Ummm... The coolest college towns in America (Storrs coming in @ #21) | The Boneyard

Ummm... The coolest college towns in America (Storrs coming in @ #21)

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The coolest college towns in America - NY Daily News

Actually #11 > Between Tampa Florida and East Lansing Michigan (#21 is the picture #, not the ranking number so if someone wants to correct the title it would be appreciated). Dope.

>>11. Storrs, Connecticut - Storrs has the second highest number of students per capita, among the 415 cities in the study. It factored in wallet friendliness, social environment (the category in which it scored especially high), and academic and economic opportunities. What was also taken into consideration is cost of living, crime rate, even costs of burgers pizza, and beer.<<

Original article: These Are the Coolest College Towns in the U.S.
 
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HuskyHawk

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What a truly awful list. I will give Storrs props for being pretty in fall and spring, and having a more close-knit community (due to the high percentage of students). But the big cities on this list are just awful choices.
 

Fishy

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The only real disagreements I have with the list are the big cities.

LA , LV, SD and Miami are fine, but they’re not college towns. And if you’re looking at big cities, how do you name those and miss Boston? Not sure Seattle is a college town either.

Tampa isn’t, Gainesville is.

They whiffed on places like Burlington, Vermont, Ames, Iowa, Blacksburg, Virginia, etc.
 

HuskyHawk

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The only real disagreements I have with the list are the big cities.

LA , LV, SD and Miami are fine, but they’re not college towns. And if you’re looking at big cities, how do you name those and miss Boston? Not sure Seattle is a college town either.

Tampa isn’t, Gainesville is.

They whiffed on places like Burlington, Vermont, Ames, Iowa, Blacksburg, Virginia, etc.

Yeah, you are thinking the way I was. If a big city is on the list, Boston should be it. Cambridge should be a consideration as well. I spent 3 years in Lawrence, KS and it's a much better college town than Storrs or Amherst. It's really odd that they left off places like Athens and Colorado Springs.

While cities, I do think Austin and Madison likely count as college towns. Austin is much bigger now than it used to be though.
 
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College town = Athens, C’ville, Bloomington etc

College towns are not big cities or cow pastures.

Love UConn, loved my time at UConn and Storrs Center is really something! But, Storrs cannot be mentioned in the same breath as those other places.
 
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Agree with everyone here, I love UConn; but, its not a college town as it was a commuter school for years and the locals have sepnt too much time resisting efforts to make Storrs a true college town. Even in New England, I would have Amherst MA, Burlington VT, Hanover NH, and maybe Durham NH ahead. Outside of New England, Ithaca, Princeton, State College, Ann Arbor, East Lansing, Bloomington, Charlottesville, Chapel Hill, Madison, Boulder, Tempe, etc. are all better. As for cities (+250K), Boston (inc. Cambridge) has to be #1 with Philadelphia, Chicago, Austin, and Seattle up there due to the number of colleges located in the town or because of 1 big one (U Texas in Austin, W Washington in Seattle, maybe U Minnesota in Minneapolis, etc.). No one I know calls Miami and LA college towns as the rest of the city overwhelms the colleges there and both are prohibitably expensive for college students (a fiend's son went to U Miami and listening to story how much it cost the kid to take a girl on a date there was sad) while a place like Orlando, the college (UCF) its in its own enclave well outside the city core.
 
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Having Atlanta on the list and not Athens says it all. And Storrs doesn't deserve to be anywhere near a top 30 college town list
 

nwhoopfan

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Not sure Seattle is a college town either.

Living just outside the city, I would say Seattle definitely is NOT a college town.
 

HuskyHawk

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Living just outside the city, I would say Seattle definitely is NOT a college town.

Not surprising. My quick take after two visits was that there was a college neighborhood around UDub, but that's it. Pretty sure that's the case with any of these big cities that have colleges in them.
 

nwhoopfan

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Not surprising. My quick take after two visits was that there was a college neighborhood around UDub, but that's it. Pretty sure that's the case with any of these big cities that have colleges in them.

I think you're spot on with that assessment. It's just too big. U District and downtown feel like two completely different and non-connected cities. Maybe part of it too is that so many people move to Seattle from so many different places, they don't all adopt UW as their school to root for, so while there are plenty of fans it doesn't really seem like the central pillar of the community.
 
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I think you're spot on with that assessment. It's just too big. U District and downtown feel like two completely different and non-connected cities. Maybe part of it too is that so many people move to Seattle from so many different places, they don't all adopt UW as their school to root for, so while there are plenty of fans it doesn't really seem like the central pillar of the community.

Never been to either, but Pullman strikes me as being the more “typical” college town...
 

nwhoopfan

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Never been to either, but Pullman strikes me as being the more “typical” college town...

I passed through once. I was trying to make some miles so I didn't stop. Looked like campus was a block or two off the highway so I didn't get a good look at it. Definitely a college town, because without the university there would be almost nothing there. Corvallis is another one, I've been there a few times. Not nearly as remote as Pullman. Nice little town, OSU is definitely a huge part of the community there.
 

Stainmaster

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I passed through once. I was trying to make some miles so I didn't stop. Looked like campus was a block or two off the highway so I didn't get a good look at it. Definitely a college town, because without the university there would be almost nothing there. Corvallis is another one, I've been there a few times. Not nearly as remote as Pullman. Nice little town, OSU is definitely a huge part of the community there.

You should’ve made the detour and picked up some Cougar Gold. Absolutely delicious.
 

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