which its creators’ time at Harvard influenced the trajectory of their achievements.
5. The Graduate
Though The Graduate is technically about, yes, a college graduate, it plays in the same sandbox as the rest of these films: what do you do when you are first thrust into the world of adults and expected to behave as one of them? The Graduate offers a unique look at that moment through the eyes of a guy who does not know what to do with himself – and who makes some catastrophic decisions along the way. This is a movie that seems like wry entertainment on the surface, but slips into much darker considerations the longer you think about it.
6. Drumline
A young Nick Cannon plays Devin Miles: a boy from Harlem who moves to Atlanta and becomes the star of his university’s marching band. Of course, not everything goes as planned, and Devin finds he might have to undergo some personal changes in order to fit in with his new environment. The movie is an all-around good time, featuring some great music and a young, charismatic Zoe Saldana as Devin’s love interest, Laila. They might as well be a time machine to 2002.
7. Mona Lisa Smile
Some day soon, this film is going to experience a renaissance on social media. Julia Roberts is Katherine Watson, the new art history professor at a highly fictionalized, 1953 Wellesley College. She is an unconventional new voice in a fastidiously conventional environment, trying to convince her vibrant pupils that there is more to life than getting married. Among her students are characters played by Kirsten Dunst, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Julia Stiles, and getting to see these formidable actresses as a group of young friends is a pleasure. The movie gives each character her own distinct emotional journey, exemplifying the best of the college movie genre: stories waiting to begin, thrown together for unexpected results.
8. Kaboom
Of all of these films, Kaboom is perhaps the most original. Winner of the Queer Palm at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, Kaboom starts out as a campy, quirky portrayal of the freshman college experience, and then becomes something else – if that something else is a rollercoaster ride with bright lights, crazy colors, and some visuals that you will find hard to forget. Go in knowing as little as possible, suspend your disbelief, and you will be glad you did.
9. Dear White People
Before it was a hit Netflix series, Justin Simien’s Dear White People was an extremely popular movie. Set at the fictionalized Ivy League school of Winchester University, Simien’s movie takes a look at the racism and systemic aggression endured by Black students at predominantly white institutions. The film features Tyler James Williams, Teyonah Parris, and Brandon P. Bell, and stars Tessa Thompson as Samantha White – an outspoken voice on campus who tries to bring the school’s many injustices to light.
10. American Graffiti
American Graffiti technically takes place on the very last night of summer vacation, but it captures all the same feelings as the best kind of college film. Written and directed by George Lucas, and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Harrison Ford, the 1973 film feels like a portal to 1962 California. It will definitely have you thinking about what it means to say goodbye to friends, family and childhood, and to step into the unknown universe of the college campus.
11. S#!%house
We wish S#!%house had existed a long time ago (like when we were in college). The directorial debut from Cooper Raiff (Cha Cha Real Smooth) feels like the college movie for the millennial generation – a film that manages to capture the loneliness, anxiety, and hope that are all a part of the freshman experience today. Featuring one of those complicated first-college-relationships, this is a story that’s sure to resonate with many.
12. Selah and the Spades
While it’s true that Selah and the Spades is a movie set in high school and not college, we feel like it counts. Selah (Lovie Simone) rules the school in Tayarisha Poe’s fictional universe, but new student Paloma (Celeste O’Connor) threatens to upset the social order. If you’d like a delicious story about rival school factions – not so far off from fraternities and sororities – and that special time where all the stakes feel sky-high, this is an underrated gem.
13. Trinian’s
Another boarding school movie, because they give us that same special feelings as college movies do. Of course, St. Trinian’s is not a normal school – it’s an all-girls boarding school where there are way more shenanigans (and pranks, and illegal activities) than there are homework assignments. For a riotous romp full of camp and famous British actors (including Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Talulah Riley, Juno Temple, and many others), St. Trinian’s is a forgotten favorite that deserves more love.
14. To All The Boys: Always and Forever
We wrap our list of college campus movies with a little bonbon of a film. If you’re looking for something that is light, sweet, and full of heart, then check out the third installment in the To All the Boys trilogy. This is technically a film that takes place during senior year of high school, but it is about all about those big, scary changes that college can bring – and what those changes mean for our relationships. It is not always easy to leave our childhood selves behind. There’s no one we’d rather have guiding our way than Lara Jean (Lana Condor).
best movies set on a college campus
That’s our take on the best movies set on a college, boarding school or graduate school campus perfect right now for a movie marathon with a back to school theme. What’s your favorite campus flick, dear reader?
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Abbie Martin Greenbaum grew up in New York City and currently lives in Brooklyn, where she drinks a lot of coffee and matches roommates together for a living. At Oberlin College, she studied English and Cinema, which are still two of her favorite things, along with dessert and musical theater. She believes in magic.
