Fort Collins or Boulder?

[barefootmeg]

How is a college town community different from the community of a town with a college/university in it?

[ShampooBanana]

Originally Posted by barefootmeg

How is a college town community different from the community of a town with a college/university in it?

I think they are more euphemisms to describe the cultural atmosphere of the town and the amount of influence of the college/university relative to the whole community. A city or town that has a large university with high student enrollment relative to it's population would be considered a "college town" (examples: Boulder, Ithaca, NY, Chapel Hill, NC, Iowa City, IA). A very large city with a large university in it isn't going to be all that much influenced by the university, because it's size is small relative to the overall population and the City overwhelms it, although there may be certain neighborhoods or districts that have a college town feel (examples: Chicago, Denver, Syracuse, NY, Seattle). There are some exceptions, as there usually are. Austin, TX is a very large city that still maintains a college town vibe despite the city having nearly 800,000 people, a high number relative to the population of UT-Austin. Boston is a large city with both a historic AND college town feel mostly based on the sheer number of institutions of higher learning that call that city home (Harvard, MIT, Boston College, Boston U., etc.).

I would characterize Fort Collins as a borderline college town. CSU has some influence to be sure, but the city has grown so much beyond it that there are areas where you wouldn't know it was a college town but might think it was more a part of Denver's north suburbs.