High school shows may have the numbers, but college shows bring the quality. One major perk? No awkward high school-to-college transition in season 4 — just straight into the chaos of dorm life, internships and 8 a.m. classes.
Plus, college shows can tackle more adult themes, span more seasons and actually make sense when characters stay friends post-graduation.
From the slasher antics of “Scream Queens” to the satirical sharpness of “Dear White People” and the absurdity of “Community,” college TV shows cover it all. Here are seven of the best to binge-watch — whether you’re dodging exams or still haunted by those “I forgot to study” nightmares (just me?).
‘Felicity’
This just in: Do not base your college decision on your high school sweetheart. A high school relationship isn’t likely to make it through freshman year, let alone graduation. Felicity Porter (Keri Russell) didn’t get that memo.
The shy recent high school graduate turns down a Stanford University scholarship to follow her crush — not her boyfriend, her crush — to a non-Ivy League college in New York. Girl, what were you thinking?
Cue a slew of drama and a love triangle between Felicity, her crush Ben (Scott Speedman) and her resident advisor Noel (Scott Foley). Throw in a few other faces and that triangle becomes a geometric conundrum.
Watch on Hulu
‘The Sex Lives of College Girls’
Making the transition to college marks an era of freedom and transformation as someone goes from adolescence to adulthood. It’s a time to test boundaries and do the things you couldn’t do under your parents’ roof. For the four roommates featured in “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” that certainly rings true as the 18-year-olds navigate college life.
The new roommates all come from different backgrounds with vastly different personalities and probably wouldn’t have become friends without the random college sorting hat. Whitney (Alyah Chanelle Scott) is a star soccer player and the daughter of a U.S. senator, while small-town Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet) overcompensates for her conservative background with aggressive and sometimes problematic allyship.
Meanwhile, comedy writer hopeful Bela (Amrit Kaur) rebels against her strict Indian family and Leighton (Reneé Rapp) is just following in her family’s footsteps with her enrollment as she comes to terms with her sexuality.
Unfortunately, their sex lives have come to an end as Max canceled the series after three seasons.
Watch on Max
‘Dear White People’
A large number of college shows lean into “not that serious” territory, but “Dear White People” goes hard. The series, based on the 2014 film of the same name and created by Justin Simien, centers on the fictional Ivy League college called Winchester University, which is chock-full of systematic racism, class divide, social injustice, and intolerance for assembling.
In short, this college show is particularly relevant right now. Yet, though it tackles important social issues, it serves them on a mildly absurdist platter with satirical elements and dark humor.
Samantha White (Logan Browning) starts a campus radio show called “Dear White People,” which helps ground and narrate the campus issues that play out in the show.
As far as jump-the-shark moments go, “Dear White People” has one of the most significant cases in TV history: The entire fourth and final season is a musical. Sure, it’s definitely not the strongest season in terms of delivering the intense topics, but it was certainly … a choice.
Watch on Netflix
When it comes to unhinged college shows, “Community” takes the cake. It stands out against other shows in the genre given that it features a wide array of age groups with different life experiences.
Naturally, the series takes place at a fictional community college called Greendale. Beyond the fact that the wild storylines are massively dramatized and even feature sci-fi, horror, and other genre elements, “Community” has a fairly realistic smattering of characters.
There’s fraudulent lawyer Jeff Winger (Joel McHale), movie-obsessed Abed (Danny), faux activist Britta (Gillian Jacobs), overly studious control freak Annie (Alison Brie), preachy Christan Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown), super racist Pierce (Chevy Chase) and The Only Normal One, Troy (Donald Glover).
“Community” has become enough of a pop culture staple that people often call awful current events “the darkest timeline,” and the show is fulfilling its meta-joke of “six seasons and a movie” with the upcoming greenlit movie.
Watch on Peacock
‘Greek’
We love a good contrast between lazy burnout frat bros and high-strung, catty sorority girls. The 2007 show “Greek” is peak early aughts in its portrayal of both groups.
The series takes place in a fictional college, Cyprus-Rhodes University, with a focus on the sorority Zeta Beta Zeta and the frat Kappa Tau Gamma. Naturally, it’s a dramatized and mildly unrealistic depiction of the Greek system and features just about every college cliché in the overpriced textbooks.
We have ZBZ Queen Bee Casey (Spencer Grammer), her nerdy brother Rusty (Jacob Zachar), stoner frat bro Cappy who runs Kappa (Scott Michael Foster), pretentious Omega Chi Delta ahole Evan (Jake McDorman), and Rusty’s judgemental Christian roommate Dale (Clark Duke).
The show also features Rebecca, the new girl vying to dethrone Casey (Dilshad Vadsaria), Casey’s less popular bestie Ashleigh (Amber Stevens West), and Calvin (Paul James), who’s the only sweet guy in Kappa Tau Gamma.
Watch on Hulu
‘How to Get Away With Murder’
Teaching a law school class about how to get away with murder probably isn’t the smartest idea. Yet that’s the premise of the aptly titled 2014 series. As you can probably guess, Annalise Keating’s (Viola Davis) hypothetical class turns into an instructional manual when people start showing up dead. Annalise and multiple students look super guilty.
But really, if your professor can’t teach you how to kill people, what’s even the point? (For legal purposes, that was a joke.) Every season is set up a lot like a whodunit but “How to Get Away With Murder” arguably lasted too long with six seasons. There are only so many times you can solve a murder in one TV show. With that being said, I devoured all six of them.
The acting is overall masterful, but Davis gives one of the most intensely brilliant performances I’ve ever seen on TV. Pretty much all of the characters are deeply flawed in some way, but you still end up rooting for them (and hoping they’re not the killer).
Watch on Hulu
‘Scream Queens
I may have some major beef with Ryan Murphy right now, but “Scream Queens” definitely deserves its spot as one of the best college shows ever. Ten years later, the 2015 series is already considered a cult classic.
Satirical horror has always been one of my favorite genres, and “Scream Queens” serves it in spades. Even the title is a play on the classic final girl trope — with actresses who frequently take on these roles earning the ‘”scream queen” title. Speaking of which, the series features scream queen legend Jamie Lee Curtis herself as the Dean of Wallace University.
Like many college shows, “Scream Queens” centers on Greek life, with the sorority Kappa Kappa Tau taking center stage (in an endless number of crime scenes). Yup, these sorority girls take the term cutthroat very literally. Emma Roberts plays the sociopathic KKT leader Chanel Oberlin, who refuses to refer to her sorority minions by their names. Unlike most depictions of sororities, there’s not an ounce of sisterhood in the KKT house. They’ll happily send each other to their deaths to save themselves.
Naturally, for a slasher show, people all over campus are showing up dead, and KKT is at the center of the deadly drama. The chaotically funny horror series only lasted two seasons, but it’s the perfect blend of satire and horror.
Watch on Hulu
