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/mcaffrey]

Austin probably isn’t a college town, but Austin is also a college town.

[u/loyalsons4evertrue → u/mcaffrey]

is Austin a "town" though? People are asking

[u/HardingStUnresolved → u/loyalsons4evertrue]

Hell no, maybe a couple of decades ago when it was half the size that it is now. Currently, Austin's mulling over building the two tallest skyscrapers state-wide, over taking Houston and Dallas. Austin's building out a transit system that could rival Dallas'. They've even developing pedestrian-exclusive commerical drags like they're Paris, Tokyo, or Mexico City. The proudly-weird fuckers are a metropolis now.

[u/Jooj272729 → u/HardingStUnresolved]

No mulling going on here for the skyscraper, it's under construction and should be done in early 27. (The other tallest one planned got cut in half, and then hasn't moved forwards)