s/o Worst college towns?
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Anonymous
Really? What's "blech"? I mean, if you are a big city person, or hate cold weather...I can see where it wouldn't be a fit. But if you know what you are getting into on that end...love it. Just idyllic. |
Anonymous
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West Lafayette, Indiana. Hands down. The Big 10 has some of the country's best college towns. Madison, Bloomington, Ann Arbor, Iowa City- quintessential. Urbana-Champaign...not as revered but not terrible. Same with Lincoln, NE. Columbus and Minneapolis are awesome mid/large cities that offer a lot beyond the university. Evanston is a gorgeous inner ring suburb of Chicago and has great access to all the city has to offer. College Park...not winning any awards necessarily but good access to all the DC area has to offer and has made strides over the years.
I can't think of ANYTHING redeeming about West Lafayette. It's not close to anything interesting. It's ugly. The only other school I didn't list was New Brunswick, which is meh also, but at least you're on the fringes of a gigantic metro area and can be in NYC in an hour. The beach and other large cities aren't too far either. There are some huge, revered corporations in the area for internships and such. But West Lafayette? Nothing. Purdue is an awesome school and my DD loved their engineering department, but WL was a dealbreaker. |
Anonymous
We toured Muhlenberg and Lafayette and thought parts of Allentown and Easton were fine, nice even. |
Anonymous
Yalie here. I was fine with New Haven back in the day, and it's much, much nicer now. Have you actually been lately? It's a great place to go to college, but it does involve living in the real world. Maybe that's not for everyone. When we toured, my kid saw New Haven as a plus. |
Anonymous
DP. Yeah, we liked it. Very cute. Plus, great thai place. |
Anonymous
| New Haven |
Anonymous
Someone above already expressed what isn’t to like. The town is depressed and not “charming” like one might expect. Yes, the natural surroundings are pretty. And the finger lakes and wineries are nice. I specified that I did not like the town of Ithaca. |
Anonymous
Parts are fine...but my point is that the city provides almost no benefit to the college experience. The area around Muhlenberg is dead as doornails...Muhlenberg might as well be in the middle of nowhere. Yet, there has been a crime uptick, and again, while Muhlenberg's neighborhood is safe...it's not nearly as safe as like say a Bucknell. There just is not much upside to the city itself. |
Anonymous
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New Haven, CT
Towns in the Leigh Valley, PA NYU, NYC Boston Lebanon NH Any in IN |
Anonymous
Bloomington is in IN. It is a beautiful campus in a nice town. You are wrong |
Anonymous
haha - my dad went there in the late 60s/early 70s and has so many stories. My parents actually lived apart for a while after getting married because he stayed there for grad school and my mom refused to live there. |
Anonymous
Seattle, Portland, San Diego? |
Anonymous
I grew up 30 miles away, was a Stem kid, and had that same experience. 40 years ago. |
Anonymous
Agree! |
Anonymous
| We thought the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh was a cool place with both CMU and Pitt there. But outside Pittsburgh we thought Washington, PA (home of Washington & Jefferson College) was too depressing to consider, which was a shame because the college was a nice place w/nice people. |