College town satellites: Which college town located near a major city do you prefer? (comparison, place)

[Chriscross309]

My father works in Washington, PA and I consider that Pittsburgh----It takes about 35 mins from Mtown to get there, but I do realize that Washington is still a good half an hour from Downtown

So it probably takes an hour or so to get to Pittsburgh "proper"

I was just through there yesterday---- but part of the reason it only takes 30-40mins for us to get to Washington is because we drive West Virginia speeds, not PA speeds---LOL

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Chriscross309

My father works in Washington, PA and I consider that Pittsburgh . . .

Might as well consider Morgantown Pittsburgh.

[TheTimidBlueBars]

Ann Arbor was charming, and I might be enjoying it now if I hadn't gotten waitlisted at Michigan. lol

[Shakeesha]

Murfreesboro

[Ivory Lee Spurlock]

You left out alot of cities.
Off the top of my head:

Bloomington (IU), West Lafayette (Purdue) Muncie (Ball State), and Terre Haute (Indiana State) all to Indianapolis

San Marcos (Texas State) to Austin

Murfreesboro (Middle Tennessee State), Bowling Green, Kentucky (Western Kentucky) to Nashville

Oxford (Miami of Ohio) to Cincinatti or Dayton
Kent (Kent State) to Cleveland or Akron
Bowling Green (Bowling Green State) to Toledo
Ypsilanti (Eastern Michigan) to Detroit or Ann Arbor

Originally Posted by Craziaskowboi

Here's the list of college town satellites (and the major cities they orbit):

Boulder, CO (Denver)
Lawrence, KS (Kansas City)
Norman, OK (Oklahoma City)
Ann Arbor, MI (Detroit)
Tuscaloosa, AL (Birmingham)
Morgantown, WV (Pittsburgh)
Chapel Hill, NC (Raleigh)
Athens, GA (Atlanta)

Criteria to measure

1. Quality academics
2. Quality athletics
3. Student body
4. Downtown ambiance
5. Appeal of nearby major city

[ClemVegas]

Clemson is about 45 minutes from downtown Greenville SC.

[Turnerbro]

Chapel Hill

[Willamette City]

Eugene, Oregon, home of the Oregon Ducks. It's actually a pretty big city in it's own right, and Portland is only an hour away.

[sleepless in Bham]

Tuscaloosa (UA)

45 min to 1 hr drive from Birmingham.

Once known as a party school but greater focus since 2006 on improving its academic standing.

Championship football program

Year to year increases in student enrollment and the majority of students at the university are from out of state.

[IndieIndy]

Originally Posted by Ivory Lee Spurlock

You left out alot of cities.
Off the top of my head:

Bloomington (IU), West Lafayette (Purdue) Muncie (Ball State), and Terre Haute (Indiana State) all to Indianapolis

San Marcos (Texas State) to Austin

Murfreesboro (Middle Tennessee State), Bowling Green, Kentucky (Western Kentucky) to Nashville

Oxford (Miami of Ohio) to Cincinatti or Dayton
Kent (Kent State) to Cleveland or Akron
Bowling Green (Bowling Green State) to Toledo
Ypsilanti (Eastern Michigan) to Detroit or Ann Arbor

I agree about Bloomington, and to a lesser extent West Lafayette. Muncie is a dump outside of the campus and even ISU campus in Terra Haute is pretty bad, and SMotW and Rose-Hulman are much better schools in that area.

It's true that Indy has several satellite college towns all within about the same distance. Even smaller colleges like Anderson Univ, IU-Kokomo, Indiana Wesleyan-Marion are like collegetown-esque/lite.

I voted for Athens, because I love the music scene there. When I was traveling in a band we would play in Athens just after Chattanooga and it is a great town. I didn't get any ATL vibe there at all. It has been nearly 11-12 years since I've been to Athens, so it's probably been swallowed by ATL sprawl by now. Hopefully it retained some of it's awesome character.