The Sex Lives of College Girls Filming Locations: Where Is Essex College?

“The Sex Lives of College Girls” has spent three seasons following Kimberly, Bela, Whitney and their expanding circle of friends through dorm drama, disastrous hookups, academic pressure and the occasional reminder that somebody at Essex College is supposed to be studying. Created by Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble, the comedy presents Essex as an elite private college in Vermont. The school feels surprisingly convincing, partly because the production has borrowed from several real American universities instead of relying on one permanent campus.

Essex College is fictional, but several real campuses supplied its on-screen buildings. Season 1 relied heavily on Vassar College in New York, while Season 2 used the University of Washington’s Seattle campus. UCLA became increasingly important in California, particularly during Season 3, and Los Angeles-area studio sets complete the illusion.

Related: Could Netflix Save The Sex Lives of College Girls Season 4? 

Is Essex College a Real College?

No. Essex College does not exist, despite the show giving it enough traditions, student organizations and campus politics to make it feel like a real Vermont institution.

The fictional school is presented as a prestigious New England liberal arts college. Visually, however, Essex is a combination of buildings from opposite sides of the United States. The production has changed its principal campus location more than once while keeping the fictional geography largely consistent.

That means the dorm a character walks out of may be in Poughkeepsie, the quad she crosses in another season may be in Seattle, and the coffee shop she enters can be at UCLA in Los Angeles. Remarkably, the pieces fit together reasonably well.

Season 1: Vassar College Created Essex

Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, provided the strongest visual foundation for Essex College in Season 1.

Vassar was a natural choice for a fictional elite East Coast school. Its historic academic buildings, lawns and Gothic-influenced architecture already look like the kind of campus Essex is supposed to be. The series spent roughly a month working there after completing much of its interior photography in California. Several Vassar buildings received entirely new identities.

Blodgett Hall appears as North Conn Hall and supplies important dormitory exteriors. One side of the building was also used for the Essex Women’s Center. Rockefeller Hall contributes additional residence-hall imagery, while the lawn between Rockefeller and Thompson Memorial Library appears repeatedly during campus scenes.

The production made particularly playful use of other buildings. Skinner Hall of Music became a dining hall, while the Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film was transformed into an Essex athletic building. The exterior of Vassar’s President’s House stood in for the home of The Catullan, Bela’s coveted comedy publication.

Those substitutions explain why Season 1’s Essex feels so cohesive. The actors were not simply filmed in front of two attractive buildings and sent back to California. Large sections of Vassar’s real campus became part of the fictional college.

Poughkeepsie and Wappingers Falls

The first season also moved outside Vassar itself. Crews were reported around Raymond Avenue and Collegeview Avenue in Poughkeepsie, giving the production additional streets close to the campus. Sets were also created at the Market Street Industrial Park in Wappingers Falls, south of Poughkeepsie.

These less glamorous locations helped complete the parts of Essex that a functioning college could not easily provide.

Vassar remained the recognizable face of the school, but the production was already assembling Essex from multiple pieces during its first year.

Warner Bros. Studios Built the Essex Interiors

A surprising amount of Essex never existed inside any college. Cinematographer Chuck Ozeas explained that most Season 1 interiors were filmed at Warner Bros. Studios in California, while Vassar handled the majority of exterior campus material. The production built large dorm, office and institutional sets so scenes could be shot without repeatedly disrupting an operating university. One of the biggest constructions was the Essex dining hall.

Chief lighting technician Carlos M. Torres revealed that the dining hall occupied Stage 16 at Warner Bros., one of the studio’s largest soundstages. He described the set as enormous, comparing its scale to something out of “Hogwarts.”

That is a good example of why Essex is difficult to locate on a map. The exterior of an academic building might belong to Vassar while its interior exists on a Hollywood soundstage.

UCLA Is Home to Sips

UCLA entered Essex’s geography early through one location that longtime viewers know particularly well.

Kerckhoff Coffee House inside UCLA’s Kerckhoff Hall becomes Sips, the Essex coffee shop where Kimberly works. UCLA itself confirms that the coffeehouse was used for “The Sex Lives of College Girls.”

Kerckhoff’s Gothic-style exterior fits comfortably beside the older architecture used at Vassar, even though the two campuses are about 2,400 miles apart.

This was an early sign of how freely the show could combine universities. The audience accepts Sips as being a short walk from Kimberly’s dorm because the editing says it is, even though one location is in Los Angeles and the other was originally in New York. UCLA’s importance only grew later.

Season 2: University of Washington Took Over Essex

Season 2 gave Essex one of its biggest real-world changes by moving much of the campus exterior work to the University of Washington in Seattle.

UW officially confirmed that its Seattle campus was standing in for Essex College. Initial filming took place in June 2022, followed by another substantial stretch from July 22 through August 4. Around 250 cast and crew members were involved, and approximately 100 University of Washington students were hired as extras during the earlier portion of filming. The production concentrated particularly heavily on the Quad.

Its Collegiate Gothic buildings and broad lawns make it easy to understand why the filmmakers chose it. Architecturally, UW can plausibly belong to the same fictional institution established through Vassar, even though Seattle’s campus has its own distinctive personality.

Other Season 2 sequences use Red Square, with Suzzallo Library visible nearby. Bela and other characters can be seen moving through these spaces as though they have always been part of Essex.

IMDb also lists Shoreline Community College, north of Seattle, among the series’ locations, identifying it with interior photography.

Season 2 therefore turns Essex into an even more elaborate composite. Vassar established the school, UCLA contributed continuing locations such as Sips, UW supplied major new exteriors, and controlled interiors filled the gaps.

Season 3: UCLA Becomes the Main Campus

By Season 3, UCLA became one of the most visible real campuses behind Essex.

Filming began in March 2024, and students saw large areas of UCLA being dressed with Essex College banners and props. Eyewitness reports placed production around Kerckhoff Hall, the Student Activities Center, Janss Steps, Royce Hall and Bruinwalk.

The Sunken Gardens near the Student Activities Center were decorated with Essex branding, while production equipment appeared around Royce Hall and its surrounding plaza. Bruinwalk also received temporary props designed to hide UCLA’s identity.

It is an effective choice because the university can provide several versions of Essex within walking distance.

Royce Hall gives the school its imposing academic architecture. Janss Steps and the lawns provide large gathering spaces. Bruinwalk works naturally for the constant movement between classes, while Kerckhoff continues the visual continuity established by Sips.

Season 3 was filmed from March 4 through June 10, 2024.

The Pasadena Mansion

One Season 3 location sits well away from any university.

City records confirm that “The Sex Lives of College Girls” filmed at 380 South San Rafael Avenue in Pasadena in June 2024. The property is a large historic Tudor Revival estate set behind gates on several acres.

Film and television fans may recognize the house for another reason. Its exterior famously served as Wayne Manor in the 1960s “Batman” television series.

The production has not publicly confirmed exactly which Essex storyline the Pasadena property represents in Season 3, so attaching it to a specific character’s house without stronger evidence would be guesswork. The estate is also a private residence, not a public filming attraction.

Why Does Essex College Look Different Between Seasons?

The answer is simple: Essex has never been one place.

Season 1’s strongest visual identity comes from Vassar College. Season 2 shifts much of the outdoor campus life to the University of Washington. UCLA appears throughout the series and takes on a much larger role by Season 3. Warner Bros. soundstages and other controlled locations provide the rooms connecting those campuses together.

The filmmakers get away with the changes because the schools share enough visual language. Old brick and stone buildings, large lawns, Gothic details and tree-lined walkways all support the idea of a wealthy, established university.

Viewers returning through Netflix may actually notice the changes more easily while binge-watching all three seasons back to back. One episode can make Essex look unmistakably like the Hudson Valley, another gives it Seattle’s collegiate Gothic architecture, and later episodes move decisively into UCLA.

Yet Essex rarely feels completely broken as a fictional location. If anything, its impossible geography fits the show. Kimberly, Bela, Whitney and Leighton spend three seasons discovering that college is much bigger, stranger and less predictable than they expected. Their campus apparently works the same way.