Rural /Suburban College Town

[Parsec]

Originally Posted by western mass and love it

Amherst is definitely not 2 hours from Boston. At most 90 minutes but can be done easily in less time than that. Once a week I drive to Lynnfield from Springfield and door to door is 70 minutes. Cambridge is a bit closer, I can be in central square in 50 minutes from Springfield.

I agree with JThree ... holy crap how fast are you driving? Springfield to Cambridge in 50 minutes? That has to be 100 mph the entire way, and that's AFTER you get on the highway and not including local roads to get to your destination. I've never made it to Six Flags in under 1 hour from NATICK which is much closer than Cambridge or Boston.

[495neighbor]

There may be more of an academic presence in Winchester than Lincoln. I think of Lincoln as the independent artist turned organic farmer and Winchester as more preppy and connected to Tufts U. Arlington and West Medford are also popular with Tufts faculty. Not sure if Lincoln is a bedroom community for Brandeis and Bentley, likely MIT Lincoln Laboratories. The north side of Lincoln has a large community around Hanscom AFB.

[timberline742]

While many of these places listed do have colleges, they're mostly not "college towns" in the way Ithaca is. I think of places like Burlington, VT, Iowa City, IA, to be true "college towns". For that Ithaca type of vibe in MA I think Northampton/Amherst is the way to go if you want it to be more suburban/rural feeling. Parts of Somerville and Cambridge would work culturally, but not suburban/rural vibe wise.