Best College Towns in America....

[psuro]

because I am bored at work and web surfing.....

We are not #1. But we are not #50. And thank God Columbus is not on this list.

The 50 Best College Towns In The U.S.

The towns at the top of our list have all of the above, while towns featuring only a handful of our criteria are ranked lower.

www.bestcollegereviews.org

 

[JerseyLion]

State College has one of the best music scenes in the country? When did that start? Why do I get the feeling the music scene is still dominated by cover bands?

 

[Big_O]

Pittsburg as a college town? Really!?

Unless Ann Arbor has changed, I also really question that ranking. Gang writing on the walls downtown across from campus, homeless people in buildings including classroom buildings and junk, rusting bicycles locked with chains everywhere. My daughter who was looking at colleges at the time said there was no way she would go to that place.

 

[Alphalion75]

Pittsburg as a college town? Really!?

Unless Ann Arbor has changed, I also really question that ranking. Gang writing on the walls downtown across from campus, homeless people in buildings including classroom buildings and junk, rusting bicycles locked with chains everywhere. My daughter who was looking at colleges at the time said there was no way she would go to that place.

Pittsburg??? Kansas?

 

[BobPSU92]

Pittsburg as a college town? Really!?

Unless Ann Arbor has changed, I also really question that ranking. Gang writing on the walls downtown across from campus, homeless people in buildings including classroom buildings and junk, rusting bicycles locked with chains everywhere. My daughter who was looking at colleges at the time said there was no way she would go to that place.

Have they seen Oakland? Egad.

ann arbor (is a w-hore) isn‘t a college town, per se. It has a more urban feel and doesn’t completely revolve around um. There’s a lot to do (e.g., many restaurants), but it does not have the charm of a college town.

 

[BobPSU92]

because I am bored at work and web surfing.....

We are not #1. But we are not #50. And thank God Columbus is not on this list.

The 50 Best College Towns In The U.S.

The towns at the top of our list have all of the above, while towns featuring only a handful of our criteria are ranked lower.

www.bestcollegereviews.org

State College comes in at #8. A bit low, and the authors lose all credibility with this statement:

”Through recent years, State College has been known as one of the smartest towns in America…”

 

[SouthHalls410]

Madison is nice, however it also has crime…large ring of catalytic converter thieves, robberies, bad meth use, and you take your life in your hands on the beltway. Have family out there and though they love the outdoors and walking, boating, hiking etc…. They’re ready to move due to the increase in crime and living expenses .

 

[SouthHalls410]

Oakland??

 

[marshall23]

Syracuse and Binghamton? LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL
Half of Binghamton is a ghost town and Syracuse is not far behind.

 

[pamdlion]

Fort Collins is underrated at #14. Pretty cool college town without the attitude of Boulder.

 

[marshall23]

Have not been back for about 15 years.....but I always loved Selinsgrove (Susquehanna University) and Lewisburg (Bucknell).
Clean, friendly yet enough going on for college kids.

 

[PSUJam]

2 Iowa towns in the top 10? NFW

 

[LionJim]

Loving this thread and I didn’t even click the link.

 

[razpsu]

A great write up but ranked number 8? Pitt is 12. Cmon man.
Chapel hill number 8. Used to work In that area and it is not state college.
agree with Madison and boulder as awesome towns.
Ann Arbor. Not impressed as I thought I would be.

 

[JerseyLion]

I love this comment about Burlington, VT: The town was labelled a "town to watch" by AARP in 2007

Nobody knows college towns like those retirees!

 

[Stephen Light]

State College comes in at #8. A bit low, and the authors lose all credibility with this statement:

”Through recent years, State College has been known as one of the smartest towns in America…”

Does it count if you THINK you are?

 

[Stephen Light]

Mmmm. Well, for the ones ahead of us:

Boulder? Borderline college town, but yes a really nice place to live and go to school. Hard to argue with.

Ann Arbor? Never been, but given interactions with Meatchicken grads, never will either!

Madison? Definitely qualifies. Very nice college town. Other than the occasional campus virtue fest, this is a good pick.

Ithaca? Definitely qualifies. Only problem is that it has winter x 2 compared to State College.

Ames? ….pause. Nice place. Nice people. Lot’s of corn. Hey, if you like corn and soybeans….yeah. Or hogs. So. No.

Berkeley? Never been, sure have been in the neighborhood. Nice weather. Lots of crime, some fatal. Pass.

Chapel Hill: Not a college town. Might as well include Boston and wrap up BC, BU, Harvard, Tufts, Northeastern, etc. in one happy urban area.

I’d move us up 3-4 notches.

 

[Woodpecker]

State College comes in at #8. A bit low, and the authors lose all credibility with this statement:

”Through recent years, State College has been known as one of the smartest towns in America…”

The authors obviously haven't visited this board

 

[NittanyBuff]

because I am bored at work and web surfing.....

We are not #1. But we are not #50. And thank God Columbus is not on this list.

The 50 Best College Towns In The U.S.

The towns at the top of our list have all of the above, while towns featuring only a handful of our criteria are ranked lower.

www.bestcollegereviews.org

Boulder #1, doesn't get any better. Pretty good list all around from what I could tell.

 

[AvgUser]

2 Iowa towns in the top 10? NFW

And they glorify Iowas dance marathon but make no mention of same for PSU

 

[laKavosiey-st lion]

Pittsburg as a college town? Really!?

Unless Ann Arbor has changed, I also really question that ranking. Gang writing on the walls downtown across from campus, homeless people in buildings including classroom buildings and junk, rusting bicycles locked with chains everywhere. My daughter who was looking at colleges at the time said there was no way she would go to that place.

1 and I saw tons of campuses when he was school shopping. We both were unimpressed with UM. Both surprised.

 

[Moogy]

Loving this thread and I didn’t even click the link.

Seriously. This is the Knives Out of college campus rankings. Trying to align various posters' biases/prejudices with their commentary on what is and is not a "college town" to determine what the rankings actually are, and on what they're based.

 

[NewEra 2014]

Syracuse and Binghamton? LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL
Half of Binghamton is a ghost town and Syracuse is not far behind.

I grew up near Binghamton, and I would have to agree that it has never been considered to be a college town. It is interesting that the article talks about all the great, large tech employers in the area. Those employers used to be there, but they left years (decades) ago.

I think the reason it is on the list is because they use the ratio of students to general population as an important ranking criterion. Binghamton has a student population of 15k and a general population of 47k, so it ranks pretty highly on that measure. The problem is that Binghamton used to have a much larger general population (around 65k in 1970) than it does today. The entire Southern Tier of New York has undergone a similar large drop in population. Very few people in my large graduating class of 500+ stayed in the area as adults, due to the lack of opportunity there.

 

[Relayer]

I love this comment about Burlington, VT: The town was labelled a "town to watch" by AARP in 2007

Nobody knows college towns like those retirees!

Burlington should be ranked high for their craft breweries alone.

 

[Connorpozlee]

State College comes in at #8. A bit low, and the authors lose all credibility with this statement:

”Through recent years, State College has been known as one of the smartest towns in America…”

Author was Louis Freeh.

 

[BobPSU92]

Burlington should be ranked high for their craft breweries alone.

Yeah, but how does Burlington rank for lattes and scones? That’s the real question.

 

[ApexLion]

Chapel Hill isn’t a college town? Whaaat?

 

[OuiRPSU]

Chapel Hill isn’t a college town? Whaaat?

I was just about to say that. When I was in grad school at Duke, we’d go to Chapel Hill literally every weekend, and I’d put it pretty high up on the list.

 

[Pennstatel0]

Chapel Hill isn’t a college town? Whaaat?

Yeah , of course Chapil Hill is a college town. Its a lot like State College. Carolina Inn is a lot like Nittany Lion Inn.

 

[GrimReaper]

Mmmm. Well, for the ones ahead of us:

Boulder? Borderline college town, but yes a really nice place to live and go to school. Hard to argue with.

Ann Arbor? Never been, but given interactions with Meatchicken grads, never will either!

Madison? Definitely qualifies. Very nice college town. Other than the occasional campus virtue fest, this is a good pick.

Ithaca? Definitely qualifies. Only problem is that it has winter x 2 compared to State College.

Ames? ….pause. Nice place. Nice people. Lot’s of corn. Hey, if you like corn and soybeans….yeah. Or hogs. So. No.

Berkeley? Never been, sure have been in the neighborhood. Nice weather. Lots of crime, some fatal. Pass.

Chapel Hill: Not a college town. Might as well include Boston and wrap up BC, BU, Harvard, Tufts, Northeastern, etc. in one happy urban area.

I’d move us up 3-4 notches.

Harvard is in Cambridge (#24). BC is in Chestnut Hill and Tufts is in Medford.

 

[GrimReaper]

because I am bored at work and web surfing.....

We are not #1. But we are not #50. And thank God Columbus is not on this list.

The 50 Best College Towns In The U.S.

The towns at the top of our list have all of the above, while towns featuring only a handful of our criteria are ranked lower.

www.bestcollegereviews.org

Sixty-six colleges in Pittsburgh? I don't think so, unless they're counting places like the Pittsburgh Beauty Academy.

 

[Stephen Light]

Harvard is in Cambridge (#24). BC is in Chestnut Hill and Tufts is in Medford.

Yes. I was born in Boston and go back frequently. You are correct. Thank you for the geography lesson! However, as a born and bred Masshole, I can tell you it is a technicality that even the parochial Bostonians don’t embrace in this case!

 

[bdgan]

Pittsburg as a college town? Really!?

Pitt's stadium isn't on campus. There are some nice restaurants and bars on Forbes Ave but it's nothing like State College.

Syracuse is horrible. You have to go all the way to Erie Street.

I spent a lot of time in Champaign Urbana. Not much there.

Ithaca is overrated. There's a very nice downtown area but it's hardly walkable from either Cornell or Ithaca campuses (especially with the steep hills). You can take a shuttle bus but that takes a lot away from it. No way is that comparable to State College.

Ann Arbor is a big downtown but I don't know what the atmosphere is like aside from football weekends. Their tailgating is nothing like PSU.

 

[GrimReaper]

Yes. I was born in Boston and go back frequently. You are correct. Thank you for the geography lesson! However, as a born and bred Masshole, I can tell you it is a technicality that even the parochial Bostonians don’t embrace in this case!

The folks doing the evaluation consider them to be separate. That said, they're probably including the territory north to Erie and south to Morgantown to get 666 colleges in Pittsburgh.

 

[ApexLion]

Yeah , of course Chapil Hill is a college town. Its a lot like State College. Carolina Inn is a lot like Nittany Lion Inn.

I know. I was surprised by some comments here to tge contrary. We live .5 from campus here in lovely Chapel Heel and it is most assuredly a college town.

 

[PSUFBFAN]

Yeah , of course Chapil Hill is a college town. Its a lot like State College. Carolina Inn is a lot like Nittany Lion Inn.

"Carolina Inn is a lot like Nittany Lion Inn."

So, it's also run down, closed, and about to be demolished?

On another note, Athens, GA is seriously underrated in this poll.

The Nittany Lion Inn | The Official Site | Luxury Hotel in State College, PA |

Since opening our doors in 1931, The Nittany Lion Inn has been the premier hotel in State College, combining comfort and quality with Penn State tradition to create an unmatched guest experience.

nittanylioninn.psu.edu

 

[Blair10]

Pitt's stadium isn't on campus. There are some nice restaurants and bars on Forbes Ave but it's nothing like State College.

Syracuse is horrible. You have to go all the way to Erie Street.

I spent a lot of time in Champaign Urbana. Not much there.

Ithaca is overrated. There's a very nice downtown area but it's hardly walkable from either Cornell or Ithaca campuses (especially with the steep hills). You can take a shuttle bus but that takes a lot away from it. No way is that comparable to State College.

Ann Arbor is a big downtown but I don't know what the atmosphere is like aside from football weekends. Their tailgating is nothing like PSU.

I respectfully disagree with your comments about Ithaca. I lived there for several years and it is one of the most beautiful campuses in the country. The lakes and landscape are breathtaking. It is true there are some steep hills, and on occasion I would take a shuttle bus to the Cornell campus. However, I also took the Penn State loop shuttle to get to certain classes when I lived in East Halls as a student. The winters in Ithaca are manageable and are certainly not 2X the winters of State College as one poster commented.

Ann Arbor has a good atmosphere during the spring and summer months. The are many excellent food options which are international and very diverse. The main part of the campus is much denser than the University Park campus. The football atmosphere is very laid back and country club like compared to Happy Valley’s atmosphere which is far superior in my opinion.

The Berkeley campus in California is beautiful and very walkable. Their football stadium is tiny compared to Beaver stadium. Great campus atmosphere and a nice place to live for those who can afford it.

 

[Roar More]

To me, a college town is one that revolves around a college as it's core reason to exist. That would eliminate about half of the "towns" mentioned, especially state capitals.

 

[PSU87]

Yet another "lets come up with our list and then define criteria that makes our list work" Top XX list.

Large employers? WTF does that have to do with a good college town? If a college town has great employers but they're all small or medium sized, it is somehow not as good a college town?

Whenever I see these lists, the first thing I look at is the criteria.

 

[Moogy]

Harvard is in Cambridge (#24). BC is in Chestnut Hill and Tufts is in Medford.

Harvard, MIT, BU and BC are close to each other. Parts of Harvard are even in Allston (the Stadium, b-school, etc.) right over the bridge. MIT is right across another bridge. BC and BU are right down the road from one another (a short ride on the green line), and undergrads often frequent the same bars.