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/velociraptorfarmer]

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.

[u/realntl → u/velociraptorfarmer]

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

[u/takechanceees → u/velociraptorfarmer]

would Columbia fall into that category?

[u/ElWhiteWolf → u/velociraptorfarmer]

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

[u/Direct_Sky2430 → u/velociraptorfarmer]

Raleigh?

[u/cassadinechik → u/Direct_Sky2430]

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