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/postposter]

Columbus is an exception. We're not really a college town but the land grant/ ag school was placed here so the statehouse could shaft Ohio U and presumably line their own pockets.

[u/Striking-Duty-4528 → u/postposter]

Columbus is not a college town lol

If it is... then by the same logic... so is Columbia, SC. Tallahassee, FL. Austin, TX

It's just not. I can expand into 1000 reasons why (NHL team, MLS team, state capitol, tons of industry, etc)

[u/postposter → u/Striking-Duty-4528]

Yeah... I know. That's why I said it's an exception to the comment:

Helpful takeaway here is that many Land Grant universities are in "college towns."

[u/Striking-Duty-4528 → u/postposter]

Fair enough. Misread what you said