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#5 Iowa City, #15 State College

I'd bump SC and IC up at least 1 spot each. Having once lived in Boulder for years, I would rather dislocate my elbow once a week for the rest of my life than live there again. 24 square miles, surrounded by reality. But I think I'm just jaded.
 
I'd never agree with anyone trying to convince me that there are 14 better college towns than State College.

No way.
Without a doubt... Diggerpup. I drove the two hours up and back on Sunday just to absorb the beauty that is the drive up to State College from York, PA. It's so gorgeous. Words don't describe. And then on campus... you see 107,000 seat Beaver Stadium on the hill with the newer Nittany Lion Logo and chills run up your arm. Get closer to Rec Hall and the chills become full blown goose bumps.
 
poll is #veryfakenews.

on an unrelated note, I wonder where tehran would land on the list? being that IC is so highly ranked.
 
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Without a doubt... Diggerpup. I drove the two hours up and back on Sunday just to absorb the beauty that is the drive up to State College from York, PA. It's so gorgeous. Words don't describe. And then on campus... you see 107,000 seat Beaver Stadium on the hill with the newer Nittany Lion Logo and chills run up your arm. Get closer to Rec Hall and the chills become full blown goose bumps.

Wow - talk about memories. I had a Yamaha 350 bike that I would ride from SC to Harrisburg when the weather was warm. The ride along the river was just awesome, and particularly when the autumn colors started to show up in the trees.
 
Pssshaw - list is wacky IMO. Univ of Ill - sucks. I get Boulder at #1, the rest of the list needs a re-working
I went to U of I. Many of my family members went to U of I including a scholarship athlete, my sister and multiple uncles. I have 2 cousins currently at U of I. I travel to U of I multiple times every year.

Illinois as a whole (the greater Chicagoland area in particular) produces more than its fair share of high school athletic talent in wrestling and basketball compared to the rest of the nation. Champaign-Urbana as a college town is a big reason U of I can't keep its pick of kids in state. Putting Champaign, IL on any list of best college towns is silly. Putting it as high as #2 invalidates the list altogether.
 
Although I really like the quad at U of Illinois, I agree with PBS.

But, Bloomington, Illinois is on the list and Madison, Chapel Hill, and Austin are not?
 
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Although I really like the quad at U of Illinois, I agree with PBS.

But, Bloomington, Illinois is on the list and Madison, Chapel Hill, and Austin are not?

Agree completely on Austin....awesome town. And can't we throw the poor folks in Jersey a bone? Isn't Princeton a nice town?
 
I live in Ithaca. It's is an amazing and fun place to live with some sort of festival about 15 times a year and a huge lake. Great, but it's inclusion as a college town has me confused about what the list criteria is.

First, Ithaca is its own town. Cornell has its own college town. It's called Collegetown.

Second, there are no sports bars of significance in Ithaca. Then again, there are no televised Cornell or Ithaca college sports. So.......

If ithaca is on this list, did they not visit Burlington VT? Sheesh. Ithaca x2
 
Austin and Chapel Hill not on a best college town list makes the list silly.
 
I live 30 minutes from Athens, Georgia, my wife is a UGA grad, and I have spent a lot of time there. Athens is nowhere close to being as nice as State College...even my UGA grad wife agrees.
 
I like Flagstaff a lot, but it's not a college town, it's a town with a college. UNA has a nice campus that is not really walking distance to downtown or the restaurants and bars just below Rt. 66 near downtown. It is adjacent to a major strip mall thoroughfare, like moving University Park to behind Trader Joe's on North Atherton.

Look 3 hrs south to Tempe, and there is a major omission in the college town list. Also with far better city access than Champaign.

Other omissions: Austin, Madison, Chapel Hill, Ann Arbor, the Peoples' Republic of Berkeley. I'm sure we could come up with others ...
 
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Any list with Champaign-Urbana is hogwash. Boring nothing of a town. Rather live in DeKalb. I have never been to Happy Valley but have heard from friend who have and loved it. IMO best in the Midwest is easily Madison, Iowa City and Lawrence, KS. You cant really tell if you are in Iowa or Kansas when you are there. The worse cow towns are easily Ames, Manhattan, KS and Stillwater.
Columbia Mo is pretty decent and the girls in that town will surprise you how much quality is there.
 
Some of yous guys need to work on your reading comprehension. This, from slide 1...

AIER (American Institute for Economic Research) compiled its list using nine economic, demographic, and quality-of-life factors. It defines college towns as having fewer than 250,000 residents.

Aside from the overall ranking, we included cities' individual scores for noteworthy metrics including rent, earnings, and bars and restaurants. We chose the one metric that the city scored the highest in out of the nine.


That just barely eliminates Madison, WI, and with a population approaching 1 million, Austin TX is way out of the running.

The metric moves year-to-year, a good bit in fact. Last year State College was #5, I believe. Here's the 9 measures used:

College Educated
Diversity
City Access
Arts and Entertainment
Bars and Restaurants
Youth Unemployment
Labor-Force Participation
Innovation
Rent

In my lifetime, it's been my good fortune to travel some, and I have seen many beautiful college campuses and towns. Biases and prejudices aside, all are appealing in their own way.
 
Some of yous guys need to work on your reading comprehension. This, from slide 1...

AIER (American Institute for Economic Research) compiled its list using nine economic, demographic, and quality-of-life factors. It defines college towns as having fewer than 250,000 residents.

Aside from the overall ranking, we included cities' individual scores for noteworthy metrics including rent, earnings, and bars and restaurants. We chose the one metric that the city scored the highest in out of the nine.


That just barely eliminates Madison, WI, and with a population approaching 1 million, Austin TX is way out of the running.

The metric moves year-to-year, a good bit in fact. Last year State College was #5, I believe. Here's the 9 measures used:

College Educated
Diversity
City Access
Arts and Entertainment
Bars and Restaurants
Youth Unemployment
Labor-Force Participation
Innovation
Rent

In my lifetime, it's been my good fortune to travel some, and I have seen many beautiful college campuses and towns. Biases and prejudices aside, all are appealing in their own way.
Don't care about their criteria. They can DQ Madison and Austin for population, but that doesn't change the fact that people visiting college towns are not hanging out in East Austin.
 
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I live in Ithaca. It's is an amazing and fun place to live with some sort of festival about 15 times a year and a huge lake. Great, but it's inclusion as a college town has me confused about what the list criteria is.

First, Ithaca is its own town. Cornell has its own college town. It's called Collegetown.

Second, there are no sports bars of significance in Ithaca. Then again, there are no televised Cornell or Ithaca college sports. So.......

If ithaca is on this list, did they not visit Burlington VT? Sheesh. Ithaca x2
For some of the same reasons, Saratoga Springs New York should be on that list, with Skidmore College being the school.
 
Pssshaw - list is wacky IMO. Univ of Ill - sucks. I get Boulder at #1, the rest of the list needs a re-working

We Boulderites thank you. It is a great town. If you haven't been here recently, it is greatly transformed. For the better, or for the worse, TBD?
 
We Boulderites thank you. It is a great town. If you haven't been here recently, it is greatly transformed. For the better, or for the worse, TBD?
Will actually be there sometime mid-August. Daughter #1 lives in Denver, and we're heading to Boulder for a day while we're there. Probably won't see a campus, maybe a brewery ;).
 
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Will actually be there sometime mid-August. Daughter #1 lives in Denver, and we're heading to Boulder for a day while we're there. Probably won't see a campus, maybe a brewery ;).

Play this game.....try to find a coors light on draft. Bar hop till you find it.

Thank me later.
 
Play this game.....try to find a coors light on draft. Bar hop till you find it.

Thank me later.
Ha! Not a "bar-hopping" type, but you knew that already. Closest I come is at Natties with Mr. and Mrs. Hockeygod. Sit in a craft beer joint, and wait for Mr. Hg to recommend a brew (he knows my tastes), maybe 2...but that's only if we've been sitting an hour.
 
Ha! Not a "bar-hopping" type, but you knew that already. Closest I come is at Natties with Mr. and Mrs. Hockeygod. Sit in a craft beer joint, and wait for Mr. Hg to recommend a brew (he knows my tastes), maybe 2...but that's only if we've been sitting an hour.
Nowhere near Colorado but checking in live from Allagash, where they give you a flight for free. Bummer.

EDIT: Plus various samples they walk around.
 
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Will actually be there sometime mid-August. Daughter #1 lives in Denver, and we're heading to Boulder for a day while we're there. Probably won't see a campus, maybe a brewery ;).

A brewery huh? I have 4 within a mile of where I live and I am in North Boulder, Gunbarrel Area. Boulder is one of the most heavily brewed areas in the country.
 
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A brewery huh? I have 4 within a mile of where I live and I am in North Boulder, Gunbarrel Area. Boulder is one of the most heavily brewed areas in the country.
Yawn. There are multiple breweries on the street where Allagash is located, at least 3 or 4 in the first bldg when you turn onto Industrial Way.

PS, this post brought to you by spell check, translated from the original drunken spurred sleech.

PPS, The Boss doesn't know it yet but she's driving to dinner.
 
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Eugene, OR is another really cool college town with lots of fine craft beer choices.

I recall attending a really fun Wine and Microbrew festival in Eugene. Although the flight back home to PA the next day with a hangover was forgettable. :(
 
Yawn. There are multiple breweries on the street where Allagash is located, at least 3 or 4 in the first bldg when you turn onto Industrial Way.

PS, this post brought to you by spell check, translated from the original drunken spurred sleech.

PPS, The Boss doesn't know it yet but she's driving to dinner.

Allagash, Maine? According to Google the town is named after the brewery. Is there more then one?
 
I live in Ithaca. It's is an amazing and fun place to live with some sort of festival about 15 times a year and a huge lake. Great, but it's inclusion as a college town has me confused about what the list criteria is.

First, Ithaca is its own town. Cornell has its own college town. It's called Collegetown.

Second, there are no sports bars of significance in Ithaca. Then again, there are no televised Cornell or Ithaca college sports. So.......

If ithaca is on this list, did they not visit Burlington VT? Sheesh. Ithaca x2

Was just in Burlington earlier this week -- good to be back for a couple of days.

AND, I'll have you know that we stopped off in Stowe for dinner after hiking Mt. Mansfield . . . and I am very pleased to report that they had HEADY TOPPER DOUBLE IPA on the beer list! I can now finally say I've had one.

My wife was very interested to know why I was so excited about it -- "What do you keep smirking about over there?!"
 
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Was just in Burlington earlier this week -- good to be back for a couple of days.

AND, I'll have you know that we stopped off in Stowe for dinner after hiking Mt. Mansfield . . . and I am very pleased to report that they had HEADY TOPPER DOUBLE IPA on the beer list! I can now finally say I've had one.

My wife was very interested to know why I was so excited about it -- "What do you keep smirking about over there?!"
I'd heard a ton of hype about Heady Topper, but always came up empty, even when visiting Vermont. Then a few Christmases ago I was at my aunt's (in NY) and reached into the cooler and was shocked to see on there next to the Corona and Amstel Lights. My cousin who was living in Burlington then had brought at least 20 back. I'm not really an IPA guy but this was a fantastic beer. I subsequently had numerous other Heady Toppers and it was a good Christmas.

7oPxsyx.jpg
 
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