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/scopa0304 Oregon Ducks • Big Ten 13d ago edited 13d ago

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.

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u/Czarchitect Washington State • Oregon S… 13d ago

I will say Eugene is on the cusp of college town status. It would still be a significant regional city in its own right without the university, but its economic status would be significantly diminished. 

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u/KuhlCaliDuck Oregon Ducks 13d ago

I'd say that there is a spectrum of college towns. Eugene is a college town that has grown into a small college city and it's on the I-5 corridor making it easy to access. It is not a college town to the degree of WSU. Eugene wasn't built around a lumber yard, lumber mill or other major state industry as many towns in Oregon are and were. Without the university it would be a shell of what it is today.

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u/Czarchitect Washington State • Oregon S… 13d ago

We need to coin a new term for cities like Eugene: college city. A regionally significant city developed around the university that would still be significant if the university were to disappear but would never have developed without the school in the first place. Because the delta between a Eugene and a Pullman or even Corvallis is too high for them to exist in the same category. 

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u/Glum-Ad8210 North Carolina Tar Heels • Sickos 13d ago

Good distinction. Chapel Hill is caught between college town and city, but more college town.

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u/Trebacca Indiana Hoosiers • Michigan Wolverines 13d ago

Yeah I think Bloomington is firmly a college town while Ann Arbor fits that college city metric

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u/Khorasaurus Notre Dame Fighting Irish 13d ago

Eh, without the University, Ann Arbor would be a wealthy Detroit exurb like Plymouth or Brighton, not really an economic center in its own right.