Which cities in Michigan would you consider "college towns"? (Lansing: home, rent)

[AngelfaceAZ]

Originally Posted by mackinac81

I'm surprised nobody mentioned Holland, which has Hope College (And a Reformed Seminary. The campus is right downtown, and has a fantastic, wholesome feel.

Just wanted to throw that out there

I always thought about Holland as being a Tulip town That and the home of that "other" highschool we in Hudsonville don't like to discuss lol (pssst Holland Christian)

[wanderer74]

I graduated from Saginaw Valley State and I really, really would not call Kochville Twp a "college town" in any sense of the word. Having a college in a particular city does not make it a college town in my opinion - it has to do with how much the town around the college does to accomodate the college community. With a lot of the colleges and towns mentioned, the colleges are just IN the town but do not really define much about the town otherwise.

[kaypurdue]

Originally Posted by wanderer74

I graduated from Saginaw Valley State and I really, really would not call Kochville Twp a "college town" in any sense of the word. Having a college in a particular city does not make it a college town in my opinion - it has to do with how much the town around the college does to accomodate the college community. With a lot of the colleges and towns mentioned, the colleges are just IN the town but do not really define much about the town otherwise.

Agreed. Flint has four colleges (UM-Flint, Kettering University, Baker College and Mott Community College) but is nowhere near being a college town. Kettering has dorms and UM-Flint is building some, but they are otherwise pretty much commuter campuses, so no incentive for the students to stick around after class.

[magellan]

Originally Posted by Great Lakes Pirate

This is hardly scientific, but I'd suggest that the ratio of the school's student populaton to its down would signify how much the school (its culture, its students, etc) dominate that town.

For example, Michigan Tech has about 6800 students, the town's (non student pop.) about 8000. That's ~ 7:8 ratio, pretty close to the university eqauling the town.

MSU/East Lansing, both at about 43,000 are 1:1. EL is definetly a college town.

Ann Arbors about 1:5 - still a Big Ten college town, but there's more going on there than just UofM

Mt Pleasant is about 4:5.

Hillsdale is about 1:7.

well, anyway, you get my drift.

I'd agree with this equation. And I also agree with sociologist that cities like Kzoo and EL tend to be pretty quiet in the Summer.

[deslok]

Originally Posted by Softballfan

Western Michigan University doesn't define Kalamazoo. Kalamazoo isn't a big "college town" WMU just happens to be located in Kalamazoo. For as long as I can remember the relationship between WMU and Kzoo has been a little shakey.

A lot of the students go home on the weekends or just hang around the campus.

If you mean shakey as in the college kids don't get along with normal residents, you may be correct. ( such as EAst lansing, both have parking ticket wars and that sort of thing)
Kalamazoo is a college town. Go to any bar and it is infested with 21 year old kids in almost 80% of the places.

[wordsmith680]

Originally Posted by Great Lakes Pirate

This is hardly scientific, but I'd suggest that the ratio of the school's student populaton to its down would signify how much the school (its culture, its students, etc) dominate that town.

For example, Michigan Tech has about 6800 students, the town's (non student pop.) about 8000. That's ~ 7:8 ratio, pretty close to the university eqauling the town.

MSU/East Lansing, both at about 43,000 are 1:1. EL is definetly a college town.

Ann Arbors about 1:5 - still a Big Ten college town, but there's more going on there than just UofM

Mt Pleasant is about 4:5.

Hillsdale is about 1:7.

well, anyway, you get my drift.

NMU is about 50%? Just under 10k / 20k for Marquette. I like the events and youth a college brings. I'm biased because I rent to students. Marquette is a great place, may move there some day.

[100%Michigan]

I think East Lansing is one of the most populated college towns in Michigan, although I may need to look into my oppinion more.

I'm surprise to see cities like Marquette, and Kalamazoo.... including Alma ( that I thought was just there ) I didn't know they were a big college town although Kalamazoo is more of a city... and there are things to do in East Lansing for the summer... I guess just not enough

[wordsmith680]

A local joke is .......there are two seasons in Marquette, Winter and construction at NMU. It does slow down for summer and it is beautiful.

[natterer]

I think Ypsi is more of an industrial/ghetto town than a college town, to be honest. The fact that EMU is on the far western edge of town - rather than in the center - also contributes to this. I went to UM. Psychologically, from my perspective, EMU was on the eastern edge of "Ann Arbor," even though that's not geographically so. Washtenaw Ave. feels like a sliver of development that emanates FROM Ann Arbor. Ypsi itself feels like another realm.

As for Allendale, I forgot to put that on the list.

As for Kochville Twp., you're right, it's really not a "town" in any cohesive sense. It's just Saginaw Valley + a couple other streets.

I guess the other factor, which others have noted, is the degree of integration between the town and college. A college that is like an isolated compound on the edge of town will obviously have less influence over the town than, say, UM has over Ann Arbor, given that UM sits right in the center of AA. The town has many more residents than college students, but as I recall, the university and its hospital system also employ around 50,000 people, many of whom live in town.

[TigerDan]

I would say Kalamazoo is definitely a college town. I went to school there adn actually found more of a college scene on the weekends than you woulkd typically even find in Ann Arbor. A2 is definitely a college town and this can easily be seen on any Saturday that the football team is playing at home. However, go there in February and check out the bar and party scene, while it is certainly nice, I'd have to say there is more partying in Kzoo. Kids going to school at Michigan are more likely to be homebodies that do a lot of studying (though certainly not all of them), just because the degree of difficulty in the courses offered at that school. You can pretty much find something going on any night of the week in Kzoo from September through April. At least you could 10 years ago.