Best College Towns You've Visited

Big surprise.
Homer.

 

My favorites:

Troy, Ala. - it's still got a country, out-of-the-way feel to it even though it's less than an hour from Montgomery. There's not too much of a party scene there, and it still has a lot of the small southern town atmosphere that I love.

Nashville - not a "true" college town, but it's cool to drive down Belmont Boulevard from Lipscomb to Belmont (they're only about a mile apart). Plus with Vanderbilt rather close, there's a nice section of the city that you can escape from downtown.

Others I also like: Jacksonville, Ala.; Murfreesboro, Tenn. (my brother used to live there)

And yes, I used to cover a school in a large metropolitan area that played schools in small southern towns.
I grew up in suburban Atlanta, so I have an affinity for small southern towns that still maintain what the South is all about.

And Athens is overrated (but I guess that's because I live in Atlanta).

 

No love for Baton Rouge?

My list:

Baton Rouge
Athens
Oxford
Auburn
Tuscaloosa
Gainesville

 

And Hamilton, N.Y., the home of Colgate University (Hamilton College is in Clinton, N.Y. Figure that one out), and Oswego, N.Y.  Got hammered in Hamilton at the Old Stone Jug and wasted at Broadwell's in Oswego at 16 years of age, drinkin' on a fake ID. And at the Penalty Box in Potsdam ...

Ithaca, but I'm not adding Canton (NY)

 

Nope, not kidding about Columbia, Mo. Loved going to school there. Loved living there after school. Still love going back.

 

I love Baton Rouge, but it doesn't make my list. The bars shut down at 2 a.m., they're overdeveloping the area by campus, a couple of the good bars are gone (The Bayou and The Bengal), the music scene sort of sucks (when I was in school, Public Enemy, No Doubt, Blind Melon, the Breeders, Tori Amos and Dave Matthews all played at the Varsity -- now the club gets lame cover bands), there's really only one non-chain bookstore and non-chain record store (goodbye Paradise Records). I'm not crapping on the town --- it's a beautiful campus with some amazing eye candy, the tailgating scene is wild, Saturday night in Tiger Stadium is awesome and you've got Louie's Cafe and The Chimes -- but it ain't Austin or Boulder or Oxford.

 

I think the campus/tailgate/stadium scene still pushes it over the top.

 

Canadian division: Halifax,

An incredible party town to begin with, it's also the home of Dalhousie and St. Mary's. As a former co-worker - and St. Mary's grad - told me, he went to a party and found a school there.

 

Radford ... where the girls fuck with impugnity and the STDs flow like water in a babbling brook.

 

Two things. One I don't have any kids yet. It was a hypothetical thing. Second, I agree the bars are what makes Tempe great for partying.

And Buck, "The Library" was exactly the place I was thinking about. Good gawd. For those who haven't been there, all the super hot waitresses are dressed in school girl outfits: thigh high skirts, dress shirt tied under their racks and long stockings.

 

someone is on crack (well, i guess because they live in atlanta, that's to be expected)

jesus, atlanta wishes it were 1/2 as good as athens. atlanta is one big fuckin' suburban sprawl

athens, athens is god's perfect creation

i miss every single day i'm away from that place :'(

 

Stillwater, OK (Oklahoma State)
Columbia, MO (Mizzou)
Lawrence, KS (Kansas)
Corvallis, OR (Oregon State)
Warrensburg, MO (Central Missouri State)