The 10 Best College-Set Shows, Ranked

With hormones on overload and firsts aplenty, high school series tend to get all the love — and then often squander it as the characters awkwardly transition to the college years. But as HBO Max's The Sex Lives of College Girls recently proved over the course of its excellent first season, when a show truly embraces its setting with humor and honesty, the college years can be the most wonderful years.

Below, TVLine has ranked 10 of the best dramas and comedies to take place within the world of higher education (to varying degrees). Note: Our list focuses on shows that began in college/university, and thus, series that eventually graduated from high school and went on to explore college/university, like Gilmore Girls and Beverly Hills, 90210, are not included.

Our picks include a variety of experiences, from that of Black students in Netflix's Dear White People to that of frat/sorority life in ABC Family's Greek to the ugly on-campus underbelly in MTV's short-lived Sweet/Vicious. You'll also find a cult fave from Judd Apatow, two popular spinoffs, a pop culture-heavy sitcom and a murderous drama among our selections. (OK, that last one might not be the most accurate depiction of college existence, we admit.)

Scroll down to review our list of the best college-set shows, then hit the comments with your faves!

ABC's Emmy-winning drama admittedly had way too much death to be a spot-on portrayal of life on a college campus. (That series-opening bonfire was as relatable as the show ever got.) But what it lacked in accuracy, it more than made up for with compelling mysteries, rapid-fire dialogue and a deep bench of gifted young actors who kept us rooting for the increasingly corrupt Keating Five.

While new to the TV landscape, the HBO Max comedy has already made a strong impression after just one season, thanks to its hilariously witty depiction of life on campus for four thrown-together freshmen roommates. And don't let the raunchy title fool ya: Yes, the show puts the sexual exploits of its female characters front and center with refreshing frankness, but the series also has a big heart that captures the awkward but wonderful feeling of finding your people in total strangers.

Justin Simien's satirical comedy about a group of outspoken Black students faced with racial injustice at their predominately white Ivy League university is quintessential viewing. Through absurdist and often self-deprecating humor, the Netflix series did a great job of tackling cultural and racial bias and misguided activism through its outspoken students, who often fumbled while figuring out who they wanted to be after they graduated. From Sam using her radio show to call out racism on campus and sometimes getting it wrong to Lionel struggling to find his voice, Dear White People's biggest strength was grounding unrealistic elements — like a '90s musical event in the final season — with undeniable truth.

The brilliant-but-cancelled MTV series exposed the ugly side of college: At the center of the darkly comedic drama were rape survivor Jules (played by Broadchurch's Eliza Bennett) and hacker extraordinaire Ophelia (Taylor Dearden), who team up as secret vigilantes against on-campus sexual assault. In exploring an all-too-real reality for many students, Sweet/Vicious was bold, authentic and necessary. It's a shame that the TVLine Peak TV Treasure was unable to finish out its run and properly graduate.

Figuring out who you are outside of your parents is a big part of college, and this black-ish spinoff does a great job exploring the ups-and-downs of becoming an adult. Star Yara Shahidi has taken Dre and Rainbow's eldest child Zoey to new heights, both emotionally and culturally, as the now-college senior not only grapples with her professional future, but her complicated love life. Thankfully for Zoey and grown-ish fans, she has her diverse groups of friends to help her along the way.

While it initially presented itself as a standard sitcom focused on a former lawyer's reluctant return to academia — early episodes centered on elaborate Spanish class presentations, blow-off electives, and debate club prep — NBC's college-set comedy quickly morphed into something far less conventional. The gloves were off after the inaugural paintball episode, as the Dan Harmon series evolved into a pop-culture parody machine, with memorable sendups to everything from Apollo 13 to Glee, from My Dinner With Andre to 2001: A Space Odyssey, cementing its status as one of the most experimental comedies in TV history.

It had the misfortune to debut right after September 11th, when no one was in the mood for a zany comedy, but Judd Apatow's follow-up to Freaks and Geeks was every bit as hilarious and bittersweet as its predecessor, capturing all the highs and lows of the college experience. Jay Baruchel starred as gangly geek Steven Karp, who tries (and fails) to reinvent himself during a wild freshman year at school. Baruchel led a cast of future stars including Seth Rogen, Charlie Hunnam and Jason Segel, with priceless cameos from the likes of Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler. Put this on streaming, someone!

The Cosby Show spinoff started off as a chronicle of Denise Huxtable's freshman year at Hillman College. But the show soon blossomed into a funny, smart and sexy look at life at a historically Black college and — after Lisa Bonet's departure in Season 2 — it created one of the greatest sitcom love stories of all time in Dwayne Wayne and Whitley Gilbert.

The fan-favorite ABC Family series and its sorority/fraternity shenanigans were so good that, for a long time, Scott Michael Foster's Cappie didn't want to declare a major and graduate. We can't say we blame him — the adventures of Kappa Tau Gamma, Omega Chi Delta and Zeta Beta Zeta and its members were spirited, quick-witted and full of romantic entanglements. All in all, Greek delivered a quintessential slice of college life, portrayed by an immensely likable cast featuring up-and-comers Foster, Spencer Grammer, Jake McDorman, Amber Stevens and many more.

The later seasons' theme song says it all: "Can you become a new version of you?" The beloved WB drama, which followed Keri Russell's titular character and her friends over four years at the fictional University of New York, perfectly captured that feeling of finding yourself as a young adult and all the intense emotions and awkward mistakes that come with the college experience. Plus, the show gave us one of TV's all-time best and most intensely debated love triangles, proving that some high school drama following you to college isn't always a bad thing.