Wondering which campuses in California tend to have a college town atmosphere with most students living on campus or close by, less commuting? I visited Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and it definitely did. Any others you can think of?
Jenn
UC Davis, Humbodlt state, Santa Cruz, Chico state are a few more. The following are not your typical college town but the majority of students live on or near campus: San Diego state, Stanford and Berkeley.
AMONGTHE cal states: Chico, Sonoma, SDSU, cal poly slo, to a certain extent CPP
As a first approximation, look for Woodstock’s Pizza franchises.
Based on this approach, there should be “college town” vibes in the following locations:
- Davis
- San Luis Obispo
- Chico
- Santa Cruz
- College Heights (neighborhood in San Diego)
- Isla Vista
- Corvallis (technically in Oregon)
Other communities that are often regarded as “college towns” in CA (despite the lack of Woodstock’s) include Arcata, Berkeley, Palo Alto, and Claremont.
Note that having lots of residential students on or near campus does not necessarily guarantee a fun “college town” atmosphere. There are relatively few commuters at UC Merced, for example, because of its distance from major population centers; however, the campus is isolated from the town, and the town does not (yet?) have a reputation for student-oriented neighborhoods or services. Sonoma State and CSU Monterey Bay might be other examples of campuses that are largely residential, yet lack a “college town” vibe off-campus.
There is a Woodstock’s Pizza about a block from SDSU so another school to add to post #3.
That’s the “College Heights” option on the list
Westwood is famously a fun, fun part of L.A.
No Woodstock’s in Westwood, but there is a Blaze Pizza on campus now. BTW, that is an awesome criteria you came up with @Corbett .
The Westwood neighborhood (adjacent to UCLA) has many attractive features (OK, Diddy Riese), but does not rank highly as a “college town” because it’s too touristy, upscale, and expensive. Great college towns are fun, but also cheap.
UC-Davis & San Luis Obispo.
@Corbett: Oops missed it.
“Other communities that are often regarded as “college towns” in CA…include…Palo Alto”
But Westwood is too touristy, upscale and expensive?
In no way is Palo Alto a college town. Nor is Berkeley. Or Westwood. Or San Diego. Or Santa Cruz. Davis, San Luis Obispo, Humboldt, Chico, those are college towns.
@CaliforniaMomma - Through our college looking experiences
UC Davis, CSU San Luis Obispo, UC Santa Cruz, CSU Humboldt, Sonoma State and Chico have college town feels
CSU Sacramento has good residential life but Sacramento is too huge and spread out to be a college town
Westwood and Palo Alto are great college areas but are very expensive but so it seems is nearly everywhere in California. It depends what you are looking for. The Southern California versus Northern California town feels are very different
I guess we have different definitions of college towns, because when I was at Cal it certainly felt like a college town to me. Everything in the vicinity revolved around the school. Last time I was there a few years ago it still seemed the same way.
With Berkeley, yes the immediate vicinity is college-townish, but then you have all the upscale apartments all over the place now and all the upscale restaurants and companies/startups and the heavy traffic just outside the campus perimeter.
Didn’t know about the Woodstock pizza rule! Super funny : ) Thanks, gives me a few places to check out,
https://www.sacbee.com/news/business/real-estate-news/article216329575.html
An article from today’s Sac Bee about new on and near campus housing at Sac State.
I agree - Sac doesn’t have a college town feel to it like Chico, Davis, SLO and Arcata do,