Like is life in a college town that different than living in any other regular small town if you’re not living on the school campus? How does it compare to any other regular small town or bigger city?
Are college towns just comparable to those towns with a military base?
https://old.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/vs0ho3/what_are_small_military_towns_like/
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It becomes a lot less crowded, and business hours change May to August.
College towns are just normal small cities that get much less crowded in the summer, they might have a more exciting night life then the average small city and Saturdays will be traffic hell, but other than that they are usually just small cities that get bigger in the fall.
From my experience living in all three environments, college towns get more diversity and more interesting restaurants, shops, small businesses, and cultural and public events than similarly-sized non-college towns, but has less congestion and infrastructure stress than major cities. (Exception for Southeastern Conference college towns on Game Day)
You’ll also find a smaller presence of major international corporations (retail excepted) in college towns than a major city, but they aren’t completely absent.
I guess it would depend on the college itself and the demographics of people who attend the college.The demographics for a private religious university in a small town will be different from a town with a huge state university.
Just to explain some more. I’m from Kansas and went the University of Kansas, a big state university, the biggest in the state. The town (Lawrence, KS) is full of people who are highly educated, lean left, diverse, and the town itself is known to be pretty “hipster” and artsy. Go an hour or two north, there is a town named Atchinson, Kansas with a huge catholic university. The town is pretty conservative as a whole and not a whole lot goes on there, a lot more typical of what you would think a small town would be like.
There will be more shops that are whatever is currently cool and trendy. A town of 40,000 probably couldn’t support a bubble tea shop (is that still trendy?) normally but when 16,000 students want to try it, there you go.
Public schools are sometimes better as professors are more likely to strongly care about their kids getting a good education.
Cheney Washington suffered a lot during distance learning for college students. The college has been the source of economic and population growth
More nightlife, more restaurants, more creative types of businesses, many are quite comfortable to walk around.
When classes are active – things are a lot more crowded. A LOT more.
When school is out – basically a ghost town.
College towns tend to be MUCH denser than a random small town of similar size due to the number of students going for cheap dorms and apartments and are often more walkable/better equipped with transit at least near the campus. They get pretty quiet and often see businesses change hours or close during summer, a bit like an inverse tourist town.
As someone who grew up in a college town and then went to college in a college town, I’d say college towns are much more interesting than cities or towns of a similar size. There is much more to do nightlife wise and things like concerts might come to your city. The area is also usually vastly more educated than a typical city which great. Also I’d say the culture of the city is improved as well. There is nothing more fun than football season in a college town. The entire city and college go out to the game, everyone in town is wearing the school colors, and it’s all anyone is talking about. Sure parts of town turn into a ghost town during the summer but as a whole they bring a lot to the city economically and culturally.
It depends on the college.
A major state university college town like Bloomington is going to have a lot of amenities, more than a non college town of the same size. Bloomington also has some of the highest cost of living in the state.
A small regional college won’t. It’ll have some student amenities and whatnot but the rest of the town will be pretty similar to any other town of it’s size.
Colleges and college towns can become like small little utopian villages.
Small towns with military bases are like small town America. They definitely have a different feel.
Source – I’ve lived in both
It’s basically a town that goes from being slightly overcrowded to a ghost town over night, and then back again a few months later.
I live in one now, and I lived in another a few years ago. Lots of bars and restaurants by campus. A lot of book stores and coffee shops too! I’ve noticed you also have a good deal of delivery services, and they’re open late or all night long.
A lot of “student housing” apartments for rent in the area. Uber and Lyft is really popular here.
It’s much quieter during winter recess, maybe around late December until mid or late January. The city also becomes less dense during the summer months.
Right now there’s a lot of people moving into campus and I’m avoiding that part of the city right now.
A college town near me has a population of about 20k
The college enrollment is about 15k, so when class is in session the town’s population increases a sizable percentage.
It’s similar to living in a beach town. You have your busy season where all your businesses make their money, but you have to deal with out of town people. Then in the off season it’s quite and peaceful.
The good thing about college towns is it attracts a lot of cool small businesses, the bad is that your favorite spot might be flooded with 21 year olds and the ruckus they bring.
College towns are super fun with lots of restaurants and retail. Small towns are lacking the youth and vibrancy as well as the $$ so there are fewer options for entertainment.
Compared to small town America: There are a lot of young people, there are a lot of bars and clubs, and politically college towns tend to be very socially progressive, even in very conservative rural areas.
Typically they are smaller cities that are much more vibrant and politically left-wing due to having a very large number of young people who live there seasonally. They are packed when class is in and often a bit dead like a normal small city when class isn’t in. Often they have better than average transit than a typical small American city as well since many students don’t own cars. There are exceptions to all of the rules, but that’s what I can think of. I attended a university in a stereotypical American college town.
They specialize in blue colored alcoholic drinks
I’ve lived in three different college towns with under 150,000 people and they had the following in common that is different from most other towns and cities that small.
1. Lots of nightlife (live music, some national touring bands, bars, gay scenes etc)
2. Lots of inexpensive restaurants and coffeeshops
3. More focus on local/independent business
4. Some kind of free public transportation network for students, faculty and staff (so usually half more more of the population)
5. A walkable core (usually at least two or three “strips” with commerce and then maybe a few outlying areas)
6. LOTS of rental housing
I think that many college towns in the US feel more like a hip neighborhood of a large city than they do like other small towns and cities. Obviously this depends on the college but I would say the towns where flagship state universities are located, as well as towns with some kind of older prestigious private college, would fit this description.
I lived in Berkeley. I had train access to Oakland and San Francisco for internships and didn’t need a car.
There’s a team station near the university and the train network is useful, i.e. it doesn’t stop every few blocks or share the roadway with cars.
Better night life