(12-17-2014 11:48 PM)arrows80 Wrote:  

(12-17-2014 06:40 PM)ColinApocalypse Wrote:  Lol what a joke. Mt Pleasant being above any other city. No Athens. Etc etc....

The real joke is anyone saying Kalamakompton is a nice college town.

We have more to do than visit the local money pit (casino)...

(12-17-2014 11:18 AM)Love and Honor Wrote:  ...according to a study by Wallet Hub. Using 23 metrics (such as crime, unemployment, and earning potential for graduates), Oxford finished first in the small city (under 100,000 people) category and in the overall rankings. Of course these rankings mean next to nothing, but the MAC represented fairly well.

1: Oxford
28: Bowling Green
42: Kent
43: Mt. Pleasant
57: Buffalo
59: Kalamazoo
77: Muncie
166: Akron
179: Dekalb
204: Toledo
Not listed: Athens, Ypsilanti

http://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-coll...rica/8974/

Baltimore ranked #192 and Philly#222 certainly would keep my kids away from Johns Hopkins and Penn.

I would say there is a ranking number where if a college falls below it isn't in a college town. Toledo is in a city where it is merely a University between streets that look like normal intersections. What I mean by that is there is no college life outside of the roads that surround it. There are a few dive bars less than a mile away from campus, but the city is so much larger than the University that you could easily never be within 10 minutes of campus and be in the city of Toledo.

It could be worse, and I do think our fan base is growing again... but Toledo isn't a college town and shouldn't be ranked as so. IMO college towns should only be ones where the population of the town/city is dominated by people who indulge in University activities. Miami, OU, Kent, BG, EMU, CMU, and NIU have the college town qualities IMO. I don't know enough about the populations of Kzoo or Akron to know how many people are invested in the schools compared to the overall population there. Buffalo and Toledo shouldn't be on the list at all because the city's are too large for the lack of dominance the school has in the area.

(12-17-2014 04:05 PM)axeme Wrote:  

(12-17-2014 03:34 PM)Y-CityCatFan Wrote:  Congrats to Miami, but a list of great college towns that doesn't mention Athens is seriously flawed. I know I'm a homer, but I think most would agree.

I wouldn't. Great, great campus, but the town is a bit of a dump. Great dive bars, and I spent more than a couple of weekends there (well, my OU friends tell my I did. My memory is a bit hazy on the subject.) I'd rank OU very high for the campus and campus life, but the town? No.

Less of a dump than it used to be but if unemployment, earning potential, etc are criteria I can see it being well down the list.

Athens and Oxford are out of the book "This is what a great little college town should look like."

DeKalb? Ugg. Ugg ugg ugg.

(12-18-2014 03:29 AM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  I would say there is a ranking number where if a college falls below it isn't in a college town. Toledo is in a city where it is merely a University between streets that look like normal intersections. What I mean by that is there is no college life outside of the roads that surround it. There are a few dive bars less than a mile away from campus, but the city is so much larger than the University that you could easily never be within 10 minutes of campus and be in the city of Toledo.

It could be worse, and I do think our fan base is growing again... but Toledo isn't a college town and shouldn't be ranked as so. IMO college towns should only be ones where the population of the town/city is dominated by people who indulge in University activities. Miami, OU, Kent, BG, EMU, CMU, and NIU have the college town qualities IMO. I don't know enough about the populations of Kzoo or Akron to know how many people are invested in the schools compared to the overall population there. Buffalo and Toledo shouldn't be on the list at all because the city's are too large for the lack of dominance the school has in the area.

College students outnumbering local residents isn't necessarily a good thing.

(12-18-2014 03:29 AM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  I would say there is a ranking number where if a college falls below it isn't in a college town. Toledo is in a city where it is merely a University between streets that look like normal intersections. What I mean by that is there is no college life outside of the roads that surround it. There are a few dive bars less than a mile away from campus, but the city is so much larger than the University that you could easily never be within 10 minutes of campus and be in the city of Toledo.

It could be worse, and I do think our fan base is growing again... but Toledo isn't a college town and shouldn't be ranked as so. IMO college towns should only be ones where the population of the town/city is dominated by people who indulge in University activities. Miami, OU, Kent, BG, EMU, CMU, and NIU have the college town qualities IMO. I don't know enough about the populations of Kzoo or Akron to know how many people are invested in the schools compared to the overall population there. Buffalo and Toledo shouldn't be on the list at all because the city's are too large for the lack of dominance the school has in the area.

I was thinking the same thing. To me, a college town is a place where at least 1/4 to 1/2 of all business is related to the local college. It's a place where you can drive through town and figure out where the university is within ten minutes.

I got the impression that the large cities weren't ranked on how good of a 'college town' they were, but rather how good the town is for college students.