Best college town in Virginia?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lynchburg. Liberty University, University of Lynchburg, and Randolph College are all there, and Sweet Briar is just outside of the city.

I agree with the PP. Before I had ever been to Lynchburg, I had a view of what I thought it was. Come to find out it is actually wonderful.

Several universities nearby and lots of things to do through that (sports, theater, etc.). But also, you have the river and lots of trails and parks for hiking, SUPing, running, kayaks, etc. And lots of people take advantage of that so there is a thriving outdoor community there.

The downtown area has also gone through a sort of revitalization with lots of the old mills and factory buildings redone into very cute (and expensive) lofts, condos, townhomes. There are lots of restaurants, bars, ice cream places, summer activities. There's an art scene. It's actually really great. And if you're thinking you'll get in and out cheaply, it's not that cheap to stay and play there (relative to here, sure).

Having said that, there is A TON for college kids to do there. A ton. But if you're only college goal is to puke your way through a Hokie or Cavs game, then I guess maybe the "shocked eyes" emoji is appropriate for you.

You know, I was nodding along with you in agreement until your last sentence. What was the point of that? So uncalled for and totally diminishes the rest of your post.
NP

I really care, honestly. Who are you anyway, the poster police?

It's accurate in response to the other posters who think you need to have a D1 football drunkfest every Saturday to be a college down.

NP- Tech and UVA have 6 home football games a year. Your hyperbolic ranting is odd.

UVA at least seems to have lots of people masquerading as seats these days. Not sure where college football is headed these days. The top level is pretty much fully professional already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax and GMU! The Smithsonian museums, Sequoias, Tony and Joes, Ski Liberty, Great Falls.

It seems autocentric and not very walkable. When you step off campus, do you feel like you're in a town?

Such ignorance here about GMU. DD lived in the dorms four years and gad the time if her life. Here's what she did: walked across the street to dine and shop. Shuttled to the wonderful retaurabts and bars at Grand Commons Square (Coastal Flats, Ozzi's, etc) Shuttled to Old Fairfax for art scene, walkabout the cobbled streets and eat at very cool Vietnamese retaurants and other ethoc restaurants. Breakfast scene at First Watch and the best authentic Chinese restaurant I've eaten out of China. Weekly events at tge Eagle Bank Center. On camous cinma. Great gyns. Good on-campus food at name chain restaurants. Great school spirit over basketball. Away games. Shuttled to DC and everyhing it has to offer. Shuttled to the high tech canpus at Manassas for internships. GMU Arlington has loads going on. Spent a term at Mason Korea. And met her husband there

Umm...I live in Fairfax. Where are these cobbled streets you speak of? Nothing against GMU but Fairfax is not a college "town." I have a kid at W&M and as much as I like Williamsburg, it is a tourist city not a college town.

Okay…but the campus is beautiful, and you can walk to restaurants and bars. There is an Amtrak station in town. Waterparks nearby. W’burg is not a bad college town.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax and GMU! The Smithsonian museums, Sequoias, Tony and Joes, Ski Liberty, Great Falls.

It seems autocentric and not very walkable. When you step off campus, do you feel like you're in a town?

Such ignorance here about GMU. DD lived in the dorms four years and gad the time if her life. Here's what she did: walked across the street to dine and shop. Shuttled to the wonderful retaurabts and bars at Grand Commons Square (Coastal Flats, Ozzi's, etc) Shuttled to Old Fairfax for art scene, walkabout the cobbled streets and eat at very cool Vietnamese retaurants and other ethoc restaurants. Breakfast scene at First Watch and the best authentic Chinese restaurant I've eaten out of China. Weekly events at tge Eagle Bank Center. On camous cinma. Great gyns. Good on-campus food at name chain restaurants. Great school spirit over basketball. Away games. Shuttled to DC and everyhing it has to offer. Shuttled to the high tech canpus at Manassas for internships. GMU Arlington has loads going on. Spent a term at Mason Korea. And met her husband there

Umm...I live in Fairfax. Where are these cobbled streets you speak of? Nothing against GMU but Fairfax is not a college "town." I have a kid at W&M and as much as I like Williamsburg, it is a tourist city not a college town.

Okay…but the campus is beautiful, and you can walk to restaurants and bars. There is an Amtrak station in town. Waterparks nearby. W’burg is not a bad college town.

Again with the water parks? How have I missed this strange connection between William and Mary and water country USA? It’s not even open during the regular academic year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax and GMU! The Smithsonian museums, Sequoias, Tony and Joes, Ski Liberty, Great Falls.

It seems autocentric and not very walkable. When you step off campus, do you feel like you're in a town?

Such ignorance here about GMU. DD lived in the dorms four years and gad the time if her life. Here's what she did: walked across the street to dine and shop. Shuttled to the wonderful retaurabts and bars at Grand Commons Square (Coastal Flats, Ozzi's, etc) Shuttled to Old Fairfax for art scene, walkabout the cobbled streets and eat at very cool Vietnamese retaurants and other ethoc restaurants. Breakfast scene at First Watch and the best authentic Chinese restaurant I've eaten out of China. Weekly events at tge Eagle Bank Center. On camous cinma. Great gyns. Good on-campus food at name chain restaurants. Great school spirit over basketball. Away games. Shuttled to DC and everyhing it has to offer. Shuttled to the high tech canpus at Manassas for internships. GMU Arlington has loads going on. Spent a term at Mason Korea. And met her husband there

Umm...I live in Fairfax. Where are these cobbled streets you speak of? Nothing against GMU but Fairfax is not a college "town." I have a kid at W&M and as much as I like Williamsburg, it is a tourist city not a college town.

Okay…but the campus is beautiful, and you can walk to restaurants and bars. There is an Amtrak station in town. Waterparks nearby. W’burg is not a bad college town.

Again with the water parks? How have I missed this strange connection between William and Mary and water country USA? It’s not even open during the regular academic year.

Yeah, do W&M students really go to Water Country or Busch Gardens in numbers? I reluctantly take my kids once a year (we live nearby) and I’m not getting big liberal arts student vibes from the crowd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax and GMU! The Smithsonian museums, Sequoias, Tony and Joes, Ski Liberty, Great Falls.

I hope this poster is being sarcastic. How many GMU students are going from campus to Georgetown to have dinner at Sequoia's? Ski Liberty is a 90 minute drive. This does not even come close to describing a college town!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ashland/Randolph-Macon.

The college has a smaller enrollment than even our HS but they’ve got an Amtrak station right on-campus! The town itself has a quintessential and quirky Main St with a handful of festivals and parades every year. Only one “big” grocery store and Walmart is banished to the outskirts of town. Fall Football Saturdays are picturesque and the team has had some success of late.

But it’ll cost ya. Rack rate is close to 70K but they’ve been known to be generous with aid to VA students.

Most of the privates in VA offer great scholarships, save W&L and Richmond.

Don’t forget the VTAG money.

It definitely made several of the colleges we explored more reasonable.

Randolph would have been $20k all in, and that was with the lowest level of merit.

Are you talking about RMC in Ashland or Randolph in Lynchburg? In the good old days, RMC was all male and Randolph Macon’s Women’s College (now Randolph) was all female but now they are both coed and confusion has increased.

The original post in this string was about RMC in Ashland. The "cost" was mentioned. I doubt many RMC students pay the actual full cost to attend, as most of the VA privates (save the 2 top privates) give a decent amount of scholarship money and/or discounts.

I mentioned Randolph in Lynchburg (which used to be the women's college of RMC) because my daughter applied there and got merit, plus a couple of other small scholarships/discounts. Then we would have used VTAG. The actual price of the school, after all that, was very reasonable—cheaper than her in-state public option, which was Radford.

We also considered Shenandoah and Emory & Henry, plus explored Sweet Briar and Hollins, all of which would have been more reasonable with the VTAG money included.

[Anonymous]

Farmville as a town is cute. But Longwood? Meh.

I would nominate Lexington myself.

[Anonymous]

Definition of College Town = Nothing much to do in the middle of nowhere

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax and GMU! The Smithsonian museums, Sequoias, Tony and Joes, Ski Liberty, Great Falls.

It seems autocentric and not very walkable. When you step off campus, do you feel like you're in a town?

Such ignorance here about GMU. DD lived in the dorms four years and gad the time if her life. Here's what she did: walked across the street to dine and shop. Shuttled to the wonderful retaurabts and bars at Grand Commons Square (Coastal Flats, Ozzi's, etc) Shuttled to Old Fairfax for art scene, walkabout the cobbled streets and eat at very cool Vietnamese retaurants and other ethoc restaurants. Breakfast scene at First Watch and the best authentic Chinese restaurant I've eaten out of China. Weekly events at tge Eagle Bank Center. On camous cinma. Great gyns. Good on-campus food at name chain restaurants. Great school spirit over basketball. Away games. Shuttled to DC and everyhing it has to offer. Shuttled to the high tech canpus at Manassas for internships. GMU Arlington has loads going on. Spent a term at Mason Korea. And met her husband there

Umm...I live in Fairfax. Where are these cobbled streets you speak of? Nothing against GMU but Fairfax is not a college "town." I have a kid at W&M and as much as I like Williamsburg, it is a tourist city not a college town.

Okay…but the campus is beautiful, and you can walk to restaurants and bars. There is an Amtrak station in town. Waterparks nearby. W’burg is not a bad college town.

Again with the water parks? How have I missed this strange connection between William and Mary and water country USA? It’s not even open during the regular academic year.

Yeah, do W&M students really go to Water Country or Busch Gardens in numbers? I reluctantly take my kids once a year (we live nearby) and I’m not getting big liberal arts student vibes from the crowd.

A LOT of people at W&M have season passes.

[Anonymous]

My son and his friends have season passes to Busch Gardens. They go a good bit.

[Anonymous]

I don't think a college town necessarily has to be the middle of nowhere. For example, I grew up near Newark and the Univ of Delaware. The town itself is very much a college town, but there was a lot of other stuff nearby, including Wilmington, Philly, etc.

West Chester, not too far North, is somewhat the same.

Chapel Hill isn't middle of nowhere - it's part of the triangle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax and GMU! The Smithsonian museums, Sequoias, Tony and Joes, Ski Liberty, Great Falls.

It seems autocentric and not very walkable. When you step off campus, do you feel like you're in a town?

Such ignorance here about GMU. DD lived in the dorms four years and gad the time if her life. Here's what she did: walked across the street to dine and shop. Shuttled to the wonderful retaurabts and bars at Grand Commons Square (Coastal Flats, Ozzi's, etc) Shuttled to Old Fairfax for art scene, walkabout the cobbled streets and eat at very cool Vietnamese retaurants and other ethoc restaurants. Breakfast scene at First Watch and the best authentic Chinese restaurant I've eaten out of China. Weekly events at tge Eagle Bank Center. On camous cinma. Great gyns. Good on-campus food at name chain restaurants. Great school spirit over basketball. Away games. Shuttled to DC and everyhing it has to offer. Shuttled to the high tech canpus at Manassas for internships. GMU Arlington has loads going on. Spent a term at Mason Korea. And met her husband there

Umm...I live in Fairfax. Where are these cobbled streets you speak of? Nothing against GMU but Fairfax is not a college "town." I have a kid at W&M and as much as I like Williamsburg, it is a tourist city not a college town.

Okay…but the campus is beautiful, and you can walk to restaurants and bars. There is an Amtrak station in town. Waterparks nearby. W’burg is not a bad college town.

Again with the water parks? How have I missed this strange connection between William and Mary and water country USA? It’s not even open during the regular academic year.

Yeah, do W&M students really go to Water Country or Busch Gardens in numbers? I reluctantly take my kids once a year (we live nearby) and I’m not getting big liberal arts student vibes from the crowd.

A LOT of people at W&M have season passes.

I mean hanging out at Wawa, playing Quidditch, and Nerf gun fights are a thing there. Dressing like an elf and going to Bush Gardens doesn't seem like much of a leap for a Tribe member. Hell even I like going there drinking beer and riding Griffon and Verbolten on loop from time to time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lynchburg. Liberty University, University of Lynchburg, and Randolph College are all there, and Sweet Briar is just outside of the city.

I agree with the PP. Before I had ever been to Lynchburg, I had a view of what I thought it was. Come to find out it is actually wonderful.

Several universities nearby and lots of things to do through that (sports, theater, etc.). But also, you have the river and lots of trails and parks for hiking, SUPing, running, kayaks, etc. And lots of people take advantage of that so there is a thriving outdoor community there.

The downtown area has also gone through a sort of revitalization with lots of the old mills and factory buildings redone into very cute (and expensive) lofts, condos, townhomes. There are lots of restaurants, bars, ice cream places, summer activities. There's an art scene. It's actually really great. And if you're thinking you'll get in and out cheaply, it's not that cheap to stay and play there (relative to here, sure).

Having said that, there is A TON for college kids to do there. A ton. But if you're only college goal is to puke your way through a Hokie or Cavs game, then I guess maybe the "shocked eyes" emoji is appropriate for you.

You know, I was nodding along with you in agreement until your last sentence. What was the point of that? So uncalled for and totally diminishes the rest of your post.
NP

I really care, honestly. Who are you anyway, the poster police?

It's accurate in response to the other posters who think you need to have a D1 football drunkfest every Saturday to be a college down.

NP- Tech and UVA have 6 home football games a year. Your hyperbolic ranting is odd.

Are you new here? This is not hyperbolic at all. Moreover, I hear from my senior kids' friends all the time that htey want a "big football school." Nothing hyperbolic about it. But you're dismissing this desire of many is odd.

I have no dog in this fight, btw. My kid is not going to one of those schools by choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lynchburg. Liberty University, University of Lynchburg, and Randolph College are all there, and Sweet Briar is just outside of the city.

I agree with the PP. Before I had ever been to Lynchburg, I had a view of what I thought it was. Come to find out it is actually wonderful.

Several universities nearby and lots of things to do through that (sports, theater, etc.). But also, you have the river and lots of trails and parks for hiking, SUPing, running, kayaks, etc. And lots of people take advantage of that so there is a thriving outdoor community there.

The downtown area has also gone through a sort of revitalization with lots of the old mills and factory buildings redone into very cute (and expensive) lofts, condos, townhomes. There are lots of restaurants, bars, ice cream places, summer activities. There's an art scene. It's actually really great. And if you're thinking you'll get in and out cheaply, it's not that cheap to stay and play there (relative to here, sure).

Having said that, there is A TON for college kids to do there. A ton. But if you're only college goal is to puke your way through a Hokie or Cavs game, then I guess maybe the "shocked eyes" emoji is appropriate for you.

You know, I was nodding along with you in agreement until your last sentence. What was the point of that? So uncalled for and totally diminishes the rest of your post.
NP

I really care, honestly. Who are you anyway, the poster police?

It's accurate in response to the other posters who think you need to have a D1 football drunkfest every Saturday to be a college down.

NP- Tech and UVA have 6 home football games a year. Your hyperbolic ranting is odd.

Are you new here? This is not hyperbolic at all. Moreover, I hear from my senior kids' friends all the time that htey want a "big football school." Nothing hyperbolic about it. But you're dismissing this desire of many is odd.

I have no dog in this fight, btw. My kid is not going to one of those schools by choice.

Wow, big flex. That's your coy way of saying "higher ranked school." Why are you concerned about your friends kids desires for college? Maybe mind your business. It's you that said an every Saturday puke fest at football games. 6 out of 52 Saturdays is not every Saturday. It equals 11.5% of Saturdays in a calander year. What a freak.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lynchburg. Liberty University, University of Lynchburg, and Randolph College are all there, and Sweet Briar is just outside of the city.

I agree with the PP. Before I had ever been to Lynchburg, I had a view of what I thought it was. Come to find out it is actually wonderful.

Several universities nearby and lots of things to do through that (sports, theater, etc.). But also, you have the river and lots of trails and parks for hiking, SUPing, running, kayaks, etc. And lots of people take advantage of that so there is a thriving outdoor community there.

The downtown area has also gone through a sort of revitalization with lots of the old mills and factory buildings redone into very cute (and expensive) lofts, condos, townhomes. There are lots of restaurants, bars, ice cream places, summer activities. There's an art scene. It's actually really great. And if you're thinking you'll get in and out cheaply, it's not that cheap to stay and play there (relative to here, sure).

Having said that, there is A TON for college kids to do there. A ton. But if you're only college goal is to puke your way through a Hokie or Cavs game, then I guess maybe the "shocked eyes" emoji is appropriate for you.

You know, I was nodding along with you in agreement until your last sentence. What was the point of that? So uncalled for and totally diminishes the rest of your post.
NP

I really care, honestly. Who are you anyway, the poster police?

It's accurate in response to the other posters who think you need to have a D1 football drunkfest every Saturday to be a college down.

NP- Tech and UVA have 6 home football games a year. Your hyperbolic ranting is odd.

Are you new here? This is not hyperbolic at all. Moreover, I hear from my senior kids' friends all the time that htey want a "big football school." Nothing hyperbolic about it. But you're dismissing this desire of many is odd.

I have no dog in this fight, btw. My kid is not going to one of those schools by choice.

Wow, big flex. That's your coy way of saying "higher ranked school." Why are you concerned about your friends kids desires for college? Maybe mind your business. It's you that said an every Saturday puke fest at football games. 6 out of 52 Saturdays is not every Saturday. It equals 11.5% of Saturdays in a calander year. What a freak.

You have serious issues. This was in no way a flex and you know zippy about my kid or school. Maybe it's you who should mind their business? THis thread was about college towns, to which I responded with my opinion TO INCLUDE an opinion on the bi--chy comments and emojis about certain towns. Whatever the percentages are for football, that bleeds into other aspects of those schools (I went to one). I don't gaf what your kid or anyone else does in terms of where they go -unlike you- I simply pointed out that just b/c some schools don't have that scene doesn't mean they aren't great college towns.

But go on and get bent over that. Makes no diff to me.

And it's "calendar."