What is it that takes the 'college' out of College Park (Baltimore: cliquey, rent)

[Tiger Beer]

This is in reference to College Park not being that good of a college town. Despite having a very large number of college students.

In your opinion, what are some of the things that make College Park feel less like a college town?

[PhenomenalAJ]

It's ghetto and dangerous. The bars and clubs there are also sketchy and have tons of hoodrats. It's probably the least safe non-urban campus in America.

Its way more cliquey than lots of other state universities. Think of University of North Carolina, its in Chapel Hill but they have people from all corners of the state. UMCP is almost all kids from Montgomery, PG and Howard counties and people stick with their little group of high school friends. Of the kids in my high school class who went to college, I'd reckon 2/3 went to CP, me not being one of them. It's also too diverse for its own good, every nationality has a big enough population where they form a lot of ethnic cliques.

Also tons of kids live with their parents and commute. Its central and convenient location close to the densest parts of Moco and PG kind of kill the on campus life. A lot of the partying they do is at the spots they partied at when they were in high school instead of doing things in CP. Instead of house parties spread throughout the college town, these people are going to house parties all over the DC metro area wherever it was they went to high school. CP also has to compete with DC as a place to chill as you can take a bus to the metro.

My brother would be an example, he went to community college for a year then to CP. He never moved out of my parents during college then he graduated and lived with my parents until recently when he got married. He pretty much has high school friends, work friends and people who were his wife's friends but no college friends.

[TCR25]

College Park isn't much of a college town largely due to it's proximity to DC. The entertainment and cultural amenities of the region, easily accessible from campus via Metro (well semi-easy, you have to take a shuttle bus or a longish walk from campus), as well as the large number of commuter students make it easy for people to go beyond College Park for things. Also, being in a DC suburb, the college isn't the main economic engine for the town/area so there are lots of people in the town whose lives aren't oriented toward the university.

[justtitans]

Originally Posted by TCR25

College Park isn't much of a college town largely due to it's proximity to DC. The entertainment and cultural amenities of the region, easily accessible from campus via Metro (well semi-easy, you have to take a shuttle bus or a longish walk from campus), as well as the large number of commuter students make it easy for people to go beyond College Park for things. Also, being in a DC suburb, the college isn't the main economic engine for the town/area so there are lots of people in the town whose lives aren't oriented toward the university.

Bingo! Exactly, most college towns have the distinction of being their own because they are usually far away from major cities. Places like Blacksburg, State College, and Chapel Hill aren't next to places that have the amount of amenities that a place like DC has. If College Park was on the eastern shore of MD we might be talking about it being a more college driven environment.

I think the town also struggles with not being developed to where more modern college towns are (that's starting to change). It just isn't a very attractive college town. You go to other places in this country that are more college-centric and you will notice that there are things in place that attract college student type activities. When you see College Park, you may go there because you are student there, but if you go to another part of the area, there really isn't too much that you would miss about College Park, unless you like bars and pubs.

[uggabugga]

it's not isolated enough.

[btsilver]

I went to College Park and I loved the area.

[coquinegra]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

This is in reference to College Park not being that good of a college town. Despite having a very large number of college students.

In your opinion, what are some of the things that make College Park feel less like a college town?

You've gotten lots of good answers, but I'd say that if you are a student at UMCP, it is very much a college town. But it is so close to a real city, that you are not "stuck" on campus like we used to be before the Green Line. Also, there are so many "commuters" at UMCP, that the students are spread all over the area: Greenbelt, Silver Spring, Laurel, Hyattsville. I find that it is very college-oriented over here.

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by PhenomenalAJ

It's ghetto and dangerous. The bars and clubs there are also sketchy and have tons of hoodrats. It's probably the least safe non-urban campus in America.

Are there many bars and clubs in College Park?

Sounds like the 21-year-old-plus college Juniors and Seniors aren't the ones going to the bars than?

[soug]

A major reason that nobody has mentioned is that the locals and local government officials pretty much hate the students (and yes I realize that hate is a strong word). The city has produced ordinance after ordinance designed to make student life more difficult (maximum occupancy per house, not being able to put furniture on the roof, rent control, etc). Police are more concerned with writing kids up for underage drinking and "noise violations" than with taking care of actual crime. That said, poster #2's first sentence is hilarious in that it is so off. Yeah, we joke around about it being "ghetto," but it really is fine for the most part. Is it a little dumpy? Hell yes. The city and PG County need to do much more to make the area nice (although great strides have been made in the past few years). The new university president has announced that he intends to turn CP into a "top-ten college town." As for the bars, the only people that go to them are college kids, so not sure what that poster was talking about. The bars absolutely need work, but they are starting to improve (Looney's Pub which opened this semester is great).

I also disagree with that poster's second and third paragraphs. Yeah, there are a lot of commuters, but there are also tons and tons of students living on or around campus. In addition, of course there are a lot of kids from Moco and Hoco, but there are also a ton of kids from NJ, NY, PA, Baltimore-area, and everywhere else. So those two arguments are null and void. But the other posters have it right: being so close to a major city does take away some of the charm that isolated college towns like State College enjoy.

So overall, the two biggest issues are 1)Locals and local politicians holding students (who are the only reason the town thrives at all) back; and 2)the city's location within a major metropolitan area.

[PhenomenalAJ]

Originally Posted by soug

A major reason that nobody has mentioned is that the locals and local government officials pretty much hate the students (and yes I realize that hate is a strong word). The city has produced ordinance after ordinance designed to make student life more difficult (maximum occupancy per house, not being able to put furniture on the roof, rent control, etc). Police are more concerned with writing kids up for underage drinking and "noise violations" than with taking care of actual crime. That said, poster #2's first sentence is hilarious in that it is so off. Yeah, we joke around about it being "ghetto," but it really is fine for the most part. Is it a little dumpy? Hell yes. The city and PG County need to do much more to make the area nice (although great strides have been made in the past few years). The new university president has announced that he intends to turn CP into a "top-ten college town." As for the bars, the only people that go to them are college kids, so not sure what that poster was talking about. The bars absolutely need work, but they are starting to improve (Looney's Pub which opened this semester is great).

I also disagree with that poster's second and third paragraphs. Yeah, there are a lot of commuters, but there are also tons and tons of students living on or around campus. In addition, of course there are a lot of kids from Moco and Hoco, but there are also a ton of kids from NJ, NY, PA, Baltimore-area, and everywhere else. So those two arguments are null and void. But the other posters have it right: being so close to a major city does take away some of the charm that isolated college towns like State College enjoy.

So overall, the two biggest issues are 1)Locals and local politicians holding students (who are the only reason the town thrives at all) back; and 2)the city's location within a major metropolitan area.

Next time you want to call out something Im saying, put my quote in block quotes. Oneof your screws must be loose if you don't think the Campus and CP are dangerous. Hoodrats are pretty much all around the campus area at night. You could not name a more dangerous major college town in America; college towns are generally somewhat safe. You wouldn't object to your mother walking around that campus alone at night?

UMCP also has FAR more commuters than the average state university. There are some kids on campus but the entire party scene of those kids who aren't commuters is frat based. Look at how much on campus parking there is compared to other colleges, its pretty obvious it has way more commuters than average, you clearly have no idea what you are talking about.