Best College Towns?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is only one, really, Boston.

Boston is a big city, not a college town.

New poster. Boston is a city, but a large portion of it feels like several college towns pressed together. Overall, it definitely has a collegiate feel to me. Not every street or every neighborhood, but overall, yes.

Lots of colleges does not make a college town. In fact, too many colleges dilutes the focus on one school. Lexington, VA with VMI and W&L is an exception to the one school, one town guideline. Boston may be a great place to go to college, but that does not make Beantown a college town. Charlottesville, Chapel Hill and Ann Arbor are tops for big state schools. SLAC list would be harder to develop, but Lexington, VA and Middlebury, VT would be on the list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Almost by definition, a college town won't have non-stop flights from DC, too small. The college towns in Capitols like Madison and Austin are lots of fun but much bigger than typical college town, Cambridge strikes me as not a college town though it has a pretty good university or two. College towns have cheap bars, cool places to stroll around and tend to be funky, Cambridge doesn't really fit that, even Harvard Square. As people have noted, Chapel Hill is very nice, and about an hour or less from Raleigh (though it is not as easy to get in and out of as it used to be since American dropped it as a hub), Bloomington is surprisingly lovely, about the same distance from Indianapolis where Southwest flies non-stop, and there are many more but might not be in places you are looking -- Iowa City, quite nice, Lincoln Nebraska again very nice college town, Ann Arbor is too but I think it is 1 1/2 hours from Detroit, don't think many people fly into the Metro airport since the main airport has lots of nonstop flights. I agree that Charlottesville is too isolated, at least for me, and Williamsburg just strikes me as weird, though I am sure that is not everyone's take on it.

Sorry to butt in...just wanted to correct a couple of things.

Ann Arbor is less than 45 minutes from Detroit. Second...Metro Airport IS the MAIN airport that people fly into. It is the big international airport in town and it is in between Ann Arbor and Detroit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Almost by definition, a college town won't have non-stop flights from DC, too small. The college towns in Capitols like Madison and Austin are lots of fun but much bigger than typical college town, Cambridge strikes me as not a college town though it has a pretty good university or two. College towns have cheap bars, cool places to stroll around and tend to be funky, Cambridge doesn't really fit that, even Harvard Square. As people have noted, Chapel Hill is very nice, and about an hour or less from Raleigh (though it is not as easy to get in and out of as it used to be since American dropped it as a hub), Bloomington is surprisingly lovely, about the same distance from Indianapolis where Southwest flies non-stop, and there are many more but might not be in places you are looking -- Iowa City, quite nice, Lincoln Nebraska again very nice college town, Ann Arbor is too but I think it is 1 1/2 hours from Detroit, don't think many people fly into the Metro airport since the main airport has lots of nonstop flights. I agree that Charlottesville is too isolated, at least for me, and Williamsburg just strikes me as weird, though I am sure that is not everyone's take on it.

Sorry to butt in...just wanted to correct a couple of things.

Ann Arbor is less than 45 minutes from Detroit. Second...Metro Airport IS the MAIN airport that people fly into. It is the big international airport in town and it is in between Ann Arbor and Detroit.

This made me laugh. Thanks for the correction and the reminder that you really can't believe what you read.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is only one, really, Boston.

Boston is a big city, not a college town.

New poster. Boston is a city, but a large portion of it feels like several college towns pressed together. Overall, it definitely has a collegiate feel to me. Not every street or every neighborhood, but overall, yes.

Lots of colleges does not make a college town. In fact, too many colleges dilutes the focus on one school. Lexington, VA with VMI and W&L is an exception to the one school, one town guideline. Boston may be a great place to go to college, but that does not make Beantown a college town. Charlottesville, Chapel Hill and Ann Arbor are tops for big state schools. SLAC list would be harder to develop, but Lexington, VA and Middlebury, VT would be on the list.

Maybe if you prefaced all of that with "in my opinion" you wouldn't sound like such a bossy know-it-all who really does not know it all.

Please tell, what are all of the other guidelines, since you clearly know so much.

[Anonymous]

Re Detroit, not sure why the name matters, there is a small Municipal Airport that not many use and then the large airport, which is what the poster was referring to. It is just outside of Detroit and would be where someone would fly into for Ann Arbor but it is a bit of a drive to Ann Arbor, particularly in the winter, good fares often though. Ann Arbor is a nice town.

[Anonymous]

charlottesville is trauma central. one of the worst violent crime stats around. bottom 6% in the country for murder/rape/assault.

[Anonymous]

Athens, Ohio ~ home to Ohio University. A wonderful alternative if the admissions-level option is below UMD from Maryland or George Mason and below from Northern Virginia.

[Anonymous]

Another vote for Bloomington, IN. Went to grad school there. The drive from the Indianapolis airport is easily shorter than the drive from Dulles or BWI to DC.

[Anonymous]

In the east, Princeton and Amherst are beautiful college towns.

[Anonymous]

This thread demonstrates how sheltered and insular those on DCUM are.

Taking the typical school year as August - May, how could anyone who has been around boost a town that is frozen half the year with residents hunkered in. There is a reason people have been move toward the warm limiters for decades - quality of life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:charlottesville is trauma central. one of the worst violent crime stats around. bottom 6% in the country for murder/rape/assault.

Cite?

[Anonymous]

I can't believe no one has suggested Burlington, VT yet!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread demonstrates how sheltered and insular those on DCUM are.

Taking the typical school year as August - May, how could anyone who has been around boost a town that is frozen half the year with residents hunkered in. There is a reason people have been move toward the warm limiters for decades - quality of life.

Hahaha - talk about sheltered and insular! You can stick to your warmer limiters and I'll stick to my cooler limiters. Some of us do enjoy winter weather/winter sports. You should get out more.

[Anonymous]

This is the second time I have seen a discussion like this where Boulder, Colorado was not mentioned right away. Maybe just overlooked by east coasters? Definitely a classic college town. Close to a major airport (Denver), close to tons of outdoor activities, beautiful campus, small town feel, bars galore. Hopefully it will recover from these floods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread demonstrates how sheltered and insular those on DCUM are.

Taking the typical school year as August - May, how could anyone who has been around boost a town that is frozen half the year with residents hunkered in. There is a reason people have been move toward the warm limiters for decades - quality of life.

That's funny! Grew up in Michigan and went to school in Ann Arbor. I can honestly say that the residents were not hunkered in! See...unlike "warm" weather towns...towns in the North do not shut down when the weather gets a little cold. LOL!