best college cities -- prestige, partying, open-minded, cultural, location should all be factors (neighborhoods, university)

[Prple]

In Washington:
Olympia: Home of the Evergreen State College. Also the state Capitol. 30 minutes to Tacoma, 1 hour to Seattle.
Bellingham (Western Washington University)
Both are good places to raise a famly. They are fun, affordable, have minimal traffic and good k-12 schools. Also known for being pretty liberal.

[talktobrent]

i dont think prestige and partying go together too well... i don't think girls gone wild makes too many stops in places like berkley or yale.

[JMT]

Even though I nominated Atlanta and still think Atlanta is a great college city (200,000 college students are there, for crying out loud), I do think that Boston is, over all, the best college city in the country. The whole city oozes history and higher education. And it's a big city.

[south-to-west]

Madison, Wisconsin!!!

-very liberal college town with a strong legacy of activism
-University of Wisconsin is a very large school and is one of the most prestigious public universities in the country
-it is a leading research institution (a leader in stem cell research)
-Madison is continuously ranked in the Top 5, if not #1, for best party school
-it has an awesome location between 2 lakes which offers endless outdoor recreational opportunities
-the Student Union (Memorial Union) has a huge outdoor patio on the lakefront and serves beer and has live music
-there are 50-100 bars within the downtown area--all within walking distance of each other (we're talking about a mid-sized city here)
-it's within 1.5 hours of Milwaukee, 2 hours of Chicago, and 4 hours of the Twin Cities
-sports at UW has kicked butt for the past 10-15 years

[Duderino]

Philly area


Most notable:

University of Pennsylvania (Ivy League)
Temple
Drexel
St. Joseph's
Villanova
Swarthmore
Bryn Mawr
Widener
Cabrini
Phila. U.
Thomas Jefferson
La Salle
University of the Arts
Ursinus
West Chester U.

- NYC, DC, and Atlantic City/Jersey Shore all within a few hours driving distance

- University City & Center City: hundreds of restaurants/clubs/bars

- LOTS of culture, ethnic neighborhoods, diversity, etc.

[houstoner]

Originally Posted by radraja

I've also heard great things about life at Tulane. New Orleans is really getting back on their feet this year, so I can imagine that such a cultural city would be lots of fun for a young person.

I'll second this. I went to college there and yes, New Orleans is a great college city. Be careful at night though!

[gv0928]

Easily New Orleans.

While the city is a bit pricey, the lack of laws and party vibe of the city definitely are a huge draw.

I am here at Tulane, and could not be happier.

And before someone says something ignorant about the crime, be aware that all it takes is enough knowledge not to walk down a side street alone in the middle of the night. Short of that, it's all gravy - I'd like to think that much is obvious considering the freshman class is the biggest in Tulane's history, and next year's class is already breaking records: 34,000 records, the most in Tulane's history, as well as topping Harvard's intake this year.

I'd like to think people are drawn to Tulane and New Orleans for a reason.

[KT13]

Boston and Bay Area are the top two on my list.

[Frank the Tank]

I'll put this into four categories: (a) large city college neighborhoods (defined areas as opposed to just cities that happen have colleges within them), (b) college towns that are part of large city metros, (c) mid-size state capital/college town hybrids and (d) pure college towns where the university dominates everything culturally and socially. Here are my top 5 in each -

LARGE CITY COLLEGE NEIGHBORHOODS
(1) Greenwich Village in New York City (NYU)
(2) Lincoln Park in Chicago (DePaul)
(3) Georgetown in DC (Georgetown)
(4) University District in Seattle (Washington)
(5) Westwood in LA (UCLA)

COLLEGE TOWNS THAT ARE PART OF LARGE CITY METROS
(1) Cambridge (Harvard and MIT)
(2) Berkeley (Cal)
(3) Ann Arbor (Michigan)
(4) Boulder (Colorado)
(5) Evanston (Northwestern)

MID-SIZE STATE CAPITAL/COLLEGE TOWN HYBRIDS
(1) Austin (Texas)
(2) Madison (Wisconsin)
(3) Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill (NC State, Duke and UNC)
(4) Columbia (South Carolina)
(5) Columbus (Ohio State)

PURE COLLEGE TOWNS
(1) Charlottesville (Virginia)
(2) Athens (Georgia)
(3) Bloomington (Indiana)
(4) Champaign-Urbana (Illinois)
(5) Iowa City (Iowa)

[seattlenextyear]

Frank, you forgot to put Ithaca, NY at the top of your "Pure College Towns" list