Best little towns in Central PA? (State College/Du Bois, Clearfield County, etc. areas)

[North Beach Person]

Punxsy really isn't a "college town". It has a branch campus of IUP, much as DuBois has a branch of Penn State. I may be incorrect but they only offer Associate degrees and are "commuter" campuses.

[RomaniGypsy]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

Punxsy really isn't a "college town". It has a branch campus of IUP, much as DuBois has a branch of Penn State. I may be incorrect but they only offer Associate degrees and are "commuter" campuses.

True though that may be, in any town where houses are advertised as "student housing", you know you've got yourself a college town at least to some extent... likely with the typical college town problems of drunk kids, pranksters, increased foot traffic, noise, an unusually high number of bars, etc.

[villageidiot1]

Originally Posted by RomaniGypsy

Oh, you'd be surprised. Clarion is a college town, Punxsutawney is a college town... further east you have Lock Haven, Selinsgrove... all college towns... PA has a lot of colleges.

The OP is looking at either State College or DuBois. Clarion is a college town but is 40 minutes from DuBois. Lock Haven is another college town but is 50 minutes from State College. Selinsgrove is 90 minutes from State College.

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

Punxsy really isn't a "college town". It has a branch campus of IUP, much as DuBois has a branch of Penn State. I may be incorrect but they only offer Associate degrees and are "commuter" campuses.

The IUP branch campus at Punxsy has less than 250 students. Penn State DuBois has about 700 students and offers a few bachelor's degrees and mostly associates degrees.

Originally Posted by RomaniGypsy

True though that may be, in any town where houses are advertised as "student housing", you know you've got yourself a college town at least to some extent... likely with the typical college town problems of drunk kids, pranksters, increased foot traffic, noise, an unusually high number of bars, etc.

There might be a few student housing signs in DuBois but it is far from a college town. State College, Indiana, Slippery Rock, Clarion, Bloomsburg, Grove City, Lock Haven and Lewisburg are all college towns.

[trackstar13]

DuBois is becoming more of a college town and the current enrollment at Penn State DuBois is about 1,000. Additionally, they currently offer 9 bachelor's degrees and several associates degrees. They have even added intercollegiate sports in recent years.

Penn State DuBois: Quick Facts

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by RomaniGypsy

True though that may be, in any town where houses are advertised as "student housing", you know you've got yourself a college town at least to some extent... likely with the typical college town problems of drunk kids, pranksters, increased foot traffic, noise, an unusually high number of bars, etc.

Punxsy had all of the above without a branch of IUP. Add meth and Oxy to the mix now.

A general rule of thumb in most of western PA is that the number of bars and the number of churches in any given town are about equal. I've been thrown out of most of them in Punxsy.

[ki0eh]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

A general rule of thumb in most of western PA is that the number of bars and the number of churches in any given town are about equal. I've been thrown out of most of them in Punxsy.

Bars, churches, or both?

I wonder if we have addressed the OP, which to me was a bit vague.

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by ki0eh

Bars, churches, or both?

I wonder if we have addressed the OP, which to me was a bit vague.

Most of the bars and a couple of the churches. Usually after I'd left one of the bars.

[onlyne]

Our house hunt is in the 100k and lower range.
<snip>
So far we've seen houses we liked in places like Osceola Mills, Corsica, Mill Hall.


There could not be a family home within MANY miles of State College, that is close to that price. The economy is too good, and the core area of students has spread outward, with new construction constant, converting formerly-nice neighborhoods to shrunken clusters of crowded housing whose environment has been permanently scarred by loss of, for example, views of expansive, natural horizons. So adults' developments (subdivisions) have crept farther from town. The homes are impressive and expensive.

In the 90s, I sold my small house, and its value had doubled in the five years since I'd bought it. It was in a desirable price range but substantially higher than 100k, and on a quiet, family street. After I wasn't successful at selling it, I listed it with an agent, and moved. About three days later, it was bought by an investor who now rents it to students, the fate of that cozy neighborhood, just one of many.

Now in my opinion, none of that is necessarily a bad thing. Good grades and high test results, can be achieved at many schools, and motivated students succeed. Most of State College greatly emphasizes being first, best, number one ... in everything. Whatever "ranks" are published nationally -- the environment, crime, entertainment, MUST BE the highest. This year the Arts Festival was voted best in the country. It's nice enough, and can be visited from far-flung towns free from the imposition of closed streets and four days with no parking in the downtown, not even to go to the post office. And summer can be a good time to visit the downtown area free of the thousands of young people doing what young people often do: often, drink. A few of the lovely little shops close during those slow periods. Golly, it almost seems like permanent residents aren't good-looking enough.

The Fourth-of-July fireworks are about perfect, perfect -- and are PERFECTLY, if rigidly programmed. It's just me, I suppose, but when the organizers' every-other-sentence includes reference to the cost and/or just where the display is rated nationally... Huh???

That's all I'll ramble on about for now; unless someone mentions how fracking threatens to continue encroaching upon Central Pennsylvania's wilderness that was fairly extensive and natural.

In fact, I just bet those wooded areas are this nation's Number One for hiking, camping, anything a person could want!!!

I do hope that winking smiley shows up, up there.

[RomaniGypsy]

Originally Posted by villageidiot1

There might be a few student housing signs in DuBois but it is far from a college town. State College, Indiana, Slippery Rock, Clarion, Bloomsburg, Grove City, Lock Haven and Lewisburg are all college towns.

That one's mine. GCC '02, baby!

But Grove City is nowhere near the typical college town. Grove City College is constantly ranked as one of the most conservative colleges in the nation - last time I checked, it ranked #2 just under Brigham Young University. So, the GCC students very rarely go out to cause any of the unpleasantries I mentioned earlier. When I was there, yeah, there were frats and sororities that had parties with booze, but if they were caught, they got MAJORLY busted by the school. Hence, such events were VERY hush-hush and usually far away from the school. I couldn't even name you one bar in Grove City... it was a dry town when I was there and I believe it still is.

Originally Posted by onlyne

That's all I'll ramble on about for now; unless someone mentions how fracking threatens to continue encroaching upon Central Pennsylvania's wilderness that was fairly extensive and natural.

In fact, I just bet those wooded areas are this nation's Number One for hiking, camping, anything a person could want!!!

I do hope that winking smiley shows up, up there.

Admittedly, this is one reason why I hesitate when it comes to moving back to the Northeast - Pennsylvania is a state I know, and it's beautifully central to my family and my wife's family... but that fracking thing just turns me off. I don't trust it one bit. If you want to stay away from fracking, you have to be in either the southeastern part of the state, or the far northwest.

There is still fracking in the far northwest but so little of it that you'll probably never see any evidence of it. The SIX northwesternmost counties of PA have a grand total of 17 fracking wells combined. Erie, Crawford, and Mercer counties have only one each.

The counties that don't have any fracking wells as of the last time I checked (last week) are:

Fulton, Franklin, Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Cumberland, Adams, Union, Snyder, Northumberland, Dauphin, York, Schuylkill, Lebanon, Lancaster, Berks, Carbon, Lehigh, Montgomery, Chester, Pike, Monroe, Northampton, Bucks, Philadelphia, Delaware. Of those, Union, Snyder, Mifflin, and Juniata are close to Centre County (the location of State College) but you would have to go east. If you don't want to deal with fracking, the DuBois to State College area is not for you.