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Best: Austin, TX: Safe, large, lots to do, students are spread throughout town and everyone in town seems to love the University of Texas.
Worst: Poughkeepsie, NY: Vassar and Marist are bubbles unto themselves and the students don't have very good relations with townies (especially Vassar). The city is fairly high in crime and there really isn't much to do, so students usually don't leave their small campuses and immediate environs.
One of the best: Lawrence, Kansas (KU): Burroughs lived there, Wakarusa Music Festival, live music somewhere every night, solid art museum on campus, great natural-foods co-op, Clinton Lake, locals hyper-involved in local politics, great history, Big 12 sports ... it goes on ...
One downfall ... unless you're working for the university or own your own business, you're commuting to K.C. (45 minutes) or Topeka (30) for a job that pays more than 9 bucks an hour.
I like Iowa City (University of Iowa), too, for some of the same reasons above, but again, you're driving to Cedar Rapids for a job.
Right now I live in Fargo-Moorhead (North Dakota State, Minn. State-Moorhead, Concordia College) and it's a decent college town. It ain't as funky as Lawrence or Iowa City, but I found a good-paying job, a cheap house, and I ain't commuting. All of the students clear out during the summer more than KU or UI do, so it slows down a lot.
A pal of mine loves Madison, Wisc. (University of Wisconsin).
Columbia, Mo., (Missouri), Springfield, Mo., (Missouri St., Drury), Tucson (UofA), and Lincoln, Neb. (University of Nebraska) ain't shabby.
One of the worst: Tempe, Ariz. (Arizona State). Take any suburb of Phoenix, drop a giant college in it, and, well ... it's a suburb with a stadium.
Towns I wanna visit: Athens, Ga. and Missoula, Mont.
Best:
Charlottesville, VA: beautiful, alot of libertarian history, smart students, vibrant social life, sports revolve around the UVA hoops and football programs, which are well supported.
Others: Manhattan,KA (Kansas State), Palo Alto (Stanford), Bloomington,IN (Indiana), Ann Arbor (Michigan), New Haven,CT (Yale), Burlington (Vermont), Chapel Hill,NC (North Carolina), Athens,GA (Georgia), Oxford,Miss. (Ole Miss)....all these places have vibrant core centers where life revolves around the university and are very beautiful campuses.
Worst:
toss-up between College Park (Maryland), Tempe (Arizona St), Terrehaute (Indiana St). All are surrounded by anything but a college-feel. College Park is a disgusting ghetto as soon as you step within a block off campus. Tempe is a teenybopper fest- you step off campus, hit the commercial district and you have got nothing but gangsta-wannabes blaring their lame music. Terrehaute is um...well, Terrehaute and ISU is predominantly a commuter school.
Others: most towns repping state schools in the northeast (obviously the aforementioned Univ. Vermont is an exception). I don't expect some place like Orange, NJ for example to be a college town because of a small institution like Seton Hall. But most big public state schools here in the northeast lack any charm (don't nearly get the state funding that other state institutions do in the U.S), and any sense of school community and real excitement. UNH, Umass, UConn, URI, SUNY campuses, Rutgers for example...the towns they are in? Hell, there is little or no indication you even are on a direct path with a state public university as you approach their respective town lines. Little life and/or suitcase schools, so to speak and not much to behold to the eyes.
I think Tempe, AZ is actually a good college town. Berkeley is totally unique. The U District in Seattle is good (University of Washington) Eugene is good (University of Oregon) Rice Village in Houston is good. Austin is good. College Station (Texas A & M) is good. I wasn't imressed with Pulman (Washington State.
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