Late 30s somethings - does Boston still feel like a strong college town? (Cambridge: neighborhoods)

[Tiger Beer]

Just thinking....for people who are in their 30s....late 30s.

Does Boston still feel like a COLLEGE TOWN? Does your peer groups and everything change that you run in parallel worlds...where it stops seeming like a college town?

I have never lived in Boston...but everyone I know who has, seems to describe it as basically one large college town with college kids everywhere.

Does that change as you age? I mean, your perception or feel of Boston...or does that always kind of seem to be the main theme there?

[gf2020]

I'm in my early 40s, I don't think Boston appears to be one big college town. Frankly, you would be hard pressed to readily identify any college students outside of the Boston Common area (Suffolk and Emerson), Kenmore (BU and Northeastern) and Coolidge Corner (BC).

[ogre]

Agree with GF2020. It's mostly in certain areas where a number of colleges are located that Boston feels like an overgrown college town. Elsewhere, Boston does not seem any more college-oriented than any other city. I'm guessing that the people who told you Boston feels totally like a college town were college students when they lived here, or at least spent a lot of time around the neighborhoods with lots of college students, and never spent much time in other sections of Boston.

[bronty]

Boston is a very "divided mentality" town, where you are a "college kid" or an "xyz" person or an "abc" person. It is not prejudiced or racist, but people tend to fall into categories, and that is how the city culture operates, for better or worse. Expect to be typecast.

[holden125]

I don't know about the typecasting, but I would confirm what ogre and gf2020 have said. Many people from somewhere else move to the areas in Boston where students tend to live in Boston proper, Cambridge or Allston-Brighton. If you don't want to around undergrads all the time, there are plenty of other places to live.

To gf2020's list, I would add Mission Hill and the biggest student area of all: most of Allston plus the parts of Brighton along Comm Av. and near Cleveland Circle.

[HenryAlan]

Originally Posted by ogre

Agree with GF2020. It's mostly in certain areas where a number of colleges are located that Boston feels like an overgrown college town. Elsewhere, Boston does not seem any more college-oriented than any other city. I'm guessing that the people who told you Boston feels totally like a college town were college students when they lived here, or at least spent a lot of time around the neighborhoods with lots of college students, and never spent much time in other sections of Boston.

I agree with this for the most part. I no longer live in a student area, so I certainly don't experience the stuffed to the gills with students feeling that might present in Mission Hill or Allston. But I still see the influences of our academic institutions. Professors and grad students tend to live in many of the otherwise non-student neighborhoods, as do plenty of alumni. Overall, Boston has a higher rate of residents with college degrees and beyond than do most other cities. Both elements of our population can be found throughout the city's neighborhoods, not just near Harvard Yard and Commonwealth Ave.

[shiver]

As everyone noted, college students tend to congregate in particular neighborhoods. That said, Boston/Cambridge does have a LOT of med/law/graduate students who are in their mid 20s-30s. Many don't want to live in undergrad central so they are spread out all over. It's not uncommon to see people with backpacks and textbooks running around or start talking to someone in a non-college bar and find out they're in school. So you'll still feel the college vibe all over, but it's not the not the keg-party-on-wed-night annoying 19 yr olds that is associated with the term "college town."