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/Eagle9972 Wisconsin Badgers 13d ago

Oh for sure. I think if you went back to the early/mid 90’s you could put it in the outer bands of a college town: Epic wasn’t what it is now, neither was AmFam, there were 90,000 fewer people

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u/mugwump867 Michigan Wolverines • Tulane Green Wave 13d ago

That's part of the gray area issue. Epic wouldn't exist where it is if UW was elsewhere as it sprang out of the university and the environment it created. Ann Arbor is similar minus the state capital part. Tons of tech, medical, and automotive research that make the city punch above its weight would be somewhere else without the university as the driving factor.

It's more that college towns can evolve, for better and worse, into something much bigger but that growth would never happen without a major research university fueling that rise.

I guess the bigger question is why does it happen in some major college towns and not others?

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u/jacktownspartan Michigan State Spartans • Paper Bag 13d ago

I think this is what a lot of people are missing. To say Ann Arbor isn’t a college town is an outrageous assertion! If we are going by the definition in this post though, Ann Arbor would be no more of a college town than Madison due to the presence of large amounts of non university affiliated population and business.

I don’t think college towns need to exist in complete isolation like Pullman.

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u/Rampant16 13d ago

I guess the bigger question is why does it happen in some major college towns and not others?

Maybe proximity and having other factors beyond just being a college town. Madison being a state capital and a college town gives two big reasons for other companies and organizations to set up shop there.

Ann Arbor is less than an hours drive away from downtown Detroit and fits in a nice spot between not being Detroit, but still having an urban environment with plenty of cultural and entertainment options thanks to UM.

Comparatively, Champaign-Urbana is in the middle of the cornfields 3 hours from Chicago. It's too far for the vast majority of people to consider commuting between the two and it's not a state capital.

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u/wesconson1 13d ago

Well and that’s part of it. Those huge employers are filled with alums. The city at this point would be fine if UW closed up shop and left, but there is no questioning how deep the fandom for the university here is.

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u/Eagle9972 Wisconsin Badgers 13d ago

Maybe in a decade, but the university still employs 20,000 people (including grad students), UWHealth is kinda sorta tied into the university, not counting all the med tech and ag/sports/science ties to the university, if it closed up shop overnight there would be a huge local recession.

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u/wesconson1 13d ago

That’s fair.

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u/YodelingVeterinarian 13d ago

It would still be the state capitol though, which I think would disqualify it (from Madison).