40 college scavenger hunt clues for the buildings most campuses have

Most campuses have some version of these ten places. A US college has a student center and a registrar, a UK university has a students’ union and a registry, and the new students in both need to find them in their first week. The clues below are written for those ten places, so most of them work on any campus with a change of name.

They mix riddles and rhymes with plain tasks, because a group that has walked for forty minutes wants to be told what to do.

Some clues ask for a fact, like an opening time or a price. Check that answer yourself before the day, because it is different on every campus. If you are writing for younger students, the school scavenger hunt clues are a better fit.

Indoor stops get a printed QR code by the entrance, never on a staffed desk. If you use QR codes, the note under each place says where to tape it.

The library

1. I hold more words than anyone on campus, and I ask you to keep yours to a whisper. Find the desk where you borrow. (the library loans or circulation desk)
2. Find the sign at the start of the quiet floor and write down one thing it says you may not do there. (check first: players type what the sign says)
3. Find a book on the subject you came here to study and take a photo of its spine. (photo)
4. I open early and close late when exams are near. Find out what time I close this Friday. (check first) (the opening hours by the entrance)

Indoors: the code goes near the loans desk, not on it.

The student union or student center

5. Every club on campus has a home in me, and not one lecture is ever given here. (the student union or student center)
6. Find the noticeboard or screen for clubs and societies. Write down one club your group had never heard of. (any real club counts)
7. The students who run me were chosen by students. Find their office, and the hours they are in there too. (check first) (the elected officers’ or student government office)
8. Take a group photo in front of a poster for an event happening this month. (photo)

The dining hall

9. Three times a day I am the busiest room on campus. (the dining hall or cafeteria)
10. Find this week’s menu and write down the main dish on Friday. (check first, the day before)
11. Find where the food without meat is served and write down one dish on it today. (any dish that is really there)
12. Find the opening hours and write down the latest time you can eat here on a weekday. (check first)

Indoors: keep the code well away from the queue.

The gym or sports centre

13. I am the one building on campus people walk into hoping to leave more tired. (the gym or sports centre)
14. Find the timetable of classes and write down the earliest one on a Monday. (check first)
15. Find out what you have to show at the front desk to get in. (check first) (usually a student card)
16. Take a group photo outside the entrance, everyone doing a different stretch. (photo)

Indoors: the code goes at reception if the staff agree. Number 16 is outdoors and works as a photo stop.

The health centre

17. Nobody plans a visit to me, but every new student should know where I am. (the health centre or student health service)
18. Find out whether you need an appointment or can walk in, and write down which. (check first)
19. Find the number to call when I am closed. (check first) (the out of hours number on the door or the sign)
20. Find where students can talk to someone when they feel stressed, worried or low. (the counselling or wellbeing service, which on many campuses is in or next to the health centre)

Indoors: put this code outside the building, not in the waiting room. No photos here, and no group of six in a waiting room. Clues 18 and 19 can usually be answered from the sign on the door.

Admissions, the registry or the registrar

21. I knew your name before you ever set foot here. (admissions)
22. When your timetable is wrong or your card will not open a door, I am the counter you queue at. (the registry, the registrar or the student services desk)
23. Find out where new students collect their ID card and write down the room. (check first, with the office)
24. Find the last date this term you can switch a class or module. (check first, with the office)

Indoors: the code goes on an outside wall or a noticeboard. In the first week these counters have long queues, so every answer here should be on a sign or a screen, never something a group has to queue to ask.

A lecture hall

25. My seats fold up and my rows climb high. The front row is brave and the back row is shy. (a tiered lecture hall or lecture theatre)
26. Find the biggest lecture hall on campus and write down its name or room number. (check first)
27. Count the rows of seats from the front to the back. (check first) (the number, counted by you beforehand)
28. Find the sign that says how many people this room may hold. (check first) (the maximum occupancy notice)

Indoors: put the code outside the door, so the hunt never walks into a lecture.

The quad or the green

29. I have no roof, no door and no lock, and half the campus crosses me before ten o’clock. (the quad or the main green)
30. Stand in the middle and find the oldest year written on anything you can see: a stone, a plaque, a date over a door. Write it down. (check first)
31. Find a bench, a tree or a stone with a plaque on it, and write down who it remembers. (check first)
32. Take a group photo with the oldest building you can see behind you. (photo)

Outdoors: the best place on campus for location stops and photos, and a good place to finish, because there is room for a crowd.

A residence hall

33. I am the first door on campus you open with your own key. (your residence hall, or halls of residence)
34. Find the laundry room and write down what one wash costs. (check first) (it often differs between halls)
35. Find out who to contact if you are locked out at night. (check first) (the resident assistant, the warden or the night porter, depending on the campus)
36. Find the noticeboard in the entrance and write down one event on it this week. (check first)

Indoors: most halls need a key card, and a group from another hall cannot get past the door. Keep the code in the entrance or outside, and keep 34 for groups who live in that hall.

The campus bookshop

37. I sell the books your reading list asks for and the hoodie you actually want. (the campus bookshop or bookstore)
38. Find the cheapest thing with the university’s name on it and write down the price. (check first)
39. Find the shelf with the books for your own course and take a photo of one title on it. (photo)
40. Find out whether you can sell your books back here at the end of the year. (check first, with the shop)

Indoors: ask the shop before the day. With their agreement, the code goes just inside the door.

Turning the list into a hunt

Pick eight buildings, not ten. Eight stops at about five minutes each, plus the walking, makes a hunt of a little over an hour.

Walk the route with a notebook a week before. Write down every answer: the Friday closing time, the price of a wash, the room number, the number of rows. A clue whose answer you have not checked is the one that stops a whole intake at the same stop.

Decide how each stop is checked. A typed answer for facts, a photo for places where a group has to stand, a location check for outdoor stops, and a QR scan inside buildings. There is no step limit, so build the whole route.

Plan the crowd before you print. Group sizes, start times and keeping eighty groups away from one door are covered in how to run a campus scavenger hunt for orientation.

The same clues in HedgeHunt

Every clue above fits one of the four challenge types.

Challenge type	What it checks	Which clues fit
Clue	Nothing; it gives information and asks nothing back	A stop like “the advice office is on the second floor”
Quiz	A typed answer against yours	A clue whose answer is one short fixed word or number, like clues 27 and 30
Mission	A photo, which AI checks, a GPS location, an audio recording or a QR scan	The photo clues, the outdoor stops and the scan step at each indoor stop
Task	A free text answer, which AI checks against the instructions you write	6 or 36, where any real answer should count, and 10 or 19, where a dish name or a phone number can be typed many ways

For a QR scan, the builder makes the code, with a download button for a printable card. Students play from one link in the phone browser, with no app and no student account; more on the campus orientation page.

The prompt we used

The prompt

An orientation scavenger hunt for new college students in small groups, eight stops around the main campus: the library, the student union, the dining hall, the gym, the health centre, the registry, the largest lecture hall and the quad. Riddle clues mixed with plain tasks, quiz questions with short typed answers, and two photo missions at the outdoor stops.

hedgehunt.app

What came back

We ran this prompt twice through the generator on the campus of a large US public university. Each run took under a minute and produced all eight stops. The first gave exactly two outdoor photo missions but only one riddle and one typed quiz, and put one building at an off-campus address, so check every pin and add your own riddles from the list above.

What you will want to change

Open it in the builder with the button below, or paste it into the AI scavenger hunt generator, with your own campus set as the place, and use the names your campus gives those buildings. The generator does not know your library’s Friday closing time or the price of a wash, so replace every answer with the one from your notebook. The generator never creates QR stops, because it cannot print or place them, so switch the indoor stops to QR missions yourself.

Draft this hunt