College Grad looking for a collegetown

[ImFromNewYork]

Originally Posted by pentatonic

The OP is looking for bars, restaurants and plenty of young people.

Exactly!

Thanks alot for the responses everyone!

[tarheel_state]

I really like the Raleigh area; to me there are lots of bars and restaurants, and plenty of young people! If I were working in Rocky Mount I wouldn't live in Raleigh though. Maybe you could live halfway between?

[brocco]

as a recent college grad i would much rather live in raleigh than in greenville, but the commute from rocky mount would be too long. chapel hill is an awesome college town in nc and i would love to live there, but yea that would be wayy too far. if i was in your situation i'd give up on the college town idea and live in the boonies before living in greenville.

[Randomstudent]

Originally Posted by Francois

A town doesn't have to have 50% students to be a "college town", at least to people other than you. Greenville is 84K of which 27K are ECU students (not counting faculty, let alone the hospital). Ask around, and somewhere where 1 out of 3 people is a student at a particular university, and where you'll find ECU paraphenalia in just about every store that sells clothing, is a "college town". Unless OP specifically stated that she requires 50% of greater of the locale to be students, I would bet heavily that she would consider Greenville a College Town as per her criteria. Especially when the other criteria is that it needs to be commutable from Rocky Mount.

I love this, you are always, always the first person to criticize people who come here and complain about NC not meeting their expectations for not doing their due diligence. You are also always the first person who criticizes new posters who only write a few sentences for not giving you enough information. Yet somehow based on 3 sentences you would now "bet heavily" that Greenville meets that poster's criteria.

I have lived in Chapel Hill for most of my life, my grandparents, who I spent summers, with lived in Ithaca. I have been in college towns most of my life as such I know something about college towns and Greenville is not going to fit everyone's expectation for a college town. If anything the OP should check out Greenville to see if it is what (s)he wants. They should also check out Raleigh since that is also within driving range. If I was moving to NC and someone told me sure Greenville is a college town I would be quite surprised when I got there since Greenville tends to be much more sprawling then you would expect from a town generally let alone a "college town" and it is fast becoming more and more of a city as opposed to a town (it would not surprise me if Greenville had well over 100K residents before this decade is out). Furthermore as I feel like I have beaten to death, but the college is not the only thing there. I have heard people say Greenville would be like Kinston without the college, that may be true, but it would be like Kinston, it would not be fields and forest like many college towns would be without their given university. I don't know how to make this any clearer. I understand Forbes and other magazines started hawking the idea that anywhere that has a college is a college town, but really when it comes down to it there are going to be clear differences between places like Chapel Hill and the like and places like Greenville and the like.

If bars and young people are really the OPs goal Raleigh would be just as good a place to check out as Greenville, since there is a fairly large college scene around NC State, just as there is at ECU. Either way I would encourage the OP to come on down and check it out. See what (s)he likes better, if any, of the options available.

[Randomstudent]

On another note college towns tend to be compact, have very little poverty, and have an extrodinarily high amount of cultural events for their size. Greenville is none of these things.

[bchris02]

Originally Posted by ImFromNewYork

Hi All,

I am graduating from college in a few months and am planning on accepting a job in Rocky Mount, NC. From what I have read on this forum, Rocky Mount isn't the most popular place to live. I am looking to live in a college town with a "Main St." that has bars and restaurants for all of the twenty-somethings nearby. I do not mind commuting each day for 45mins - 1 hour, but more than that will be pushing it. Any suggestions on neighborhoods to look at?

Thanks for any advice!

What type of job are you getting? Is it 8-5 M-F? If so, I would say the wisest decision would be to live closer to your work and drive to party on the weekends. I know from personal experience it's very difficult to maintain a college/party lifestyle after graduation and remain employed. Staying out until 3am and having to leave for work hung over at 6:45 to make it by 8am just isn't something I would recommend. Now if your schedule is something like 1pm-10pm that would be perfect.

[pentatonic]

Originally Posted by bchris02

What type of job are you getting? Is it 8-5 M-F? If so, I would say the wisest decision would be to live closer to your work and drive to party on the weekends. I know from personal experience it's very difficult to maintain a college/party lifestyle after graduation and remain employed. Staying out until 3am and having to leave for work hung over at 6:45 to make it by 8am just isn't something I would recommend. Now if your schedule is something like 1pm-10pm that would be perfect.

That's true. Eventually driving back and forth everyday is going to get old really quick. Fuel sure isn't cheap right now.

[bchris02]

Originally Posted by pentatonic

That's true. Eventually driving back and forth everyday is going to get old really quick. Fuel sure isn't cheap right now.

Agreed. Unless its a killer job that would be worth the disadvantage of location, I would advise the OP look for employment in a location that meets his lifestyle requirements. The type of commute he is talking about for the sake of partying/nightlife just isn't realistic long-term. Either A) he will realize he can't party as a young professional like he did in college and keep a job, then will be stuck with a tedious and expensive commute, or B) will party away his job.

[macjr82]

Though Raleigh, is not a college town. It has college area. Live off of Hillsborough in one of the areas that cater to students. Hillsborough will be that "Main St." you're looking for.
Hillsborough Street - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


You're looking at an hour commute, though