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.

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

Boston is a big city, not a college town.

Anonymous wrote:Amherst/Northampton, MA are fun, though I understand the traffic is pretty bad these days.

Free bus service for students runs between UMass/Amherst/Hampshire/Smith/MtHolyoke.

Nearest airport might be Hartford, CT though.

Amtrak goes from here to Springfield.

+1000
Traffic is nothing compared to here. Was just up visiting the Motherland this past spring. Oh, how I miss Northampton!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not enough stuff to do in Charlottesville. That makes the secret society/greek stuff too big and intense there.

I agree. Everything else about the school looks great, but the big Greek culture is a huge turn off.

DD is not even applying there because of that (and the whole Southern Prep thing and Charlottesville, in general). Too bad, we are in-state and she had a good shot.

There is only one, really, Boston.

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.

Anonymous wrote:Not enough stuff to do in Charlottesville. That makes the secret society/greek stuff too big and intense there.

I agree. Everything else about the school looks great, but the big Greek culture is a huge turn off.

Not enough stuff to do in Charlottesville. That makes the secret society/greek stuff too big and intense there.

Charlottesville

Another Ann Arbor vote. a wonderful culturally rich town.

Amherst/Northampton, MA are fun, though I understand the traffic is pretty bad these days.

Free bus service for students runs between UMass/Amherst/Hampshire/Smith/MtHolyoke.

Nearest airport might be Hartford, CT though.

Amtrak goes from here to Springfield.

Anonymous wrote:Athens, GA

I LOVE Athens! One of my all time favorite college towns.

I also love Oxford, Mississipppi. Hate the rest of the state, but Oxford is a great little college town.

Madison, WI and Boston!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CHAPEL HILL!!!! Small feel but not that small. Pretty, too.

And if we're talking UNC, impossible to get in for our mere mortal children.

You might be surprised. My kid got in - <4.0 GPA, strong but not stratospheric test scores, just a good kid with a deep involvement in one school activity for 4 years. Another kid from the same school with a very similar profile also got in to UNC. They are both at UVA now (in-state tuition). I am a true believer that UNC and UVA look at the applications holistically. That, or the college counselor paid someone off

This is a good list, with some of the cities mentioned above included:

http://www.usnews.com/education/slideshows/10-great-college-towns/12