My husband and I are thinking of moving away from the SF Bay Area - mostly because it is so *&@!($ expensive. We know we’d like to raise the Twiddlette in a small-town environment, but we are a liberal and racially mixed couple so we need someplace not to…um…hicksville. College towns can have a more culturally diverse environment than comparable towns without a school, so we are narrowing our search to towns with a college or university. One of our top contenders right now is Ithaca, NY where Cornell University is located.
I figure we have a lot of folks here who either went to college or are in college now, so I turn to you all: What are your favorite college towns? Would they make a good place to raise a kid? What drawbacks might the town have? Maybe you grew up in a college town and loved it?
We are doing lots of other research of course, but this is the best place I know to get a lot of personal perspectives, without all the hype a chamber of commerce will toss at me.
NOT Palo Alto… as you may have already gathered since you’re in the SF bay area. Berkeley’s good (although I’m not supposed to admit it). I also liked New Haven… but only directly surrounding the university. If you stray too far, it umm… get’s scary. But beware, Californian, the rain blows major arse.
What about Claremont? That seems like a nice place. Eugene’s ok … . I hear the school systems ok, especially south Eugene area. The high school is well regarded. Bloomington IN was a nice town, too, but the surrounding communities can be a bit. . . hicksville, if you know what I mean. McMinnville, OR, has a small college and is a fair town in wine country and is about an hour from Portland. Same goes for Forest Grove, OR.
Ann Arbor’s fun…specifically the downtown part surrounding the university. It’s one of the smaller “college towns” I’ve been to, but that might be a good thing, because there’s plenty of “quiet” places to go to in the event that you want to escape the ruckus.
And the park system rocks.
And it’s Doper-heavy. (Off the top of my head, I, CrankyAsAnOldMan, Hello Again, Kyla and TalkingHead all live there presently. There’s also plenty of Dopers in nearby Detroit and other MI areas.)
I was going to suggest Santa Cruz, but then I read that you were trying to get away from the expenses of the Bay Area. Santa Cruz is a lot of things, but it certainly isn’t affordable.
Madison, but I may be biased (don’t hold the Halloween riot against us–no students were arrested because of it, but plenty of out-of-towners were). The whole town–not just the campus–is great. I could be biased though :D. I fell in love with the town before I knew much about the school.
I spent several years (mostly while I was in HS) in Iowa City, where the University of Iowa is located. I found it to be a great place, not too small but not too big. The school system is fairly well-regarded, the population is very liberal, and compared to SF it has to be wicked cheap. Drawbacks…well, Iowa City just feels like any college town anywhere, but it is in Iowa, so surroundings are pretty rural and boring, and Chicago would be the nearest interesting “big city” (Des Moines is not big, and it is lame…people from DM drive to IC on weekends to find something to do). Plus the usual college town drawbacks, like lots of bars and rowdy undergrads about, that sort of thing.
I could probably think of more if you were interested, but I think that’s a good intro.
Not Gainesville, I think…at least compared to other towns, but then, I’ve only been in Gainesville for a year and never been to any other college town. Southern city in northern Florida.
Well, count out Tallahassee too… I’ve been on the non-college parts of town, and boy is it backwards feeling at times. I’m not saying it’s bad, it’s just not what you’re looking for. There’s an additional problem: the public school system in the state of Florida still sucks. Most of the college towns in the whole state aren’t worth living in. They’re either tourist traps or just damned boring.
Yep, Ann Arbor’s good. It’s got about 100,000 people, which is big enough to support a lot of culture without being unmanageably big or city-like. Schools are very good at the elementary level, at least. I hear good things also about Madison–some people think it’s better than Ann Arbor when it comes to Big Ten college towns. Austin also gets two thumbs up.
Charlottesville is absolutely wonderful. I know a mixed-race couple there and they have no problems, but they’re a little cautious about when they travel to rural areas in Virginia. Which is such a bummer, because it’s a beautiful state.
Blacksburg VA. Honestly though I have no basis for comparison, but I like how this place pretty much is built around the school and there is more to do here than people complain about. A good many options for the college student: Bars a plenty, Many good coffee shops, An indy film theater, Art galleries, Wide variety of fraternities, apt parties, only miles from good campground. People complain about it being a hodunk town, they dont know what they are talking about. I mean its not NYC but its a nice town. There’s a town down the street with a mall nearby, walmart, huge shopping centers. Blacksburg itself has a wide variety of restaraunts/shops/etc.
Well, I spent my last 2 years of high school in Madison, and the school system is very good (my old high school had the largest number of National Merit Scholars in the state last year). You see several elementary, middle, and high schools with banners stating that they’re National Schools of Excellence.
The downsides: winter. It’s built on an isthmus, which means that all traffic from east to west is funneled through a narrow strip of land (unless you choose to go around to the south). Campus is adjacent to downtown, which is great for atmosphere. However, isthmus + 40,000 college students means that real estate downtown is very expensive (if it’s not shoddy student apartments). Though, if you’re from the Bay Area, it will probably seem damn cheap! During sporting events, expect traffic to be all snarly (there are no big parking lots adjacent to Camp Randall Stadium or the Kohl Center).
A large portion of Madison residents are students that loved it so much that they stayed. It helps with diversity and a general liberal feeling (though some say that Madison is not as liberal as it likes to think it is).
The Isthmus (a free weekly paper) runs a message board that can be found at www.thedailypage.com/messageboard . There’s a whole forum on “town vibe,” as well as ones on politics/government and current events.
Also, Madison is very close to Milwaukee, Chicago, and the Twin Cities, which is nice when you want to get out of town for a while.
If you’d come as far east as Ithaca, you might as well go all the way to Burlington, VT. Check it out:
Liberal…check
Small town…check
College town…check
Affordable…check
Big lake…check
Mountains…check
Great place to raise kids…check +
Closest big cities…Montreal, 1.5 hours N; Boston, 3.5 hours S
With a quick search I found this nice blurb about the city from a local business.
Plus, the state’s wonderful on so many levels: community, politics, cultural events, landscape, foliage! I highly recommend living here.
I second the vote for Ithaca, NY. I went to college there, still have friends there, and visit often. It’s a very special place, very tolerant, great public schools, cheap real estate, beautiful countryside. The drawback is the job market (or lack thereof).
Put me down for Ann Arbor, home of The University of Michigan. The main problem I could forsee would be getting used to the winters. While there’s plenty to do, it’s still not known as a party town/school. The crime rate is very low, the town is very liberal (until recently they had a $5 fine for marijuana possession), great parks, lots of family oriented events. You’re far enough from Detroit to avoid their problems, but close enough to visit to take advantage of the big city offerings (Sports, nightlife, concerts, casinos, airport, etc). It’s culturally diverse, and basically has a lot to offer.
I just hope you’re not a college basketball fan, although it pays to have somewhat of an interest in football. They have this little stadium at the edge of town where a few of the town folk show up on Saturdays to watch the game. (ResIpsaLoquitor’s reference to Stadium Blvd.)
Located in the beautfiul Blue Ridge Mountains, you get spectacular scenery in the fall and winter, mild summers. Tons of cultural stuff to do at the University (founded by Thomas Jefferson in case you didn’t know that). Very reasonable prices, wonderfully tolerant people. You’re about 2 hours from the Atlantic Ocean and about 2 hours from Washington DC.
