D1 Schools with Ski & Beach Access
NCAA Division I schools within 10 miles of the ocean and 25 miles of a ski resort
Only a handful of NCAA Division I schools in the entire country sit within 10 miles of an ocean beach and within 25 miles of a ski resort. This is the complete list, ranked by enrollment. If your ideal college weekend is a packed stadium on Saturday, a chairlift on Sunday, and a walk on the sand Monday afternoon, these are your options.
The combination is rare for a simple reason: geography. You need a major athletic program sitting on a coastline that also has mountains close behind it, which is why this list clusters on the West Coast and in New England. No school in the middle of the country can qualify, no matter how good its sports are.
Division data comes from NCAA records; enrollment, admissions, and cost figures come from the U.S. Department of Education (IPEDS). Beach and ski distances are CollegeCove proximity measurements from each campus, shown on every row so you can see exactly what each school trades off.
Ranking methodology: Schools must be NCAA Division I, within 10 miles of the nearest ocean beach, AND within 25 miles of a ski resort. Ranked by total enrollment largest-first.
3 schools meet this page’s criteria: NCAA Division I schools within 10 miles of an ocean beach and 25 miles of a ski resort.
CollegeCove features four-year colleges and universities that primarily award bachelor's degrees or higher. Community colleges, vocational and certificate schools, graduate-only institutions, seminaries and other single-subject schools, and institutions that are primarily online are not included. Search all schools to reach community colleges and specialized institutions too.
Boston University
Boston, MA
Northeastern University
Boston, MA
University of Rhode Island
Kingston, RI
Frequently Asked Questions
How many D1 schools have both beach and ski access?
3 NCAA Division I schools are within 10 miles of the ocean and 25 miles of a ski resort. With roughly 350 Division I schools nationwide, only a small fraction qualify, which is what makes this list short and worth knowing.
Why does NCAA Division I matter?
Division I is the biggest stage in college sports: televised games, major conference rivalries, and the full game-day atmosphere. If that energy is part of what you want from college, filtering for D1 first and lifestyle second narrows 4,400 schools to a very short list.
What if I want the lifestyle without D1 sports?
See our Surf & Ski Colleges list. Dropping the Division I requirement grows the pool considerably, taking in smaller campuses and schools that compete in other divisions with the same beach and ski access.
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