I’d say Gambier is more a village than a town, though. It wouldn’t qualify as a “college town”, it seems to me, due to its size. But it’s a village where the lifelihood is a college.
@MYOS1634 Ohio doesn’t have towns, only cities and villages (and townships).
OHMomof2, I don’t mean to disparage Gambier. In other threads I have posted that S and I spent 3 days there and loved the campus and the village. We went to a prospective students’ day, attended church services, went to an art show, ate out with a prof, visited another prof at her family’s home, had meals at the student cafeteria, etc.
We stayed with a lovely couple who has retired in Gambier, partly to enjoy Kenyon.
However I would call it a in a charming village, given its population of under 2,500 – not a bustling college town. Which was my understanding of the thread.
It’s all good @momcinco - I get what you mean.
IMO a college town is larger than that, and probably wouldn’t exist without the college(s). IMO Amherst is like that. I’m not sure big cities like Madison (never been though, so take that with more than a grain of salt) fit that criteria since they have other stuff going on.
I guess it depends what the student is looking for. Our own kids vary in this regard. Two eldest are city mice, eager to do internships, ride the bus, etc. Third kid spent a weekend at his brother’s school and his favorite part of the campus was the urban farm in a quieter part of the city. Personally I feel like, given the job situation – where kids often have to start their careers in a densely populated area – why not enjoy campus life in a college town / rural campus while you can? Assuming of course that the school has lots going on, with a rich and engaging campus life.
Macalester
I think a true “college town”, a town which caters to the student body of the university or college located there, would be hard to find for a LAC without it being tiny. LACs, being tiny themselves, don’t have the size to drive a larger town or small city.
Many of us have mentioned LACs in or near urban areas because they offer a lot of culture and dining/shopping/entertainment options.
Perhaps @samantha827 can come back and give a better idea of what she is looking for.
Not LAC-specific, in fact entirely large unis (though Amherst, for one, has both), but still, a list of charming college “towns”: http://www.rentlingo.com/top-20-most-charming-college-towns
Based on a “charm index”:
^ Yay! My favorite college town is #5! =D>
Gainesville is a county seat and also the epicenter of Gator Country. Not sure how charming it is these days but I loved it in the Stone Age.
There are a few LACs that share college towns with big public universities. There’s St. Edward’s not far from UT in Austin, Transylvania near UK in Lexington, KY, Illinois Wesleyan near Illinois State in Bloomington, IL, Kalamazoon college near Western Michigan; probably others. This is a good option for a kid who wants an LAC for academic reasons but wants to enjoy bigger sporting events and the services offered to a big student community in town.
@ClaremontMom, we never would have guessed! 
Sarah Lawrence
Cambridge MA the most charming? I guess they’ve never driven there. 
Rollins, Winter Park
“Charming” is a strange word to use for a college town rating. Charm isn’t really what most college students are after. For instance, Wellesley MA is a very charming town, a lovely place to raise a family, but it’s far less fun for students than Cambridge. The crime index for Wellesley is 41.1 to Cambridge’s 177.1. It has wonderful schools and lovely parks, but no bars (Wellesley’s a dry town) and few fun & funky places for students to hang out. Many people I know lived in Cambridge or Boston in their 20’s, then moved to the charming suburbs when they started to have children.
Sarah Lawrence? Surprising. The school is located in NY on the border of Bronxville and Mt. Vernon, neither of which qualifies as a great (or good) college town in my eyes.
Hey, it’s a LAC, and it’s hard to find a better town than NYC, if that’s your thing. (I was joking – obviously NYC is not a “college town” – hence the emoji. Yet true in its way, for the right person.)
?? Barnard is a LAC In NYC. Maybe Cooper Union and Fordham could be called LACs. I can’t think of any others offhand.
SL is in Bronxville - not The Bronx, it’s not in NYC.
C’mon, as far as anyone who doesn’t actually live in NYC is concerned, that’s NYC. To say it’s not in NYC is, hmmm, Ohio analogy … it’s like living in Cleveland Hts and saying you don’t live in Cleveland. Okay technically not, but as far as anyone who’s not from there is concerned? (FWIW, been to Sarah Lawrence, have family near there – they say they live in NYC even though, okay, not Manhattan. And in conversation with fellow New Yorkers, I’m sure they specify. But still. If you go to Sarah Lawrence, you most certainly get the NYC experience, and not just because of field trips.)