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College towns are Ruston, LA, College Station, TX, Oxford, MS, Tuscaloosa, AL, Fayetteville, AR, and Gainesville, FL. Cities like Baton Rouge, LA (LSU), Austin (UT), and Columbia, SC (USC) are not college towns.
I think of mid-sized cities with large universities as 'college cities'....the college (or colleges) play a major role in economy and culture, but they don't really dominate the daily life of everyone living there.
I also think there is a distinction from places like Oxford and Tuscaloosa to places like Baton Rouge and Knoxville and again to places like Austin and Columbus.
I think of mid-sized cities with large universities as 'college cities'....the college (or colleges) play a major role in economy and culture, but they don't really dominate the daily life of everyone living there.
I also think there is a distinction from places like Oxford and Tuscaloosa to places like Baton Rouge and Knoxville and again to places like Austin and Columbus.
That's a thin line, are you saying UT and OSU don't play a major role in the economies and culture in their cities?
I wouldn't consider Lincoln a college town. I actually didn't know Lincoln had so many people! But no, not a college town in my opinion. The college is a part of the city, but life doesn't revolve around the college (at least, I wouldn't think so).
Lincoln is much more centered on the University of Nebraska than Columbus is on OSU, or Madison is on U of WI, though all three are state capitals as well.
ASU, in Phoenix, is not a big deal here. Yes, it's one of the largest universities in the country and yes there are satellite campuses all over. We see Sun Devil paraphernalia around but it's not often. Despite ASU's size, most people don't even step foot on campus here. Ever.
Three hours south is Tucson, home of U of A. One of Tucson's main employment centers is the universities, and it is not uncommon here to see non-student citizens visit the university to use the library. Also, it's hard to get tickets to the games because Tucsonians are so obsessed with their school... haha. Wildcat logos are everywhere and frankly everyone in Tucson has a bond with this school. It's intriguing almost.
That is the difference. I'm sure there are other small towns like Tucson scattered across, other "college towns".
Cities from the sizes of Ithica, Ann Arbor, Madison, Columbus, and to Austin have often been labeled simply as a "college town" because they have a large university(s) in their city limits. I guess my question is, when do they become more than a college town? Many many cities have large universities in their city limits, what size do you think they have to be, or what qualities do they need to have to be respected for more than just a university? Just curious.
I think a lot of it has to do with fundamental character of the city, not just the number of college students. For example, there are no cities in the U.S. with more than 400,000 that don't have a college with at least 5,000 students in the city limits. So it's kind of a "feels right" test more so than an absolute test.
Austin and Columbus are obviously at the large end of things, and somewhat of exceptions. But if you removed U. Texas or Ohio State, respectively, the entire development of those cities, their economies, and their cultures would be vastly different. I think that qualifies them as college towns, even though they are large and there are a lot of things to do other than work for the universities there. The same would be true for Ithaca, Ann Arbor, and Madison (probably even more strongly as well.) However, if you removed U. Minnesota from Minneapolis, for example, even though it's a major university/Big 10 school, I doubt it would have an event changing effect on the metro area. Hence why most people do not consider Minneapolis to be a college town, even though proportionally it would qualify more so than Austin or Columbus.
A few interesting cases might be Boston and Pittsburgh. I think there are enough colleges in Boston at this time that if they all disappeared, Boston would be vastly different right now; therefore, I think we could consider Boston to be a college town. This is starting to happen in Pittsburgh as well. But college towns are kind of "you know them when you see them" types of places.
I think a lot of it has to do with fundamental character of the city, not just the number of college students. For example, there are no cities in the U.S. with more than 400,000 that don't have a college with at least 5,000 students in the city limits. So it's kind of a "feels right" test more so than an absolute test.
Austin and Columbus are obviously at the large end of things, and somewhat of exceptions. But if you removed U. Texas or Ohio State, respectively, the entire development of those cities, their economies, and their cultures would be vastly different. I think that qualifies them as college towns, even though they are large and there are a lot of things to do other than work for the universities there. The same would be true for Ithaca, Ann Arbor, and Madison (probably even more strongly as well.) However, if you removed U. Minnesota from Minneapolis, for example, even though it's a major university/Big 10 school, I doubt it would have an event changing effect on the metro area. Hence why most people do not consider Minneapolis to be a college town, even though proportionally it would qualify more so than Austin or Columbus.
A few interesting cases might be Boston and Pittsburgh. I think there are enough colleges in Boston at this time that if they all disappeared, Boston would be vastly different right now; therefore, I think we could consider Boston to be a college town. This is starting to happen in Pittsburgh as well. But college towns are kind of "you know them when you see them" types of places.
Interesting perspective, even a city like Philadelphia has nearly 10% (150K within the city) of the city limit population as college students and 5 large universities and many smaller yet doesn't feel like a college town per se (certain neighborhoods do) whereas a place like State College (55K students) with fewer students (albeit much smaller) feels vastly like a college town.
In my opinion, you couldn't go to Ithaca and not feel like it was a College Town. The students, the influence, the feel is all over.
On that note, to me, places like Binghamton, Scranton and Syracuse don't feel like college towns to me. You see the students and university related influence, but they feel like Rust Belt cities/towns with a university in their limits or just outside.
Once you get to the populations of places like Columbus, Austin etc. although a college may be the most notable thing, they aren't college towns.
When the University doesn't support the majority of town. Columbus is not a college town. Bowling Green and Athens are college towns in Ohio.
People like to call Missoula and Bozeman college towns in Montana but I disagree. They have enough to stand on their own without their respected schools.
Just curious -- what is the biggest city in the USA that does NOT have a college in with at least 5,000 students?
I believe the city in the US with the highest number of students in proportion to its population is Tallahassee, Florida, with Florida State, Florida A&M, Tallahassee Community College and several other smaller colleges. The three largest l have 73,000 students with a census population of 181,000 in the city, 306,000 metro.
Last edited by jtur88; 08-15-2013 at 08:21 PM..
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