<p>What do people think?</p>
<p>Burlington, VT?</p>
<p>1.) Boston (by far)
2.) Washington DC
3.) Los Angeles or Philadelphia
4.) Dallas
5.) Columbus OH (sentimental favorite)</p>
<p>Just my pics, people will probably disagree :)</p>
<p>I always thought the term "college town" had to be a town in which the culture was overwhelmingly determined by the presence of one or more colleges rather than any other industry or business. So, using this definition, Cambridge is a college town, but Washington DC is not, nor are L.A., Philadelphia, or Dallas. Madison WI is a college town despite the fact that it is also the state capital, Columbia MO is a college town, Urbana/Champaign is a college town(s), Boulder CO, and so on.</p>
<p>burlington, vt
DC
Boston
Charlottesville
NYC(too expensive though)</p>
<p>Dallas? There's barely a college there. </p>
<p>Athens, GA
Bloomington, Indiana
Nashville
Madison
Boulder</p>
<p>No large city is really a bona fide college town in my book. A city is a place that might have colleges in it, but it is rarely, if ever, focused on those colleges. At the very least, a college town should be greatly influenced by the college(s) there. A great college town should be a wonderful place to live for any number of reasons, one of them being the college that is there.</p>
<p>Here is my list in no particular order:</p>
<p>Madison
Ann Arbor
Boulder
Eugene
Charlottesville</p>
<p>Harvard and Northwestern, both are very similar. Northwestern's Evanston town is like a Harvard Square and Northwestern is more clean and decent than Harvard. Both settings are most perfect from other midwest to eastcoast colleges. I visited most of colleges between chicago to eastcoast last year.</p>
<p>m7silver:</p>
<p>You're welcome to your opinion, of course, but having spent months in both Evanston and Cambridge, I don't find them to be at all alike. I don't really even see how you come to believe they look alike.</p>
<p>But, oh well.</p>
<p>You may want to check your sources, momofwildchild. Have you ever been to Dallas? TCU, SMU, and U Dallas are all very close. Baylor isn't too too far away either. They don't have great athletics this particular year, but they have in the past, certainly more than a city with "hardly any colleges." Dallas is a very good "college town," great for recruiting with TI, American Airlines, etc as they all know the students form these schools.
I define "college town" as being a city with a lot of college activity: not necessarily with athletics, but with a lot of opportunity for sudents, similar to the way "Top fifty retiement cities" doesn't necessarily mean "top fifty cities for being famous for having many retirees."</p>
<p>TAce77:</p>
<p>Define college town any way you like, of course, but I would like to point out that your definition makes practically every large city with one or more large colleges a college town. For instance:</p>
<p>Seattle: UW, Seattle Pacific, Seattle U., Antioch U.</p>
<p>Chicago: Northwestern, U of Chicago, Loyola, DePaul</p>
<p>Richmond: U of Richmond, VCU</p>
<p>Philadelphia: Big 5</p>
<p>New York: Columbia, NYU, CUNY, New School, Juilliard, and a slew of others</p>
<p>And if practically any large city can be a college town, then how do you choose? I mean, of course every one in the world thinks that Columbus is in the league with New York, Paris, Tokyo, and London, but how does Dallas match up?</p>
<p>I don't know what's so great about Ann Arbor. We don't have a McDonald's, Taco Bell, or KFC on campus.</p>
<p>MOWC: Nashville? I agree that it has a far closer relationship with its major university than most other cities of its size, but I haven't thought of it as a college town--mostly because most other people associate it with the music industry, not Vanderbilt.</p>
<p>I think a town/city is a 'college town' if it would clearly have a very different character if the college were not there; fewer theaters, music venues, biking trails, gyms, coffee houses. Even hospitals; the college town I live in has five hospitals (big ones, lots of research) for fewer than 90,000 people. That is a clear sign of a university with a big medical school in town.</p>
<p>Not all college towns are equally appealing, I'm sure, but in general college towns have a lot to offer relative to non-college towns of the same size.</p>
<p>MightyNick, count your blessings. I just hate that the dungeon we knew as the M Bar years ago has become a bright, airy, boring, disgusting McDonalds. Give me the nooks and crannies, the atmosphere of the ancient local joints any day.</p>
<p>They could at least have a Taco Bell so that I could at least solve my starvation problem!!</p>
<p>Taco Bell. EEEEEWWWWWwwwwwww.</p>
<p>well, while Austin is much bigger now and can't necessarily be described strictly by it's college population, it was the best college town ever in the 70s and 80s.</p>
<p>Bloomington, Indiana
Ann Arbor, Michigan
State College, Pennsylvania
Gainesville, Florida
Madison, Wisconsin
Evanston, Illinois
Charlottesville, Virginia
Bellingham, Washington
Athens, Georgia</p>
<p>Austin and ...</p>
<p>In the surely not, Number One ought to be New York.</p>
<p>Tarhunt, I guess I'm different in that I don't "choose" colleges based solely on their strength in athletics/school spirit. The poster I was referring to simply listed the names of several cities containing large state schools.
What's wrong with saying that most large cities are good college towns? Chicago is certainly a great college town, as are Columbus, New York, and Dallas. Let's stay in the United States for this discussion; most people (including myself) are not familiar with schools in foreign countries, though I'm sure London, Paris, and Tokyo are, nevertheless, great places to spend four + years.<br>
My definition takes intio account amenities: airports, hospital facilities, entertainment, etc. As far as I know, a city like Eugene is lacking in some of these departments. Not to say that it's a bad place or anything (Oregon is a great place), but not necessarily in tune with a place like, say, Chicago in terms of city amenities.
I don't see a problem in saying that any of the cities you list are good college towns (although maybe not top 5). You don't have to "choose" between them.</p>