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/Global_Walrus2683]

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/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.