[Cliffie]

Alma is a pit!

[S- Rochester Hills]

ANN ARBOR is probably the best college city. you'll see athletic people jogging everyday. I live in Rochester Hills, but i'm planning on moving to Arizona.

[jeff^d]

I grew up near East Lansing, attended Michigan Tech in Houghton, and currently live and work in Sault Ste Marie. They are all quite different, but I would consider Ann Arbor or East Lansing to be the most traditional "college towns".

For a college town in the UP, Marquette or Houghton get my vote. Lake State seems to have little influence on the Soo, and there is no grad school so it tends to be a younger crowd. There are two coffee shops in town, neither is open past 6pm. The Canadian Soo has a lot more going on, but crossing the border is slightly inconvenient when spontaneity strikes. Plus, Marquette and Houghton both have microbreweries, the staple of college towns!

[suydam]

Ann Arbor is an internationally known college town. I'd list that first.

After that you have places like East Lansing, Mount Pleasant, Big Rapids and Ypsilanti that either wouldn't exist, or would never have existed in the first place without their respective schools.

I have to side with those claiming Kalamazoo as a college town. It's fun, bars are loaded with kids and I actually lived there through college, for several years after and finally started to feel really old (at the ripe age of 28) when I went out to dinner.

Grand Rapids claims to have 65,000 undergrads: Grand Rapids Michigan Higher Education Opportunities (though that site seems a little out of date) but it never really feels like a college town. To me, and this is entirely empirical (or even anecdotal) but Grand Rapids on a friday night feels like the domain of 35 year olds...not 21 year olds. So despite that huge population of college students, I really would never classify GR as a college town.

Coversely, Holland is definitely a college town (despite the relative small size of Hope to the city as a whole) just because Hope is so central to the city (both geographically and emotionally).

Finally, I don't think a community college (NCMC in Petoskey, NMC in TC, etc) makes you a college town by any stretch of the imagination. Community Colleges offer the un-college-town experience to students pretty much. No dorms, no keggers, no frats, lightly-attended sporting events and a primarily career-focused student body (as opposed to those who are seeking "the college experience").

If I had to rate Michigan cities by their "college towniness" I'd say:
1. Ann Arbor
2. East Lansing
3. Kalamazoo
4. Mt. Pleasant
5. Marquette
6. Big Rapids
7. Ypsilanti
8. Holland
9. Anywhere Else

[Bluefly]

I've always thought of Marquette as a town with a college rather than a college town.

I've lived in college towns - where the college really defines the culture. That's not really true there.

[bumble]

Mount Pleasant is a huge college town. We can tell when the student leave ans when they are back. Roads get so packed during the day and they are not the best drivers either. Mount Pleasant takes the cake, we are over run with college students.

[Freedom Fries]

East Lansing = does the Big Ten mean anything to you?

Beer, beer, beer.

Grew up in EL, pretty little town that is getting a lot apt. housing built as of late. They can't build out so they're building up.

East Lansing/Lansing is little like the Ann Arbor/Ypsi relationship. Elite/working class.

[Jasmin71]

I would have to say Mt.pleasant is a BIG college area. I hate going to that Town with a passion, all you see is students, and I would not say that we couldnt make it without them students tho..... there is a lot of people there.

[esmpk7]

The city I live in - Flint, is trying to become more of a college town. We're putting out advertsing trying to pursuade ppl to visit Flint (for what?)... We have 4 colleges that i know of (UM-Flint, Mott Community, Baker, and Kettering), but we're deff. not a college town. We're more a "we like to kill people, rape them, and burn down their houses town"... lol

AA deff. beats all college towns in the state. EL is really just the college, so that is a college town, but just w/o the town... haha.

The only others worth mentioning are ypsi, big rapids, mt pleasant, and kzoo...

[hellohellfroze]

No I think even Dearborn is somewhat of college town (not as much as others) with U of M Dearborn and Henry Ford Community College (hahahahahahahaha)