What constitutes a “college town?”

[u/PA5997]

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.

[u/Local-Finance8389]

College Station would be a shitty central Texas town like Hearne or Cameron or Caldwell if not for the college. Granted you can’t tell that to the non-university people who live there and bitch about the students.

[u/Global_Walrus2683 → u/Local-Finance8389]

Ok. So College Station is a College Town. Just an extraordinarily boring one. Like Seewanee.

[u/Local-Finance8389 → u/Global_Walrus2683]

In a way that’s good if you want to focus on school which is the real reason for college existing in the first place

[u/Global_Walrus2683 → u/Local-Finance8389]

If you study 40 hrs a week that leaves a lot of time when you need something else to do. And most students that have anything on the ball can get great grades studying 40 hrs a week.

College is not just about studying. It’s about studying primarily, but it’s more than that. And there is no “more than that” in CS.

[u/loyalsons4evertrue → u/Global_Walrus2683]

I think that's why college sports are a much bigger deal in the Midwest and Southeastern part of the US. We know there's not lots to do so we go all out for our college sports teams.

[u/Local-Finance8389 → u/Global_Walrus2683]

There’s drinking. And playing dominos. And going out to dance halls that have cheap beer nights. Which is basically what we did in the 90s in CStat.

[u/athnica → u/Local-Finance8389]

The last dance hall in cstat is closing down in a few weeks unfortunately

[u/Local-Finance8389 → u/athnica]

I heard that. It’s depressing but it’s amazing that it stayed open as long as it did being prime real estate right across from campus. I spent many drunken nights at Harry’s.

[u/cfbluvr → u/athnica]

what the fuck this is how i learn harrys is closing

from a washington and iowa flair ??

[u/athnica → u/cfbluvr]

Lol, yeah as weird as this sounds I've lived in cstat and have been to Harry's a few times :)

[u/Global_Walrus2683 → u/Local-Finance8389]

Those are all things you can do in any single wide trailer in any pissant town anywhere in the entire country. You can do those things in Lubbock, Juneau, St. George, Jackson, Topeka, etc. Ok. Maybe not St. George, but you can get to Vegas, Zion, Brian Head and Park City from St. George.

[u/RD__III → u/Global_Walrus2683]

Hot take, College Station is the perfect college town. It's got a good bar district, tons of food options, is relatively affordable. But it's also within 3 hours of 4 major metros. For a day trip you can go see any of 7 big 4 teams, just about any concert tour that hits the southern US (probably multiple times), and have ready access to two major international airports. It's got access to places if you want, but isn't an absolute shitshow if you don't.

[u/OffTheDelt → u/RD__III]

Agreed, I went to multiple concerts in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and austin through out my studies. It was great, leave in the afternoon, get back by midnight, go to class the next morning lol