What's the Worst College Town in America?

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

Lubbock, College Station, and Norman are all horrible in their own special ways.

Out of those three, I have only been to Norman, and that was only just last weekend.  Didn't seem terrible, though I don't think I would like an extended stay there.

[celedhring]

But being an Euro, maybe the whole college town concept was too alien for me.

We have towns in Germany that are mainly defined by their universities and don't have much else, so the concept exists in Europe as well. Tübingen, Göttingen, Marburg etc.

We don't have those in Spain - we have huge campuses in the suburbs of our major towns, but that's really it. You can take public transport and be in a real city in 30 minutes.

Tallahassee looked dreary to me. I think the problem is probably that I was 30 - living in a place designed to cater to the needs of 18 y/o frat students is stuff of nightmares.

[The Larch]

But being an Euro, maybe the whole college town concept was too alien for me.

We have towns in Germany that are mainly defined by their universities and don't have much else, so the concept exists in Europe as well. Tübingen, Göttingen, Marburg etc.

We don't have those in Spain - we have huge campuses in the suburbs of our major towns, but that's really it. You can take public transport and be in a real city in 30 minutes.

Tallahassee looked dreary to me. I think the problem is probably that I was 30 - living in a place designed to cater to the needs of 18 y/o frat students is stuff of nightmares.

We do have cities like Salamanca, Santiago or Granada, though, with old historical universities in places that were huge back in the day and fell behind. Not the same thing than an American college town but a somehow similar feel to what Zanza describes.

[dps]

I think the problem is probably that I was 30 - living in a place designed to cater to the needs of 18 y/o frat students is stuff of nightmares.

I don't know;  I lived in a college town from age 29-34, and for the most part, I enjoyed it.  True, I was single at the time, and except for having to go to work, I pretty much still had the lifestyle of a college student, but looking back at it, I don't recall anything about it that I would have any major problem with now.  The traffic congestion could be bad at times, but that's true of a lot of places that aren't college towns, too.

[merithyn]

I've lived in a college town for the past eight years, and I actually like the town a lot. Take it out of Illinois, and plop it down somewhere like Oregon and I'd love it.

By the way, I second derspeiss with Charleston, IL.