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The Ultimate Southern College Town


krazeeboi

Which of these cities qualify as the quintessential college town?  

203 members have voted

  1. 1. Which of these cities qualify as the quintessential college town?

    • Athens
      39
    • Chapel Hill
      42
    • Charlottesville (VA)
      9
    • Clemson
      21
    • Columbia
      20
    • Huntsville
      0
    • Oxford (MS)
      10
    • Knoxville
      15
    • Tallahassee
      10
    • Other
      37


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Well, as a non-Floridian, I know Tallahassee has FSU as well as FAMU. I'm not sure what Gainesville has.

Geesh, I said from the outset that I tried to get the more popular ones. You hear more about Tallahassee than Gainesville.

THIS IS WHY THERE IS AN "OTHER" OPTION, PEOPLE!

If you don't like the poll, then don't vote.

Well, if you're looking for the more popular ones, you left out some...such as Blacksburg, VA.

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As a graduate of Duke Law and Business, I spent a lot of time in Chapel Hill. It's a great college town, but it's not better than Athens and Charlottesville. Lest I'm considered anti-UNC b/c of where I went to school, I think Chapel Hill is the best locale in the triangle area. Plus, it's where I met my lovely wife. She graduated from UNC.

My rank:

Athens

Charlottesville

Chapel Hill

Gainesville

Oxford

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Well, if you're looking for the more popular ones, you left out some...such as Blacksburg, VA.

Well I did manage to give VA some representation by including Charlottesville, which home to the state's flagship university. I usually don't include Virginia cities in the polls I create, namely because Virginia isn't part of the Southern USA forum and a place that has no representation here gets little votes.

By the way, what's in Blacksburg?

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Well I did manage to give VA some representation by including Charlottesville, which home to the state's flagship university. I usually don't include Virginia cities in the polls I create, namely because Virginia isn't part of the Southern USA forum and a place that has no representation here gets little votes.

By the way, what's in Blacksburg?

Umm...Virginia Tech...the 6th ranked football team in the nation :wacko: As well as being one of the dominant engineering schools in the nation.

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Why is T-Town not listed???

Because the pollster is from SC and not as familiar with the schools in AL? I'm just guessing since both of the two largest (and ranked) AL school cities (Tuscaloosa and Auburn) were omitted while Huntsville (one would be hard pressed to ever consider this a college town) was listed.

Were I doing the poll, I might have had an equally difficult time picking the top college towns in all Southern states had I not done some research prior.

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Umm...Virginia Tech...the 6th ranked football team in the nation :wacko: As well as being one of the dominant engineering schools in the nation.

I've heard of Virginia Tech, just didn't know where it was located.

And as I said prior, I would've listed Auburn before Huntsville if I could redo the poll. I knew there was a town in Alabama which shared its name with the university, but it wasn't coming to me.

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T-town BABY !!!

R-O-L-L-L-L Tide R-O-L-L !!!

One thing I have NEVER understood is why the Crimson Tide's mascot is an elephant. Anyone care to explain that?

One thing you could consider is to limit the discussion within the bounds of the poll options. I don't think the poller is saying that these are the best. Which out of the options available is the best?

The question I have is what specifcally make a college town (any of them) great?

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To go along with my bashing, Knoxville is not a college town... it is a city. The economy of Knoxville does NOT revolve around the campus, and you can easily be in and around Knoxville and not encounter students. Knoxville doesn't have to have the "over the railroad tracks area," because it is a large enough city that it has projects and all the other low income areas of a large city.

A stadium that draws 108,000 fans to a school that boasts only 19,000 undergrad students...yeah...not a college town. You might have a point about the size of the city, but the economy thing? No. You should see how businesses struggle in the UT area during the summer because most people that live in the area are home for break. The area around UT is DEAD during the summer time. DEAD.

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I have been to many/most of the major college towns in the South with major exceptions being the Texas schools, Baton Rouge, and Blacksburg fwiw. In my mind the best college towns have charm and/or are cool/edgy. As examples, Princeton NJ is a quaint college town that is very charming. Berkeley CA is an example of edgy. Perhaps the ultimate college town should have some elements of both.

My favorites in the South:

Charlottesville- I love the setting in the foothills of Shenandoah Mtns. Thomas Jefferson gives it great history and architecture. In terms of interest, the campus kind of overshadows the town in my opinion.

Chapel Hill- Franklin Street forms a great interface between town and campus (along with Nassau in Princeton and Broad in Athens, few other college towns have such a nice meeting of campus and town). Great campus. Population of town is kind of homogenous. Perhaps because of the sprawling nature of the Triangle (?), the character of CH doesn't extend far beyond the campus as much as I would like.

Athens- Athens has some charming older intown neighborhoods such as Five Points, Cobbham, and Boulevard but, for better or worse, also has more grit than Charlottesville or CH. Few college towns have as beautiful or large a downtown as does Athens. In a sleepy-Southern-Bohemian kind of way, I think of Athens as being more edgy/cool. Rolling Stone named Athens as the No. 1 college music scene in the US not too long ago. South campus has too much 1950-1980's architecture. ATL's sprawl is getting ever closer.

Honorable mention:

Oxford- Charming Southern town. Great literary connections. Maybe a little too much of the Old South.

Clemson- Nice setting in the foothills on the lake. Town is small.

Vanderbilt area- No, Nashville isn't a college town, but Vanderbilt nicely defines a sizeable, cool part of town.

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  • 3 weeks later...

A stadium that draws 108,000 fans to a school that boasts only 19,000 undergrad students...yeah...not a college town. You might have a point about the size of the city, but the economy thing? No. You should see how businesses struggle in the UT area during the summer because most people that live in the area are home for break. The area around UT is DEAD during the summer time. DEAD.

Clemson University's enrollment is 17,000, yet draws 82,000 people for football games. That is pretty impressive, especially since it isn't located in a city the size of Knoxville (Clemson's non-university population is ~12,000 I believe). It is, however, just inside the Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson metro area that was around 1 million in the 2000 Census.

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Clemson University's enrollment is 17,000, yet draws 82,000 people for football games. That is pretty impressive, especially since it isn't located in a city the size of Knoxville (Clemson's non-university population is ~12,000 I believe). It is, however, just inside the Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson metro area that was around 1 million in the 2000 Census.

Its true that the town of Clemson only has around 11,000 - 12,000 residents. But you also have ton take into account the people who live in Central, (which adds another 4,000 to the mix) who rely on Clemson for most things. This is partially true but arguably less so for Pendleton. I'd say the average population during the school year that relies on Clemson for its daily activities is a solid 20 - 25,000 including on campus residents. The congestion in this town is suprising given its size.

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According to this webpage, here are the top southern college towns, based on percentage of college students:

12. Boone, North Carolina

16. Blackburg, Virginia

28. College Station, Texas

41. Statesboro, Georgia

42. Auburn, Alabama

47. Williamsburg, Virginia

49. Radford, Virginia

60. Lexington, Virginia

63. Elon College, North Carolina

72. Chapel Hill, North Carolina

74. Clemson, South Carolina

84. San Marcos, Texas

86. Ettrick, Virginia

91. Farmsville, Virginia

95. Harrisonburg, Virginia

100. Murray, Kentucky

Virginia is well represented on this list, but keep in mind that this list includes any city with at least a population of 5,000. Of course, this is no indicator of the atmosphere of the town...I'd guess you'd need a list of universities with the most following, or the universities with the most alumni.

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True College Towns:

Statesboro, GA (Georgia Southern University)

Athens, GA (University of Georgia)

Boone, NC (Appalachian State University)

Charlotteville, VA (University of Virginia)

Starkville, MS (Mississippi State University)

Clemson, SC (Clemson, SC)

Gainesville, FL (University of Florida)

Tuscaloosa, AL (University of Alabama)

Oxford, MS (University of Mississippi)

The above cities and towns are the true college towns of the south, in my opinion. Large cities, such as Atlanta or Miami can't be included, as they are too large, and their employment centers are too diverse to rely upon universities as the lifeblood of the community. Cities within metropolitan areas over 500,000 qualify like Atlanta and Miami, so that would weed out Knoxville, TN (UT), Chapel Hill, Durham, Raleigh, NC (UNC, Duke, NC State), Columbia (USC), etc. A true college town is one that has a large university, yet relies upon that university for the city/community's survival. The above towns meet that criteria.

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  • 5 weeks later...

I think I am going to Georgia Tech this fall for an engineering and business combined master's degree. So hopefully Atlanta will be an alright college city!

As a current Tech student, I can tell you that Atlanta has plenty of college bars to offer, plus anything else under the sun you could imagine. You'll enjoy it, although you'll be in the big city, Tech has it's own campus and its on feel thats way different than the rest of thge city.

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