OT: - Favorite College Town | Page 3 | The Boneyard

OT: Favorite College Town

HuskyHawk said:
Ann Arbor would be pretty big without U Michigan, but it is still dominated by the university and college students.
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I went to grad school at University of Michigan. It's 50 miles west of Detroit. I used to ride my bike a lot around the area and there was nothing in the towns right outside Ann Arbor. This was 30 years ago though. Don't know what is there today. I really don't believe Ann Arbor would be much of anything if it wasn't for the school and the associated hospital. Everything revolves around the school. It truly is a college town although it's a big college town because there are so many non-students living there. But that is what happens with a big state school. There are hundreds of professors, administrators and the hospital employs a lot of people. But again, none of that would exist without the school.

Take a similar school, University of Wisconsin in Madison. Madison is a very cool town that revolves around the school, but not as much as Ann Arbor. It's also the state capital. It would exist and be a smaller sized city without the school.
 
IIRC the same guy who designed the downtown area in Ann Arbor also designed the downtown Burlington, VT area. Or something like that.
 
Guapo said:
@krinklecut you’re from Auburn, right? How would you say it compares to Athens?
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Not from auburn but wife grew up there and I lived there a few years.

Auburn is...fine. Probably much better for a weekend visit over living there. A few bars that fill up with good ol' boys every weekend. Not much counter culture like you get in Athens. You run out of things to do very quickly. There's a surprisingly decent food scene, though. We found our scene one town over, in Opelika.
 
Conndog said:
I was in Missoula years ago and had a delicious Huckleberry Ice Cream Shake
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I've had a huckleberry shake twice in my life, and both were outstanding. One was in Montana, but not Missoula. It was Cooke City, just east of Yellowstone NP.
 
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Fairfield CT
Burlington VT
Northampton/Amherst MA
New Haven CT
Storrs CT
Providence RI
Ithaca NY
Hanover NH
Murfreesboro TN
Chatanooga TN
Boca Raton FL

My list of places sucks.
 
Sonova said:
Btw...a few AWFUL ones....

South Bend, IN
Baton Rouge, LA
Syracuse, NY
Orono, ME
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Co-signed on South Bend. Another road trip when we beat ND in 4 overtimes in front of Touchdown Jesus. The campus is nice and all but the bar scene was pretty terrible.
 
Does Boston count?

Bet at least half the population are between 18 and 24, but the city isn’t exactly built around a given university like a Columbus

Looking forward to checking out Charleston eventually
 
University of Washington is beautiful as is Madison in the summer. I spent time in Tempe AZ and Santa Cruz in my twenties and wondered why I didn't choose to go to school in one of those places although I enjoyed Storrs a bit too much. Pepperdine is another beautiful campus in Malibu and I agree that Santa Barbara is a cool town as well.

Missoula would be another one. Reminds me of a quote by Steinbeck. “I'm in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection. But with Montana it is love. And it's difficult to analyze love when you're in it.” Just a gorgeous state especially Glacier National Park and Yellowstone. I could live there seasonally as well.
 
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8893 said:
IIRC the same guy who designed the downtown area in Ann Arbor also designed the downtown Burlington, VT area. Or something like that.
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It's a grid though, so... basically just squares except when you get near the creek.

Honestly, we had our choice to stay in AA. We chose Buffalo instead.
 
Guapo said:
This is a painfully Yankee answer.
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Why?

I have the northeast at #1, #4 and #7.

I chose a midwest place, a southern place, and a western place ahead of 3 northeast places.

I mean, State College and South Bend are not great places to be.
 
HooperScooper said:
I went to grad school at University of Michigan. It's 50 miles west of Detroit. I used to ride my bike a lot around the area and there was nothing in the towns right outside Ann Arbor. This was 30 years ago though. Don't know what is there today. I really don't believe Ann Arbor would be much of anything if it wasn't for the school and the associated hospital. Everything revolves around the school. It truly is a college town although it's a big college town because there are so many non-students living there. But that is what happens with a big state school. There are hundreds of professors, administrators and the hospital employs a lot of people. But again, none of that would exist without the school.

Take a similar school, University of Wisconsin in Madison. Madison is a very cool town that revolves around the school, but not as much as Ann Arbor. It's also the state capital. It would exist and be a smaller sized city without the school.
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Ann Arbor has been an absolute ghost town since the middle of March. It's nice during the summer when all the students leave but it's weird seeing it this empty this early. And with Art Fair getting cancelled it's going to be a weird, ghost-town summer.
 
upstater said:
It's a grid though, so... basically just squares except when you get near the creek.

Honestly, we had our choice to stay in AA. We chose Buffalo instead.
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I mean the red bricked area in the center that's a big pedestrian area. Church St. Marketplace in Burlington; don't recall what it's called in Ann Arbor. I was only in the latter a couple times for business many years ago, but like usual I scoped out the food and drink options so my most lasting memories are Ashley's and Zingerman's.

I spent a lot of time in Buffalo because my wife went to college there. Not a big fan.
 
8893 said:
Agreed. Best food, too. And great university.
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Absolutely fantastic eating town. Reputation is well-deserved. Every time I go to Italy I try to spend at least a day or two there.
 
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I haven't been to many. So many of my friends went to Storrs, Boston, or small private New England schools.

Happy Valley is pretty great.
Boulder is gorgeous but I visited in my mid 30s so I didn't exactly get the college/bar experience.
I was only ever there at night but Durham, NH (Univ of New Hampshire) seemed pretty cool.
UC-Santa Cruz has amazing views of the ocean but that weird run-down Cali vibe to it, at least the part I went to. It's probably the most unique campus I've been to.
Univ of South Carolina was underwhelming. Much of it looked like some industrial complex from the 1960s. No personality in the architecture. Some of the surrounding houses/neighborhoods are beautiful.
New Haven has its charm--I lived there for eight years--and Yale pretty much is New Haven so I'll include it.

I really wish I visited at least one big school in the deep south.
 
8893 said:
I mean the red bricked area in the center that's a big pedestrian area. Church St. Marketplace in Burlington; don't recall what it's called in Ann Arbor. I was only in the latter a couple times for business many years ago, but like usual I scoped out the food and drink options so my most lasting memories are Ashley's and Zingerman's.

I spent a lot of time in Buffalo because my wife went to college there. Not a big fan.
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That's Kerrytown.

That's where I lived. If the plan was creating a clusterfrig for cars, that man designed it well.
 
phillionaire said:
I wish I could afford to live down in Kerrytown, it's such a nice part of town.
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We rented. Another reason we left AA. $1750 a month for 750 sq. feet. My friend bought a condo closer to the creek, $500k.
 
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upstater said:
We rented. Another reason we left AA. $1750 a month for 750 sq. feet. My friend bought a condo closer to the creek, $500k.
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Yeah rent prices are insane in town, I'd love to live closer to everything in town but I'd spend so much more money on beer and food than I already do haha. We're looking to buy our first house soon and Saline and Ypsi are looking like our best options.
 
HooperScooper said:
I live near Boston and work in Boston. That's cheap! Lol
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LOL, well we lived there in 2000-2002. But I have heard that AA plateaued and didn't keep rising. We landed in Buffalo at the exact right time. 350% rise in real estate in the central part of the city since 2004.
 
BigErnMcCracken said:
Best college town in Italy is Bologna.

Underrated American college down: Davis, CA.

Sentimental favorite: College Hill, Providence.
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My dad went University of Bologna for med school when the nuns wouldn't write him a letter of recommendation. Bologna is a fun city with great eats and good looking women.

Providence is where I had a mobster smash every window of my friend's car with his foot and then that same mobster took us all to Foxy Lady like nothing happened.
 
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