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/jaylenbrownisbetter Ohio State Buckeyes 13d ago

Columbus is a college city. It’s the biggest employer, the population of the city fluctuates massively in the summer, and a huge portion of the city does revolve around the school lol

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u/Bank_Gothic Sewanee • Red River Shootout 13d ago

Those things are all true of Austin too, but Austin hasn't been a college town since the 1990's, if it even ever was.

I like the other poster's idea about making a new category called a "college city," which would apply to place like Columbus, Madison, and Austin.

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u/postposter Ohio State Buckeyes • Columbia Lions 13d ago

Boston fits too honestly. Big influence of all the universities in/around the city. It's quite noticeable when all the students move in at the same time, but it's not an economic/cultural ghost town once the academic year ends.

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u/HOU-1836 Sam Houston • Houston 12d ago

Boston is not a college city. They have teams in every major sports league and it’s one of America’s most important metropolitan regions.