***College Towns to Visit***

[JEFF420]

yo dudes,

With my job I am in many middle and small cities with colleges and universities..

I would like to start keeping a list and invite anyone else to add their experiences...


Tonight I will be staying in Bloomington, IN for the first time.





Cool towns:
NIU (Dekalb, IL) - Has a HyVee felt like central iowa
University of Kentucky (Lexington, KY) - awesome city (had shots with little horse riding guys)
University of Nebraska (Lincoln, NE) - Runza
University of Wisconsin (Madison, WI) - THE OLD FASHIONED!!!

Meh towns:
Illinois State (Normal, IL)
Vincennes University (Vincennes, IN)
University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana, IL)
Notre Dame (South Bend, IN)


I'm sure i will remember more


please feel free to add any you've visited!!!!!!!!

 

[4cy16]

yo dudes,

With my job I am in many middle and small cities with colleges and universities..

I would like to start keeping a list and invite anyone else to add their experiences...


Tonight I will be staying in Bloomington, IN for the first time.





Cool towns:
NIU (Dekalb, IL) - Has a HyVee felt like central iowa
University of Kentucky (Lexington, KY) - awesome city (had shots with little horse riding guys)
University of Nebraska (Lincoln, NE) - Runza
University of Wisconsin (Madison, WI) - THE OLD FASHIONED!!!

Meh towns:
Illinois State (Bloomington, IL)
Vincennes University (Vincennes, IN)
University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana, IL)
Notre Dame (South Bend, IN)


I'm sure i will remember more


please feel free to add any you've visited!!!!!!!!

Illinois State University is actually in Normal and not Bloomington. They are a twin city like Waterloo/Cedar Falls.
DeKalb, Illinois does not have a Hy-Vee but Sycamore, Illinois about 7 miles away does.

 

[WISCY1895]

West Lafayette reminds me of Ames quite a bit. Difference is when you add Lafayette into it as well the two make up a small city. Like 120,000 ish people.

I live in the Madison suburbs. So have plenty of experience of both the good and bad that Madison has to offer.

Agree to Illinois State is a very meh town. I actually liked Champaign quite a bit.

Been to Stillwater a ton of times. I have a fantastic time there. Great live music and the campus is really nice

 

[SolterraCyclone]

Not sure if they’re really “college towns”, since they’re pretty large cities at this point, but Austin and Boulder are great visits. Fort Collins is a good spot too.

Palo Alto is beautiful and seconded on Lexington.

Terre Haute, IN was probably the most boring college town I’ve seen, followed closely by Bloomington, IN.

 

[qwerty]

Lewisburg, PA: home of the Bucknell Bison. Used to drive through and stop and get a bite to eat. So, don't really know much except what's on the highway, but it looked really nice.

I used to go to Winston-Salem also. Once, in the middle of summer, I stopped at Wake Forest U football stadium. Gates were wide open, no one around, so co-workers and I walked onto middle of field, looked around, took photos and left.

 

[clonechemist]

Chapel Hill (UNC) is really nice.

Both Penn State main campus and Ithaca, NY (Cornell University and Ithaca College) are a no for me, dawg. Both suuuuuuuuuper isolated in the middle of nowhere, giving them a creepy vibe, and I say that as a native Iowan.

 

[JP4CY]

I have been to A LOT of college towns via work or away games. I go to quite a few bball and football away games.

Athens Ohio would be a fun town to go to college in if you like Ames.

 

[wxman1]

Illinois State University is actually in Normal and not Bloomington. They are a twin city like Waterloo/Cedar Falls.
DeKalb, Illinois does not have a Hy-Vee but Sycamore, Illinois about 7 miles away does.

DeKalp doees have an Oasis though!

 

[bozclone]

West Lafayette reminds me of Ames quite a bit. Difference is when you add Lafayette into it as well the two make up a small city. Like 120,000 ish people.

I live in the Madison suburbs. So have plenty of experience of both the good and bad that Madison has to offer.

Agree to Illinois State is a very meh town. I actually liked Champaign quite a bit.

Been to Stillwater a ton of times. I have a fantastic time there. Great live music and the campus is really nice

We drive through Champaign a lot on our way back to Iowa. For several years my wife and I refused to stop there due to bad experiences, but recently we found it to be good. The campus town area has a lot of neat restaurants and such.

 

[Cycsk]

Granted you have to fight through Chicago suburbs to get there, but I really like Evanston, IL where Northwestern is. Great restaurants. Easy to walk around. Beautiful views from the Lake Michigan shore. Very different feel than Chicago.

 

[norsemen]

Champaign has its good and bad spots. Campustown and the Main Street area are good. I’ve always liked Urbana (connected city to east) - wooded, old nice homes, brick streets) better than Champaign.

 

[bozclone]

These are a few that I have liked:

Athens OH
Ann Abor MI
Oxford OH
Columbia MO
Evanston IL

 

[qwerty]

Chapel Hill (UNC) is really nice.

Both Penn State main campus and Ithaca, NY (Cornell University and Ithaca College) are a no for me, dawg. Both suuuuuuuuuper isolated in the middle of nowhere, giving them a creepy vibe, and I say that as a native Iowan.

State College, PA. My flight was rerouted there late one night because Williamsport, PA was fogged in. Landed and bused entire flight over to WIlliamsport. That was fun.

 

[Al_4_State]

Manhattan, Lawrence, Stillwater, and Morgantown all have their own charms.

I've been to very few true college towns I didn't enjoy.

 

[KidSilverhair]

Granted you have to fight through Chicago suburbs to get there, but I really like Evanston, IL where Northwestern is. Great restaurants. Easy to walk around. Beautiful views from the Lake Michigan shore. Very different feel than Chicago.

I visited Northwestern twice on college visits, with both of my kids.

I wanted to enroll there, it was so nice.

 

[matclone]

yo dudes,

With my job I am in many middle and small cities with colleges and universities..

I would like to start keeping a list and invite anyone else to add their experiences...


Tonight I will be staying in Bloomington, IN for the first time.





Cool towns:
NIU (Dekalb, IL) - Has a HyVee felt like central iowa
University of Kentucky (Lexington, KY) - awesome city (had shots with little horse riding guys)
University of Nebraska (Lincoln, NE) - Runza
University of Wisconsin (Madison, WI) - THE OLD FASHIONED!!!

Meh towns:
Illinois State (Normal, IL)
Vincennes University (Vincennes, IN)
University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana, IL)
Notre Dame (South Bend, IN)


I'm sure i will remember more


please feel free to add any you've visited!!!!!!!!

A town is cool because it has a Hy-Vee? I think there's some room for growth here.

I always look for the record shops in college towns. Bookstores are a bonus. And,of course, independent (not chain) restaurants.

 

[Havs]

I love Corvallis, Oregon.

 

[matclone]

West Lafayette reminds me of Ames quite a bit. Difference is when you add Lafayette into it as well the two make up a small city. Like 120,000 ish people.

I live in the Madison suburbs. So have plenty of experience of both the good and bad that Madison has to offer.

Agree to Illinois State is a very meh town. I actually liked Champaign quite a bit.

Been to Stillwater a ton of times. I have a fantastic time there. Great live music and the campus is really nice

National Wrestling Hall of Fame is a treat for anyone with an interest in the sport. I met Danny Hodge and Wayne Wells there one time. They just walked in. No scheduled event.

 

[RagingCloner]

Can we do a category for the absolutely hot garbage college towns, or would Iowa City be the only one on that list?

 

[I-stateTheTruth]

Dekalb is pretty MEH for me and I really like Ithaca, NY. Did some hiking in the gorges there and found some cool restaurants. Syracuse is more city now and is kind of rough even though the campus is nice.

Laramie, WY - I really like the campus and the immediate area. Pocatello (Idaho State) is pretty boring even though the campus has its charms.

Amherst, MA (U Mass and Amherst College) is an elite-feeling, charming New England town. The college is gorgeous in a swanky downtown; UMass itself is really ugly. The town feels a lot like Princeton which is gorgeou$.

Ruston, LA (Louisiana Tech) is as boring as can be (something like 50 churches and 3 bars). I do like Tech's campus though.

Downtown Grand Forks (UND) is kind of cool. I liked it. Seems to flood a lot.