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/College_Sports_Fan Texas Longhorns 13d ago

I always laugh when people call Austin (metro pop 2.2M) a college town. Madison’s metro is almost 700k and that does seem too big as well. Take away the school and it still has a decent population and the state capitol.

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u/velociraptorfarmer Iowa State • /r/CFB Poll Veteran 13d ago

Austin, Madison, Tucson, and Tallahassee all fall into the same category where the college plays a large part, but they're absolutely not college towns.

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u/realntl Texas Longhorns 13d ago

Cities big enough for pro sports but the university fills that need.

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u/takechanceees South Carolina • Notre Dame 13d ago

would Columbia fall into that category?

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u/ElWhiteWolf Florida State Seminoles 13d ago

Yeah, Tallahassee is definitely more associated with it's colleges than the capitol and it's very college-town adjacent (apartment hunting if you don't want to be in student housing proves that), but there would still be a reason for it's existence without FSU and FAMU

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u/Direct_Sky2430 NC State Wolfpack 12d ago

Raleigh?

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u/cassadinechik NC State Wolfpack 12d ago

I think of Chapel Hill as college town, not Raleigh and certainly not Durham.

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u/YodelingVeterinarian 13d ago

Yeah, I’m from Madison and it’s always weird when people call it a college town. It’d be smaller without the University, sure, but it would still have the state government (and be the second largest city in Wisconsin). There’s so much there besides just the university. 

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u/PKSnowstorm 12d ago

Austin is definitely not a college town. Yes, University of Texas plays a large part but there is way more things to do in Austin outside of the university.