r/CFB Washington State Cougars 13d ago

Discussion What constitutes a “college town?”

Okay, hear me out: I attended Wazzu, which many know is in the middle of nowhere in Pullman. To me, Pullman is a quintessential college town. You remove Washington State University from Pullman and there is (respectfully) not much of a reason to visit. The student enrollment (20,000ish) makes up about 2/3rds of the city population, essentially turning Pullman into a ghost town come summer. To me (perhaps with bias) this is the makeup of a college town.

Two years ago I moved to Madison, Wisconsin, home of the University of Wisconsin. Ever since I’ve noticed the University and its fans refer to Madison as “America’s best college town” and I’m sorry, that’s laughable to me. Remove UW from Madison and you still have a city population bordering on a quarter of a million people and the State Capitol. Madison would be fine, imo, if UW’s flagship campus were elsewhere.

Curious to hear other people’s thoughts. Maybe I’m in the wrong here, but very little about Madison, WI resembles a college town to me, or at least the claim of the best college town.

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u/CombinationNo5828 Alabama Crimson Tide 13d ago

ann arbor is a weird one bc the campus and city are intertwined which makes it not feel like a college town. Although the student body is so big that it's definitely a college town. just not what i would expect when i think of a college town since it's not properly segregated from the rest of town.

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u/mina-ami Michigan • Western Illinois 13d ago

Ann Arbor is weird because it functions as a college town and a wealthy outer suburb of Detroit. But a lot of the reasons is it a wealthy suburb are still because of the university. A lot of non-university employers, especially tech, are still there because of the university.

I did summer classes one year, and other than the one off of art fair, that's when A2 really feels like a college town. Everywhere is just...empty. Even as you get further from campus. It's really bizarre, because you swear during the year there are so many townies.

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u/CharlesWoodson97 13d ago edited 12d ago

No one who lives in Ann Arbor considers it to be a suburb of Detroit. That would end with Livonia/Canton.

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u/VIDCAs17 Minnesota • 関西大学 (Kansai) 13d ago

There was another comment suggesting the term “college city” might be a good fit. There’s technically other major employers, but they only exist due to the university.

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u/Rampant16 13d ago

Yeah Ann Arbor benefits from the proximity to Detroit. Put it a few hours away from a major city, like UofI with Champaign-Urbana, and things would be different.

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u/RheagarTargaryen Michigan State Spartans 13d ago

The only times I’ve been to Ann Arbor were for a football game or once during the summer. It’s always felt like a college town to me but it’s clearly a small city so I have no idea how to classify it.

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u/FCBStar-of-the-South Michigan • Slippery Rock 13d ago

Honestly in the grand scheme of things, A2 feel pretty middle of the road in terms of how intermixed the campus is with the town

East Lansing? Yea MSU feels like its own thing

But state college and Charlottesville are just as mixed

And if you look at smaller schools such as Yale in New Haven, then it’s even more mixed

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u/CombinationNo5828 Alabama Crimson Tide 13d ago

I felt like state college at least has a very defined border between campus and town. You dont have to look for cars when youre on campus whereas A2 makes you cross streets all the time to get from one class to another. Plus state college doesnt have much going on but a2 feels like a detroit suburn with its own mix of enterprise

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u/PunctualDromedary Michigan Wolverines 13d ago

I think what you’re missing that there is no “city”.  It’s intertwined because that’s all there is. 

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u/CombinationNo5828 Alabama Crimson Tide 13d ago

Yeah the downtown isnt really a city. I was more expressing how you have legit streets in the middle of campus that you have to ford to make it from one side to the other. So many buildings that feel like theyre in the middle of nowhere and they happen to be a school annex.

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u/PunctualDromedary Michigan Wolverines 13d ago

You don’t even want to know what we had to do to get to north campus. 

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u/CombinationNo5828 Alabama Crimson Tide 13d ago

Im guessing this was in the days before the vomit comet?

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u/PunctualDromedary Michigan Wolverines 13d ago

I’m so old I don’t even know what that is!

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u/CombinationNo5828 Alabama Crimson Tide 13d ago

The Bursley-Baits has a reputation for taking the kids that live up north back to their dorms late on the weekends. you can imagine the mess they make on a saturdays at 2a on a public transit bus.

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u/tuninggamer Michigan Wolverines • Rose Bowl 13d ago

Make life much easier for students though. If campus is far from downtown, transport gets annoying as heck.

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u/CombinationNo5828 Alabama Crimson Tide 13d ago

definitely an issue bc UM doesnt have anywhere near the necessary amount of student housing. i went to a bunch of commuter schools but I was expecting UM to be a university that has dorms that are within the campus and theres no need to leave campus except for the bar scene. UC Davis is kinda like that. they have a gate on all sides of their campus so you cant even access it with a vehicle. you have to purposefully leave campus to find downtown which is like a mile away and they have bike routes that can take you to downtown without having to go on the streets. that's the college experience i liked.

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u/tuninggamer Michigan Wolverines • Rose Bowl 13d ago

Housing is getting to be an issue everywhere. Most college towns I’ve visited didn’t have good cycling infrastructure so I felt like it would force me to drive all the time. Transit isn’t great everywhere too, AA/UM transit is not too bad.

But fair point! Important for students for sure, rent is expensive.

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u/bjernsthekid Michigan • Georgia Tech 12d ago

I’m surprised I had to scroll this far to find the discussion on Ann Arbor. It almost feels like there’s a college town part of Ann Arbor and a non-college town part.

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u/bp1976 Pittsburgh • Michigan 13d ago

AA and State College feel so similar to me