[Midwest Gent]

Let me start by saying that I was born and raised in the wealthiest county in all of Wisconsin. I was born into an extremely high-educated, wealthy, and beautiful community right off of Lake Michigan. My opinions are not coming from a 'bias' Arkansas resident that wants to make their state something it's not.

In my honest opinion, Northwest Arkansas (Fayetteville, Bentonville, Rogers, etc) is one of the best places in the nation to live. I chose to come here last year to attend the University of Arkansas. To much of the confusion of those in my community, I picked U of A over University of Wisconsin, University of Georgia, Clemson and Michigan State. When I visited here, I absolutely fell in love with it.

For a long time, the stereotypes that surrounded Arkansas bothered me. Whenever people would ask how I put up with all the 'hillbillies' and 'uneducated' people down here, I would want to slap them in the face and give them a plane ticket to Fayetteville, because they'd be amazed how great this place is.

Fayetteville isn't that big, but it's big enough to provide you with everything you want in a city. Restaurants, dining, culture, coffee hubs, great schools, and beautiful scenery -- don't forget Razorback football!

The University of Arkansas is an extremely underrated school. The girls are gorgeous here (I won't lie, they hooked me in to Arkansas when I visited!), the community is so friendly and educated, and everything is so clean and well kept. Fayetteville has award-winning High Schools and UA has the highest endowment in the SEC, complimented by a breath taking campus and world class facilities. As for the 'fat' and 'toothless' stereotypes I here often, because Northwest Arkansas has such natural beauty and so many outdoorsy areas, I see less overweight people here than I did back home in Wisconsin. I have yet to encounter even one 'toothless hillbilly'.

I can't speak for the rest of the state, as I seldom leave the Northwest corner except to travel to Little Rock for the one football game per year, but I wouldn't listen to the crap people try to feed you about this great state. Coming from my background to here, you can trust my opinion. I know few people who are as superficial when it comes to cities as I am, and I still love it here.

Learn to laugh at the criticisms and realize there are great and not-so great parts about every state in the US. They all have stereotypes and more often than not, they're completely bogus.

[folkguitarist555]

glad to hear you like the area so much, I never been there, but I am considering it as a possible place for retirement, I have been to Branson MO though, I thought that area was gorgeous, for sure. I was looking at some homes for sale there for like a month in Branson. Never made it down to NWA though at that time.

[Sam I Am]

MWG -

What a wonderful first post! Welcome to our state, and we hope you'll throw down some roots here and make this your home!

[Old Fossil]

Hey Gent! We already knew that, but it's good to hear it from an "outsider". Thanks . I think if you get the opportunity to tool around the rest of the state you will find about the same thing every place. Welcome to The Natural State .

[Luvvarkansas]

Originally Posted by Midwest Gent

I have yet to encounter even one 'toothless hillbilly'.

I have to admit, I've met a few....but they were nice people.

[fpsbob]

NWA does tend to have people from all over the country though. I once met 4 people from Southern California working in the same building as me. Then I went to a store one night to pick up something I ordered and the two people ahead of me in line said they were both from Los Angeles.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by Midwest Gent

Let me start by saying that I was born and raised in the wealthiest county in all of Wisconsin. I was born into an extremely high-educated, wealthy, and beautiful community right off of Lake Michigan. My opinions are not coming from a 'bias' Arkansas resident that wants to make their state something it's not.

In my honest opinion, Northwest Arkansas (Fayetteville, Bentonville, Rogers, etc) is one of the best places in the nation to live. I chose to come here last year to attend the University of Arkansas. To much of the confusion of those in my community, I picked U of A over University of Wisconsin, University of Georgia, Clemson and Michigan State. When I visited here, I absolutely fell in love with it.

For a long time, the stereotypes that surrounded Arkansas bothered me. Whenever people would ask how I put up with all the 'hillbillies' and 'uneducated' people down here, I would want to slap them in the face and give them a plane ticket to Fayetteville, because they'd be amazed how great this place is.

Fayetteville isn't that big, but it's big enough to provide you with everything you want in a city. Restaurants, dining, culture, coffee hubs, great schools, and beautiful scenery -- don't forget Razorback football!

The University of Arkansas is an extremely underrated school. The girls are gorgeous here (I won't lie, they hooked me in to Arkansas when I visited!), the community is so friendly and educated, and everything is so clean and well kept. Fayetteville has award-winning High Schools and UA has the highest endowment in the SEC, complimented by a breath taking campus and world class facilities. As for the 'fat' and 'toothless' stereotypes I here often, because Northwest Arkansas has such natural beauty and so many outdoorsy areas, I see less overweight people here than I did back home in Wisconsin. I have yet to encounter even one 'toothless hillbilly'.

I can't speak for the rest of the state, as I seldom leave the Northwest corner except to travel to Little Rock for the one football game per year, but I wouldn't listen to the crap people try to feed you about this great state. Coming from my background to here, you can trust my opinion. I know few people who are as superficial when it comes to cities as I am, and I still love it here.

Learn to laugh at the criticisms and realize there are great and not-so great parts about every state in the US. They all have stereotypes and more often than not, they're completely bogus.

I wish people like you and I could get paid for our trying to sell AR to others. I completely agree. The sad thing is, too many people look at charts, surveys, studies, etc. and judge, without knowing what these charts mean. I think a good example is the educational system in our state. Yes, we need help, yes, there are many schools and districts that are way below the national average in everything, but they are, generally in certain areas and bring down the entire state.

People are surprised I am sure to learn we have so many corp. headquarters right here and other businesses; people are educated or if not, plain hard workers. Kids have manners, (in most cases) the beauty of the state can not be denied.

this entire part of America is among the finest there is.

Like you, I come from a middle to upper middleclass background. I have lived all over the country, I value quality, and I appreciate the better things in life. I can't think of anywhere I would rather live than where I am.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by Luvvarkansas

I have to admit, I've met a few....but they were nice people.

you got it right: not everyone is lucky enough to have teeth, but they still love to smile and would give you the shirt off their backs. We all realize, much of AR is rural and rural states are different from the urban ones, but AR. has a nice mixture of both.

[Rock Climber]

Fayetteville is a very intelligent, progressive community filled with smart, decent people. We love Fayetteville. Good post.

[Midwest Gent]

Every state has wrong stereotypes. Being from Wisconsin, everyone assumes I grew up on a dairy farm or lived in a lodge surrounded by Moose. Sure, there are many Wisconsinites that have dairy farms and I respect that part of our state, but honestly, there isn't a dairy farm within 20-30 miles of me and my area was very 'developed' without a lot of farming. That's not to say farming is bad, just that the stereotype isn't accurate.

People might think everyone in New Jersey lives on the beach or goes tanning, everyone in Colorado smokes pot, everyone in Washington is liberal, or everyone in Alaska is an Eskimo. For all of these states, there are people that reinforce it and the media will find those people and point it out. But the vast majority of any state, is going to be different than a stereotype.

Are there people in Arkansas who reinforce the stereotype? Absolutely, but they are a pretty big minority IMO.

Going to Arkansas, I realize that many of the students here come from Texas, Missouri and Louisiana, so I'm not entirely indulged in Arkansas culture all around me. However, the students that I know from Arkansas (which are quite a few) are some of the coolest people I've ever met and very much contradictory to the stereotypes. The average ACT Score for Univ. of Arkansas students is a 26. That puts it above 90% of colleges in the country.