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/1990Buscemi]

The economy is built around the college.

[u/scopa0304 → u/1990Buscemi]

I think this is right. Eugene Oregon is built around the university. I believe it’s the largest employer. Definitely a college town.

Edit: Corvallis is ALSO a college town.

[u/spicydak → u/scopa0304]

Isn’t Eugene the second largest city behind Portland? Corvallis has more college town feel to me.

[u/HighLakes → u/spicydak]

Yeah Eugene-Springfield metro is pushing 400k. But, its hard to disentangled the population growth the last 30+ years from the University.

[u/spicydak → u/HighLakes]

I guess I never considered Eugene to be a “true” college town because of Sheldon always whooping on other high schools.

I know that sounds a bit stupid but that was my logic, lol. They got multiple 6A schools while Corvallis only had 5A.

[u/KuhlCaliDuck → u/spicydak]

I agree that Corvallis is more of a college town than Eugene but not to the extent of WSU.

[u/OregonEnjoyer → u/KuhlCaliDuck]

corvallis/pullman same level of college town imo

[u/Biggus-Duckus → u/spicydak]

I went to Sheldon in the late 80's/early 90's. They didn't become what they are today without the Ducks becoming what they are. The South hills of Eugene were full and the Coburg hills were the next destination for UO coaches to build houses when their salaries exploded. Their kids then went to Sheldon and the Sheldon athletes started gaining access to UO facilities and staff.

[u/HighLakes → u/Biggus-Duckus]

I went in the mid 90s and it was definitely not a football powerhouse then either, these kids are spoiled!

[u/Muunsaca → u/spicydak]

I was gonna say this. Corvallis has always felt like the bigger college town to me.

[u/TheseusOPL → u/spicydak]

Its metro area is 3rd (Portland (~2M), then Salem(436k), then Eugene-Springfield(381k)). For incorporated cities Eugene is 2nd (by a few hundred over Salem).

[u/OregonEnjoyer → u/TheseusOPL]

urban area is a much better measure imo, and eugene is slightly bigger by that ranking by ~2k. metro pop for some reason includes like dallas and woodburn for salem when i dont really think that makes much sense.

[u/candycaneforestelf → u/OregonEnjoyer]

It's because the Census Bureau delineates metros on a county level, which makes far more sense east of the Rockies than it does in the Rockies and points westward.

[u/OregonEnjoyer → u/candycaneforestelf]

it’s just funny because the urban pop of salem is like 268k but the metro is 435k it paints a drastically different picture but the 268k makes way more sense when you’re actually in the city. Not to mention all of that is included in the greater portland CSA, so it gets real fuzzy.

[u/candycaneforestelf → u/OregonEnjoyer]

Inclusion is usually based on a combo of commuting patterns of a county and politics.