Washington and Lee University

Washington and Lee traces its roots to 1749 as Augusta Academy, the ninth-oldest college in America and the first higher ed institution chartered west of the Blue Ridge Mountains; George Washington kickstarted its legacy with the nation's first dollar-denominated gift to a U.S. school, while Robert E. Lee reshaped it after the Civil War as its president, embedding a strict honor code that defines life there today. Nestled in tiny Lexington, Virginia—a historic town of 7,000 shared with the stern Virginia Military Institute amid the Shenandoah Valley's rolling hills—you'll trade urban buzz for postcard-perfect Appalachia, where cadets march in parades and apple orchards dot the horizon. Students who thrive here are self-starters with unshakeable integrity, drawn to genteel traditions and close bonds; those craving diversity or big-city energy might chafe at the homogeneity (mostly affluent, white, conservative Southerners) and isolation that demands you make your own fun.