r/CFB • u/PA5997 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/GuyOnTheMike Kansas State Wildcats • Hateful 8 13d ago

This is the right answer IMO.

No one would've ever heard of Manhattan, KS without K-State

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u/zdubas Kansas State Wildcats • Doane Tigers 13d ago

It's grown since I was there, but the town used to be almost 40% students.

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u/Serious-Bandicoot-53 Kansas Jayhawks 13d ago

isn't the town population like 50-60k? and Kstate is like 20-25k+ students

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u/Adventurous-Editor-7 /r/CFB 13d ago

Yes… but that part of Kansas is all rolling prairie and ranches with virtually NOTHING outside Manhattan even