<p>Grinnell is two blocks from the downtown center. Walmart is a mile or two away.</p>
<p>Colorado College is in a medium-sized city at the foot of Pike’s Peak. Within about a 15 minute walk there is a Chipotle, a Vietnamese restaurant, MacKenzie’s Chop House, a nice bakery, a used bookstore, a musical instrument shop (sales, repairs), and a few clubs. Via a short drive, bike ride, or public transportation, you have an REI store, Garden of the Gods park ([Garden</a> of the Gods](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_of_the_Gods]Garden”>Garden of the Gods - Wikipedia)), historic Manitou Springs ([Manitou</a> Springs](<a href=“http://www.manitousprings.org/]Manitou”>http://www.manitousprings.org/)), or the base of Pike’s Peak, where you can take a cog railway trip up the mountain ([Along</a> The Route](<a href=“http://www.cograilway.com/alongroute.htm]Along”>The Experience | The Broadmoor Manitou & Pikes Peak Cog Railway)).</p>
<p>Anyone have any info on Bucknell?</p>
<p>^ Bucknell is about 1/4-1/2 mile from the main drag of a small town center</p>
<p>How about Macalester? It’s in a very nice leafy residential neighborhood in Saint Paul, but running across one corner of campus is Grand Avenue, a charming commercial street with tons of new and “vintage” clothing shops, restaurants from the humblest to the highest-end (and a cornucopia of ethnic flavors), coffee shops, groceries, a movie theater, bike shops, hardware stores, drug stores, sporting goods stores—you name it, it’s there within a 2-20 minute walk from campus.</p>
<p>^^Macalester gets an 86: [Walk</a> Score of macalester college mn](<a href=“1600 Grand Avenue, St. Paul MN - Walk Score”>1600 W Grand Ave, St. Paul MN - Walk Score)</p>
<p>Pomona -96 (A) <a href=“http://www.walkscore.com/score/333-N.-College-Way-claremont-ca[/url]”>http://www.walkscore.com/score/333-N.-College-Way-claremont-ca</a>
Smith - 91 (A-) [Walk</a> Score of smith college ma](<a href=“Northampton MA - Walk Score”>7 College Lane, Northampton MA - Walk Score)
Amherst - 89 (B+) [Walk</a> Score of amherst college ma](<a href=“Amherst Center MA - Walk Score”>220 South Pleasant Street, Amherst Center MA - Walk Score)
Macalester - 86 (B+) [Walk</a> Score of macalester college mn](<a href=“1600 Grand Avenue, St. Paul MN - Walk Score”>1600 W Grand Ave, St. Paul MN - Walk Score)
Wesleyan - 86 (B+) [Walk</a> Score of 70 wyllis avenue middletown ct](<a href=“70 Wyllys Avenue, Middletown CT - Walk Score”>70 Wyllys Avenue, Middletown CT - Walk Score)
Williams - 83 (B) [Walk</a> Score of williams college ma](<a href=“880 Main Street, Williamstown MA - Walk Score”>Williamstown MA - Walk Score)
Trinity College, Hartford - 78 (B-) [Walk</a> Score of trinity college ct](<a href=“300 Summit Street, Hartford CT - Walk Score”>208 Jordan Ln, Wethersfield CT - Walk Score)
Swarthmore - 68 (C+) [Walk</a> Score of parrish hall swarthmore pa](<a href=“Parrish Hall Road, Swarthmore PA - Walk Score”>Parrish Hall Road, Swarthmore PA - Walk Score)
Middlebury - 68 (C+) <a href=“http://www.walkscore.com/score/middlebury-college-vt[/url]”>http://www.walkscore.com/score/middlebury-college-vt</a>
Bowdoin - 58 (D) [Walk</a> Score of bowdoin college me](<a href=“255 Maine Street, Brunswick ME - Walk Score”>Harpswell ME - Walk Score)
Grinnell - 55 (D) [Walk</a> Score of grinnell college ia](<a href=“1115 8th Avenue, Grinnell IA - Walk Score”>1119 6th Ave, Grinnell IA - Walk Score)
Colby - 15 (F) <a href=“http://www.walkscore.com/score/colby-college-me[/url]”>http://www.walkscore.com/score/colby-college-me</a></p>
<p>The Walk Score is an interesting concept, but I wonder how well the scoring really works in practice. As with ranking colleges, it all depends on your criteria.</p>
<p>I plugged in the main mailing address for Colorado College and got a Walk Score of 75. Then I plugged in an address about 8-10 blocks south on Tejon Street and got a 98. I don’t consider that 8-10 blocks a very significant distance, considering the terrain (flat), climate (sunny), and the stuff located in between the two addresses (a museum, a couple of restaurants, a city park, etc.).</p>
<p>14 E. Cache la Poudre St. Colorado Springs CO
v.
28 North Tejon Street Colorado Springs CO</p>
<p>The Walk Score “measures how easy it is to live a car-lite lifestyle—not how pretty the area is for walking”. Plug in the address for the Garden of the Gods Campground (3704 W Colorado Ave Colorado Springs CO 80904), and you get a Walk Score of 51. I suppose the score would be higher if they plunked a Walmart down in the middle of this:
[Garden</a> of the Gods, Colorado Springs](<a href=“http://www.■■■■■■■■■■/photos/80651083@N00/2289860948/]Garden”>Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs | The entrance to Garde… | Flickr)</p>
<p>Regardless, I love the Walk Score site. Thanks, calmom!</p>
<p>The Walk Score is a cool site! But, I wouldn’t just look at the grades given on this list, but look at the map to see exactly what’s around, and like tk said, know the area. I see Grinnell got a D, and yet everything is within a 10-minute walk! (and it is all on sidewalks, flat roads, but this you wouldn’t know from the site.)</p>
<p>Ohio Wesleyan - 96 (A+) [Walk</a> Score of ohio wesleyan ohio](<a href=“61 South Sandusky Street, Delaware OH - Walk Score”>61 South Sandusky Street, Delaware OH - Walk Score)
Tufts - 72 (C+) [Walk</a> Score of tufts university ma](<a href=“419 Boston Avenue, Medford MA - Walk Score”>Medford MA - Walk Score)
Whitman - 71 (C+) [Walk</a> Score of whitman college walla walla wa](<a href=“345 Boyer Avenue, Walla Walla WA - Walk Score”>345 Boyer Avenue, Walla Walla WA - Walk Score)
Oberlin - 69 (C+) [Walk</a> Score of oberlin college oberlin ohio](<a href=“173 West Lorain Street, Oberlin OH - Walk Score”>70 North Professor Street, Oberlin OH - Walk Score)
Carleton - 40 (F) [Walk</a> Score of carleton college northfield mn](<a href=“North College Street, Northfield MN - Walk Score”>1 North College Street, Northfield MN - Walk Score)</p>
<p>Interestingly, Davis Square, the main Tufts hang-out, does not appear on the default screen when you google “Tufts University, MA”. It looks like a healthy 15 minute walk away, at least.</p>
<p>tk21769 wrote:
</p>
<p>Oh, I agree. And, it cuts both ways. For example, I’d beware of any school that rates a score in the 90s but where the cheapest place to eat within a ten block radius is Starbucks!</p>
<p>Oglethorpe-in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood, MARTA right there, Brookhaven center ready to open right next to uni with walking path between</p>
<p>tk21769 has a good point. johnwesley listed Whitman’s walk score as 71, but when I entered the address of the administration building, instead of the name of the school, the score became 83-Very Walkable. The whole campus can be traversed in 5 minutes, so something is pretty fishy. No charm index either.</p>
<p>As an aside, Macalster is truly walkable. We loved the location of the campus, the only impediment might be a few feet of snow in the winter.</p>
<p>I had a look at the site and it is point-location specific. The spot that you pick on campus can make a difference in the score.</p>
<p>Bopambo wrote:
BCEagle91 wrote:
</p>
<p>It seems to cut both ways. If you enter just the name “Pomona College, CA” instead of the specific address of its administration building, it’s “Walker’s Paradise” score of 92 becomes a passable 82:
[Walk</a> Score of pomona college ca](<a href=“http://www.walkscore.com/score/pomona-college-ca]Walk”>http://www.walkscore.com/score/pomona-college-ca) the algorithm is probably using the where the words appear on the Google map as a point of reference.</p>
<p>I find the Walk Score to be a good starting point, but while it takes more time, I like using the Street View feature of Google Earth to virtually walk through neighborhoods and see what they really look like.</p>
<p>Actually, the Wesleyan University campus has a 10-minute walk to Main Street in Middletown, CT, and within Connecticut it is considered one of the nicest downtowns for a large (40,000) town. Shopping, lots of great restaurants, a Farmer’s Market in the warmer weather periods, and of course, the famous O’Rourke’s Diner, a down-home no-nonsense diner that has been part of every Wesleyan student’s memories for generations. As Wesleyan has expanded toward downtown, a few of the dorms are now just a couple blocks away from Main Street. Check out O’Rourke’s here for a great video of one place that is a short walk from the Wesleyan campus: [YouTube</a> - HD - O’Rourke’s Diner - Diners, Drive-ins and Dives](<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Actually, most winters it doesn’t snow all that much in Saint Paul: average of 56 inches, which is a bit more than Boston (42 inches) and slightly more than Northampton, MA (50 inches), but a little less than Williamstown, MA (60 inches), significantly less than Middlebury, VT (66 inches), Ithaca, NY (67 inches), or South Bend, IN (71 inches), and much less than, say, Boulder, CO (84 inches) or Hamilton, NY, home of Colgate (80 inches). </p>
<p>As I write this, though, we’re still buried under one of the snowiest winters on record in the Twin Cities.</p>
<p>Willamette U. Salem Or = 91</p>
<p>Jacques Steinberg’s book The Gatekeepers starts with Ralph applying a “tortilla test” to decide that Grinnell was too isolated for his tastes, but he could be happy at Wesleyan.</p>
<p>My D12 has her “pho test.” She wants be somewhere with access to a good variety of ethnic food. It’s not just the food that interests her, but also what it represents as a marker of cultural diversity. As such, she is not particularly interested in mass-market chains (e.g., Panda Express), but looking for things like mom-and-pop ethnic markets or family-run donut shops.</p>
<p>Is there stuff like that in your college/uni neighborhood? Is it walk-able from campus?</p>