College town's ranking among in-state cities (best city, how much, private schools)
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.
In many of our states, towns and cities outside the more or less major metro areas (areas we tend to classify as being "rural") often experience stagnation or decline.
The exception of being in a state of stagnation or decline would be the cities where the state's flagship university or universities are located.
These cities and their surrounding areas frequently are areas of growth. And their size and rank in population tends to go up. So does their skylines which often surprise people by their growing heights.
That kind of explains what I am looking for here. Away from the major metro areas...
1. where does the flagship college town (or towns) stand in relationship with other in state cities in its importance, relevance, minds of the people in state
2. Has the population ranking of the college town gone up, passing other cities?
The idea is, where do cities like the following belong in the list of cities in state:
Ann Arbor, East Lansing, MI
Bloomington, West Lafayette, IN
Columbia, MO
Eugene, Corvallis, OR
Lexington, KY
Norman, Stillwater, OK
Iowa City, Ames, IA
Champaign/Urbana, IL
Boulder, Ft. Collins, CO
Tuscalousa, Auburn, AL
Fayettesville, AR
Morganstown, WV
we, of course, are not looking at places like Minneapolis, Seattle, Columbus, Austin, Salt Lake City, Honolulu (major cities)
In the 6 New England states, 5 of them have their flagship state university in the boonies and no booming city sprung up there. Burlington Vermont is the largest town in Vermont as the exception. Storrs CT, Kingston RI, Amherst MA, and Orono ME aren’t thriving entrepreneurial places. They’re college towns with little else contributing to the local economy. Durham NH is similar but it’s in the desirable NH Seacoast region.
I think the difference is that in New England, the world class universities are private. Harvard, MIT, and Yale make any top 10 list. Brown. Dartmouth. In Maine, the top name schools are small liberal arts schools where the graduates do graduate school and professional school elsewhere. You don’t have people lingering around Bates, Bowdoin, and Colby after they graduate. The big state schools have attracted better students as college economics have forced students to state schools but the best and the brightest are in the private schools.
Both the University of Montana and Montana State have helped their respective cities (Missoula and Bozeman) grow faster than any other cities in the state. They're the two most expensive cities with the most new housing.
I don't know how much you can consider Ohio University a major college but it really isn't spurring any growth in Athens, OH. For sure, the town wouldn't exist without the college but it's not attracting as much growth as it should. The entire region is just so poor. I went back for a trip down memory lane a few years ago and I was shocked at how rundown and depressing Athens is. I must not have noticed with my beer goggles on during my college days.
In Iowa, both Ames and Iowa City are seeing major growth and are often considered some of the most progressive, and amenity laden places in the state. Iowa City has always been viewed in that light, and Ames has made a big leap in the last 15 years.
Both are very close to the state's 2 largest metros (Des Moines for Ames, Cedar Rapids for Iowa City), and Iowa City is almost a co-anchor to that area with Cedar Rapids. The general sense of growth in both central Iowa and the eastern Iowa corridor are both heavily correlated to the presence of major public universities.
If it wasn't for MSU, then East Lansing wouldn't rank anywhere on anyone's radar. The Lansing area is small and outside of state government and MSU there's not much going on there - at all. It's only a destination because of Lansing's status as the state capital and the fact that MSU is in East Lansing.
I'd argue that Ann Arbor is more important, given that U-Mich is considered more of a national university rather than just a state university. Ann Arbor weathered the 2008 recession a lot better than other cities in Michigan. UM-Medical is where outstate doctors send their patients if patients have issues that can't be addressed locally. Also, UM has a larger footprint in the state with UM-Dearborn/UM-Flint. Housing prices are just insane in AA.
There are a lot of similarity in what the schools offer, but as a town, East Lansing's rep isn't all that. On the other end, a lot of people tend to think that Ann Arbor is a lot more than what it really is. Ann Arbor is almost mythical in some people's minds - as in - it's the best city in Michigan - ever! And that's not really true either.
In Iowa, both Ames and Iowa City are seeing major growth and are often considered some of the most progressive, and amenity laden places in the state. Iowa City has always been viewed in that light, and Ames has made a big leap in the last 15 years.
Both are very close to the state's 2 largest metros (Des Moines for Ames, Cedar Rapids for Iowa City), and Iowa City is almost a co-anchor to that area with Cedar Rapids. The general sense of growth in both central Iowa and the eastern Iowa corridor are both heavily correlated to the presence of major public universities.
I would say if anything now Iowa City is right on par with Cedar Rapids as far as importance and prominence, certainly with amenities and influence.
Their areas were on part in size around the 1860's when Iowa City was the capital, but then fairly quickly Cedar Rapids became the population center of the corridor while Iowa City was fairly flat. By the 1920's through 1940's Cedar Rapids was around twice as large as Iowa City.
After WWII the student population exploded, and that brought in much more established residential population, research and development positions and finally commercial and amenities for the community and corridor as a whole. Cedar Rapids is now less than 50% larger than Iowa City.
Core County Population:
1860: 36,520
Cedar Rapids: 18,947
Iowa City: 17,573
-8%
1930: 112,612
Cedar Rapids: 82,336
Iowa City: 30,276
-180%
1980: 251,492
Cedar Rapids: 169,775
Iowa City: 81,717
-108%
2018: 377,169
Cedar Rapids: 225,909
Iowa City: 151,260
-49%
The real story is how fast the Des Moines are has started growing since the 1990's or so. Of the main counties in the metro area:
I would say if anything now Iowa City is right on par with Cedar Rapids as far as importance and prominence, certainly with amenities and influence.
Their areas were on part in size around the 1860's when Iowa City was the capital, but then fairly quickly Cedar Rapids became the population center of the corridor while Iowa City was fairly flat. By the 1920's through 1940's Cedar Rapids was around twice as large as Iowa City.
After WWII the student population exploded, and that brought in much more established residential population, research and development positions and finally commercial and amenities for the community and corridor as a whole. Cedar Rapids is now less than 50% larger than Iowa City.
Core County Population:
1860: 36,520
Cedar Rapids: 18,947
Iowa City: 17,573
-8%
1930: 112,612
Cedar Rapids: 82,336
Iowa City: 30,276
-180%
1980: 251,492
Cedar Rapids: 169,775
Iowa City: 81,717
-108%
2018: 377,169
Cedar Rapids: 225,909
Iowa City: 151,260
-49%
The real story is how fast the Des Moines are has started growing since the 1990's or so. Of the main counties in the metro area:
In the 6 New England states, 5 of them have their flagship state university in the boonies and no booming city sprung up there. Burlington Vermont is the largest town in Vermont as the exception. Storrs CT, Kingston RI, Amherst MA, and Orono ME aren’t thriving entrepreneurial places. They’re college towns with little else contributing to the local economy. Durham NH is similar but it’s in the desirable NH Seacoast region.
I think the difference is that in New England, the world class universities are private. Harvard, MIT, and Yale make any top 10 list. Brown. Dartmouth. In Maine, the top name schools are small liberal arts schools where the graduates do graduate school and professional school elsewhere. You don’t have people lingering around Bates, Bowdoin, and Colby after they graduate. The big state schools have attracted better students as college economics have forced students to state schools but the best and the brightest are in the private schools.
I'd say that would be pretty much true for the whole northeast. State College, i think, is the only one in the region that really has the sort of dynamics I was thinking of. I didn't include Amherst since it obviously is more than UMass (I mean...well...of course, Amherst has Amherst0
I would argue that Ohio has 4 true college towns: Athens, Bowling Green, Oxford and Kent.
Other than Athens, the other 3 cities are located within larger metropolitan areas that range between 600k and 2.2 mil people, but the college towns themselves have all had pretty stagnant growth over the past few decades and relatively little importance with respect to the rest of the state (all have stayed within the 20-30k range).
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.
