Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Amherst, MA has THREE colleges, and its namesake predated the giant University (I think). So the comparison to Storrs isn't really fair.
By around 40 years. And even today Amherst College only has 1800 students. Historically it likely had far less. Colleges that small can't really turn their locale into true college towns. It did have the advantage of being located right in "Downtown Amherst" however.
Hampshire College was founded in 1970, is in an isolated unwalkable portion of South Amherst. It also only has 1,400 students.
Best I can tell it fits right into the middle of the pack for Big Ten college towns. Madison is the crown jewel, many say Ann Arbor is right up there with it (only been briefly myself). Bloomington is decent and IU is probably the nicest campus grounds among the actual campuses. East Lansing is snoozertown, Lafayette isn't much better, Columbus is sprawlsville, Iowa City falls somewhere just above East Lansing, haven't heard anyone raving over the latest Big Ten entry (Lincoln).... C-U seems to fall somewhere around the same stratum as Iowa City.
As for the silly idea that "you can pursue a career in health care and IT in Boulder but not in Champaign" . . . well, I have friends and family in Champaign who make their living in health care and IT.
Ummm, not really sure where you came up with that as Iowa City is actually quite a nice college town. Downtown Iowa City, Iowa
Yes, I'm sure your Chamber of Commerce link is a measured, objective source.
I should clarify my comments to put Iowa City closer to Bloomington than East Lansing. It's definitely a notable step above East Lansing and I erred in making it sound like it was near East Lansing's level of mediocrity.
Having been lucky enough to live in Madison that's the standard by which I judge other college cities. Maybe that's not fair to other college towns because it's really one of the tops in the nation as best I can tell.
Best I can tell it fits right into the middle of the pack for Big Ten college towns. Madison is the crown jewel, many say Ann Arbor is right up there with it (only been briefly myself). Bloomington is decent and IU is probably the nicest campus grounds among the actual campuses. East Lansing is snoozertown, Lafayette isn't much better, Columbus is sprawlsville, Iowa City falls somewhere just above East Lansing, haven't heard anyone raving over the latest Big Ten entry (Lincoln).... C-U seems to fall somewhere around the same stratum as Iowa City.
As for the silly idea that "you can pursue a career in health care and IT in Boulder but not in Champaign" . . . well, I have friends and family in Champaign who make their living in health care and IT.
I worked in health care in Champaign for seven years. Yes, you can earn a living in HC there, as you can almost anywhere. But there are few real career opportunities there. There's no medical school there. All the big time stuff is in Chicago.
See list of major employers. Only one of these is IT related. The biggest employer is the University of Illinois (education), by far, with 10X the employees of the second largest employer, the Champaign School district, also education. Yeah, you can get a job in IT with UI or the Champaign schools, but that's not what I'm talking about.
"Boulder has high concentrations of workers in two high-tech sectors: Information (just over three times the national average) and Professional, Scientific and Technical Services (2.5 times the average) industries."
Note that the top 4, and 5 of the top 10, are "high tech".
Note also that the high-tech employment of these 5 companies equals 11,000 people, with 2800 at IBM alone. Champaign's largest high-tech employer by contrast has 620 employees.
I'll be sure to let my relatives who are making 6 figures in industries you say you can't build a career in know they don't have a career in their respective field because some lady who live in Champaign in the late 19th century said so. Oh, and I like how you left out the Urbana half when posting your employment statistics. Add the Urbana half of the Champaign-Urbana duopolis and then take a guess who the #2 employer is after the university...
Yes, I'm sure your Chamber of Commerce link is a measured, objective source.
I should clarify my comments to put Iowa City closer to Bloomington than East Lansing. It's definitely a notable step above East Lansing and I erred in making it sound like it was near East Lansing's level of mediocrity.
Having been lucky enough to live in Madison that's the standard by which I judge other college cities. Maybe that's not fair to other college towns because it's really one of the tops in the nation as best I can tell.
Yes, thank you...and by the way measured, objective sources abound here don't they?
It's probably not fair to measure Madison which also happens to be the state capital (and which has a population of 240K) up against towns that are purely small college towns with a population of 70K. Personally I find Madison not so much a college town, more like a city with a college which should probably be a sub-category out of fairness to actual college towns.
Yes, thank you...and by the way measured, objective sources abound here don't they?
It's probably not fair to measure Madison which also happens to be the state capital (and which has a population of 240K) up against towns that are purely small college towns with a population of 70K. Personally I find Madison not so much a college town, more like a city with a college which should probably be a sub-category out of fairness to actual college towns.
Madison is funny. I think it's right on the cusp...just large enough that it has some industry outside of the state university (but not to the likes of places like Columbus or Minneapolis), but still too small to say that the city isn't very strongly reliant on the university presence (but not to the extent of places like Iowa City or Bloomington).
New Haven does not count. If you call New Haven a college town, you basically have to restrict the "College Town" area to just Downtown, East Rock, and Wooster Square. That area is pretty highly gentrified and nice. You can't expect a medium-sized college to support a city of 131,000 all by itself. Yale has 12,000 students. In contrast, while somewhere like Ann Arbor is only a bit smaller, the University of Michigan has over 43,000 students, so it can utterly dominate the entire city.
But if you use that Logic, then does Madison WI count as a college town. I think UW has 42,000 students, but Madison has about 230,000 people just in the city limits and a metro close to 500,000, but I would still say Madison is a college town. Shoot most would say Columbus OH is a college town, and tOSU definitely doesn't dominate Columbus
Yes, thank you...and by the way measured, objective sources abound here don't they?
It's probably not fair to measure Madison which also happens to be the state capital (and which has a population of 240K) up against towns that are purely small college towns with a population of 70K. Personally I find Madison not so much a college town, more like a city with a college which should probably be a sub-category out of fairness to actual college towns.
I get what you're saying and the reason I excluded such places as Minnesota and Northwestern is because they are basically subsumed into the city and metro area around them. Ohio State is probably the same way too these days as big as Columbus has become. In the case of Madison, even though it's also the state capital, the university still represents the predominant influence on the culture of the city around it to such a degree that I'd still consider it a "college town." The students and faculty/staff still represent something like 1/4th of the city's population.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
