I have been there, 20+ years ago for basketball games. Nice arena, not impressed with rest of campus/town.
***College Towns to Visit***
- Thread starter JEFF420
- Start date
Probably more chapstick sales per capita than anywhere else in the US.
Philly is legit a hidden gem. Yes, half the city (which happens to include Temple and LaSalle) is a ghetto that should be avoided. But the rest of the city is AWESOME
The area around Penn gentrified a ton in the past 25 years and is now pretty nice
A common description of Pennsylvania by the people who live there is ‘It’s Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Arkansas in between’
Another common name for the middle of the state is ‘Pennsyltucky’
Lived there in 2006-2007 and haven’t been back since 2008. I’ve heard the downtown area has developed a bit since then but I’m sure it’s still a gritty town. When I lived there we’d usually go to neighboring Chapel Hill or Raleigh for fun.
With that said, Duke Gardens and Durham Bulls games were awesome
The flooding in Iowa City in 2008 showed the challenge of the location. They even had to move the book out of the library....
Penn and Drexel are doing their bes4t to buy everything around their campuses, but West Philly is still a troubled area. I lived in Philly for 6 years and it was great time, but the city has/is lagging behind other areas on the east coast.
I go to Fargo a couple times a year for work and always am impressed. They have a ton of unique non-chain restaurants and bars that are a good time. Also have blackjack in some bars depending on the night which is pretty sick
We have gone to a lot of campuses over the years.
USC - in a terrible area
UCLA - not very college feeling. Felt kinda commuter-ish. I felt poor there
Vanderbilt - fun area in Nashville, but not the campus feel that I would enjoy
Florida - really impressed. Contained campus with a lot to offer. Great layout, IMO.
Georgia - sorta felt cramped, but neat area. Avoid the eastern side of town.
Clemson - loved it. If they had a law school, my daughter would have gone here. It had very similar vibes to ISU.
Yale, Harvard, MIT - cool for the prestige sake. I like Boston and CT, though.
Notre Dame - great campus in a dump city
USC - in a terrible area
UCLA - not very college feeling. Felt kinda commuter-ish. I felt poor there
Vanderbilt - fun area in Nashville, but not the campus feel that I would enjoy
Florida - really impressed. Contained campus with a lot to offer. Great layout, IMO.
Georgia - sorta felt cramped, but neat area. Avoid the eastern side of town.
Clemson - loved it. If they had a law school, my daughter would have gone here. It had very similar vibes to ISU.
Yale, Harvard, MIT - cool for the prestige sake. I like Boston and CT, though.
Notre Dame - great campus in a dump city
Reminds me, we stopped in Waco once on a non-game-day visit. Maybe during a football game it would be different, but I found no redeeming quality to Waco.
Northfield MN is a nice older, river town that has a nice downtown. Colleges are St Olaf and Carleton.
Eh, the western boundary of the good vs bad neighborhood cutoff has consistently been moving west from Penn for 25 years. Last time I visited it was pretty gentrified out to 48th street and lots of houses were being sold to potential gentrifiers and even further west. For Drexel I agree, it gets bad quick very close to campus.
Comparing to other east coast cities, yes DC NYC and Boston are the Crown Jewels, but they are terribly expensive (especially for poor college or grad students). Philly walks a nice line between those cities and, on the other end, Baltimore or smaller bad cities like Newark, New Haven, Bridgeport etc. There are large swaths of Philly that feel just like a nice section of DC/Brooklyn/Boston, but much cheaper to live and many more businesses that cater to the non-wealthy
I got out to Beer and Fish and Blackbird Wood Fire pizza last time. Planning to explore more when I'm back there in July
