Oh I agree. I was just kidding.
Austin…yes its large but we have music, breakfast tacos, football, and mild winters. Don’t forget your sunscreen!!
As Big 10 Schools go, on our visits I really liked Madison, WI and Penn State. Very nice settings and real good vibe to it. My D goes to IU and Bloomington is a great college town as well. Haven’t been to Ann Arbor yet but would like to check it out sometime to see how it compares.
Collegerank recently did a detailed evaluation of 50 college towns (google “The Best College Towns in America - College Rank”). Their top picks:
- Athens GA
- Santa Cruz CA
- Ann Arbor MI
- Charlottesville VA
- Burlington VT
- Boulder CO
- Amherst MA
- Gainesville FL
- Cambridge MA
And in first place, a college town that has had zero mentions on this thread up to now:
- San Luis Obispo CA
I love Ann Arbor (a little biased as a Michigan Wolverine). I also really liked Amherst, MA when I visited (it was for a relative’s college tour, so I did not get a good handle on night life or anything like that, which could be a deal breaker).
Bloomington and Madison are awesome!
Athens, OHIO. That town is all about Ohio University.
Chico, California is a great mix of cowboys and college students.
@simba9 ,
I lived in Athens, OH for three years. Earlier in this thread, I stated that Iowa City is my fave, and it is an amazing college town. But Athens might be one of the loveliest towns that people don’t know about or haven’t visited. Plus, Ohio University is drop-dead gorgeous. Consistent architecture; a grassy quad that ends in a diagonal that fronts Court St., the main strip; the Hocking River forming one of the campus’s borders; tree-filled and hilly in spots. OU is seen as second fiddle to OSU, but it’s half the size, and during my time there I was highly impressed with the students, some of whom preferred OU because of its journalism program, its smaller size, and its much-publicized party scene. I still miss Athens dearly.
I do not say the same about Columbia, MO, where I lived for six years. Some people love Columbia, but I found the town okay (a bit large and doesn’t really have the vibe of, say, literary and cultural Iowa City). Plus, campus is just meh. Parts are attractive, but large chunks are nondescript, and when you cruise down Providence, you see the ugly, factory-aspect of the university, with its chimney pumping fumes into the air. Neither of the major streets–Broadway and Providence–are particularly picturesque (kind of sad, actually). Again, others feel quite differently, but I’ll take Iowa City or Athens, OH any day over CoMO.
Davis, CA.
I second @Emsmom1’s choice of Davis followed by San Luis Obispo
@FoxRulz FWIW, Ann Arbor has a lot of homeless people sitting on the sidewalks.
My heart is broken over Ithaca, NY. It used to be the quintessential college town when I went to Cornell. It was so quaint and fun. Ever since developers saw dollar signs, they’ve ruined the look and feel of College Ave. and all of Collegetown. Very bad planning on the part of the city planners.
We visited roughly 25 in the last 2 years. Our favorites in terms of campus, surrounding town and school spirit were and remain:
- UNC Chapel Hill (Gorgeous campus and nice town)
- U Michigan Ann Arbor (fabulous but rate lower than UGA due to freezing weather when we visited in November)
- UGA Athens (Been many times and always impressed. Full disclosure-S will likely attend here :-).
San Gabriel