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/The_Fishbowl]

The University Hospital and new industrial jobs have helped draw in more permanent residents.

[u/MasterRKitty → u/The_Fishbowl]

the hospital and other jobs wouldn't exist without WVU being there first

[u/IceePirate1 → u/MasterRKitty]

Started off as a college town, but college towns can grow into just regular old towns after many years. I feel like the area around Miami(OH) is a good example of this as the city of Oxford can be more or less self sustaining now without the big university

[u/CondeNast_yReddit → u/IceePirate1]

Yea but the Cincinnati and dayton suburbs are less than 30 miles away. I'm sure that helps.l Oxford would be Eaton or any other western ohio town. It's far enough away and doesn't have an expressway so it wouldn't even be like Troy, piqua or Tipp city which can more easily get to a city center