College Station vs. Wichita falls vs Longview

[DanielWayne]

Originally Posted by Treasurevalley92

I'm making this assumption because TAMU is a huge university and this has been the case in every town I've been to.

With a bunch of students, you will have a bunch of food options. You will have art students who create art, music students who play music etc.

You'll have lots of highly educated professors who have interests in this sort of stuff.

tamu has an orchestra, a ballet etc. University towns tend to have lots of good funky coffee shops.

In short, major college towns tend to punch above their weight for cultural amenities, food, etc.

Exactly this. I agree with this. I have been eyeballing some smaller, less hectic towns as possible destination moves for myself, and I am looking at college towns because they will have amenities (cultural, athletic, employment opportunities from an industry that will never die, and more) that other similar sized towns will not have. As much as I give grief to the Aggies, I'v been to College Station, and it's a pleasant town that's on my list. Plus as I get older, I become tethered to the healthcare system. A&M has their own medical school and they are engaged in every type of medical research imaginable, so I would think healthcare options in College Station for the general public would be more extensive than the typical small city. But just as a disclaimer - if this ever happens I would never, ever cheer for the Aggies. If they ever play UT in football again, I would want them to both lose if that were possible.

[Treasurevalley92]

Originally Posted by DanielWayne

Exactly this. I agree with this. I have been eyeballing some smaller, less hectic towns as possible destination moves for myself, and I am looking at college towns because they will have amenities (cultural, athletic, employment opportunities from an industry that will never die, and more) that other similar sized towns will not have. As much as I give grief to the Aggies, I'v been to College Station, and it's a pleasant town that's on my list. Plus as I get older, I become tethered to the healthcare system. A&M has their own medical school and they are engaged in every type of medical research imaginable, so I would think healthcare options in College Station for the general public would be more extensive than the typical small city. But just as a disclaimer - if this ever happens I would never, ever cheer for the Aggies. If they ever play UT in football again, I would want them to both lose if that were possible.

Exactly. Totally agree with you. Major universities often offer much better medical care than comparable cities in size. That and the food options.

Longview has a brewery. Wichita Falls has one, maybe 2? Bryan-College Station has at least 4 plus a distillery. Even if you don't drink that just shows alot more stuff is going on.

Yeah, College towns are the best bang for the buck on amenities to size. A close 2nd is Smaller State Capitals. Even better if you can combine the two. Think Maddison, Lansing, Boise, I'm sure Austin was a much better city when it was a small state capitol/ university city vs what it is now.

I cants stand the Aggies in football, but College Station would be a nice place to live.

[RSTX]

Originally Posted by Treasurevalley92

... College Station would be a nice place to live.

It is.

[Redlionjr]

Originally Posted by Treasurevalley92

I'm making this assumption because TAMU is a huge university and this has been the case in every town I've been to.

With a bunch of students, you will have a bunch of food options. You will have art students who create art, music students who play music etc.

You'll have lots of highly educated professors who have interests in this sort of stuff.

tamu has an orchestra, a ballet etc. University towns tend to have lots of good funky coffee shops.

In short, major college towns tend to punch above their weight for cultural amenities, food, etc.

While I think TAMU happens to be one of the least culturally enriching colleges I've ever visited out of the 3 options College Station would probably be more cultural than those 2 for the reasons you listed.

[Treasurevalley92]

Originally Posted by Redlionjr

While I think TAMU happens to be one of the least culturally enriching colleges I've ever visited out of the 3 options College Station would probably be more cultural than those 2 for the reasons you listed.

I mean it's no UT Austin culturally speaking, most of their good/great programs are more technical vs artistic/ cultural but it is still a massive school.

[Trainwreck20]

There are good and bad things about a 'college town', so it will depend on how you personally weight those items.

aTm has just over 64,000 students at the College Station campus. The city of College Station is ~114,000 people. I really don't know how many of those students are included in the city number, but anyway you look at it, a large percent of the people are students. Bryan, of course, is right next door and adds another 84,000 people.

In any case, you will be living in a largely young population on various trajectories in life. The majority of the business cater to this demographic. Some people love that, others don't. Some people go from liking it to hating it as they age, some do the opposite.

CS is generally a bit to flat and a bit too open for me, but (as the poster above mentioned) that is personal preference. It is easy to get to Houston and not that far from Austin, if you need to go to a bigger city.