<p>How does the town of Bloomington compare to other college towns such as State College for Penn State?</p>
<p>Bloomington is one of my favorite college towns. It is about twice the size of State College, which is a good thing considering that State College is very small. The residents of Bloomington tend to be welcoming and well educated. You cannot ask for a nicer community or funner college town.</p>
<p>Is it always full of life? I come from the NY area and I realize that Bloomington will never have as much life as NY, but I just don’t want it to be dead beat sometimes.</p>
<p>PSU can be pretty dead when the football team is not at home. It’s quite rural, but if you like the outdoors it has a lot to offer. </p>
<p>B’ton has a great restaurant scene, parents love to visit their kids there because there are all kinds of ethnic restaurants (African etc). Pretty lively, plus with the Jacobs school of music, there is a lot of music and dance going on always. </p>
<p>As one of the top party schools in the US PSU always has action on the weekends. NPR did a report on that you can find online.</p>
<p>Here’s a link to the episode of This American Life which focused on Penn State <a href=“http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/396/1-Party-School”>http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/396/1-Party-School</a></p>
<p>The thing about college towns is that a huge number of activities are geared towards people 18-25 who don’t have unlimited funds. IMO college towns often have 10X the culture of comparably sized cities without a major university. Will there be as many activities going on as NYC? No. However, as long as you can find a couple things to do on the weekend besides just drink, you should be fine. </p>
<p>^I agree with Whenhen: there are always TONS of things going on in a college town, things that are geared toward young people (hence the name) as well as academics. The best time to live in a college town is when you’re in college. 
You can always live in a “regular” town/city once you start working 
Never again will you experience living in an area where most things are geared towards a variety of people your age rather than a mix of families and professionals. There’ll be concerts, plays, crafts, conferences/lectures, games (both to watch or participate in), clubs, films, hikes/outdoors activities, most of them free, every weekend, plus all kinds of regular activites that you pay for (like movie theaters, restaurants, paintball…). I know Penn State tries very hard to offer alternatives to weekend partying so there are literally more things than you can do, all free, on campus. There are also buses that you can take for a weekend trip to King of Prussia’s Mall, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, etc. And Penn State makes its own ice cream
Now Bloomington is a nice town too and I like Indiana’s campus a lot so that’s not to say Bloomington isn’t nice. </p>
<p>I still recall being shocked when I went out of the UW Madison State Street area and saw actual adults with children and such. We lived in a nearly all 18-25 year old world designed to serve 40,000 students. </p>
<p>I’ve spent a lot of time in State College since I was seven. It is not all that. Yes, there is a large state university there, but the town itself is a bore outside of the football games and the arts festival. It is a small town with a small town attitude that’s been invaded by a large university from whom it gets, at least at one time, zero tax revenue except sales. zzzzzzzzzzz! It is not Madison or Boulder by a long long long shot. I love it there, but I love it for its outdoor recreation and not for the town itself. SC is so boring even Hooters couldn’t make a go of it.</p>
<p>But Bloomington isn’t Boulder or Madison either, right? </p>
<p>This shows how ymmv. Actually, in my opinion, it’s one of the best college towns. (It got decent opinions on the college town listing). I judge from accessibility (you can get to everything on foot & there’s excellent public transportation), movies offered, restaurant quality, variety of activities offered within a decent driving range, access to big cities for a weekend trip. The only thing I regret is how far from the ocean it is and good lakes aren’t readily accessible.
I don’t judge on football weekends, which, I’ve been told, are insane, and worth staying inside if you’re faculty. :)</p>