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A college town or university town is a community (often a separate town or city, but in some cases a town/city neighborhood or a district) that is dominated by its university population.
- Delft, Netherlands. Also known as the ‘water city’, Delft is one of the oldest cities in the Netherlands that has water canals passing throughout the city.
- Oxford, England. Oxford, also known as the ‘City of dreaming spires’, a term coined by poet Mathew Arnold, has long served as an inspiration to artists, writers, students and dreamers.
- Uppsala, Sweden. Uppsala is accredited as a 15th-century university town as it houses one of the oldest universities in Sweden i.e. Uppsala University.
- Manipal, India. Once a barren hill with trees located at the rocky hinterland of the Malabar coast, the area was developed as a town by the coming up of various university campuses.
- Boulder, CO. Boulder is known as a hip and healthy town with a hippy past and great views of the Flatirons. Boulder is one of the nation's most celebrated towns - in rankings it regularly gets voted the best outdoor town, the brainiest city, one of the top cities for artists, and America's Foodiest Town.
- Ann Arbor, MI. Roughly one out of two Ann Arbor residents are students during the school year, setting the stage for a college town feel. University of Michigan football games are the real center of entertainment in Ann Arbor.
- Madison, WI. From its historic downtown on an isthmus between two lakes, to rolling prairies surrounding the city, Madison is a beautiful and vibrant community built around University of Wisconsin-Madison.
- Ithaca, NY. Ithaca is a naturally beautiful, very walkable town known as the home of Cornell and Ithaca College. Though the winters are brutal, and it's a bit isolated (4 hours from NYC, and an hour away from the nearest big city), these are also facts that foster a unique sense of community.
For the purposes of this article, a college town is a small to medium-sized town or city (I have cities with up to almost a million residents on this list) where one or more colleges are located, and the college student population is high enough to make an impact on the culture as a whole.
- Boston. The capital city of Massachusetts is packed with college students. Greater Boston, which includes cities like neighboring Cambridge, is one of the brainiest metro areas in the country, boasting dozens of higher education institutions, including Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Boston University.
- Lynchburg, Virginia. With six colleges, the largest of which is Lynchburg University, this historic city is set across rolling hills and beloved for its walkability.
- Madison, Wisconsin. Madison offers plentiful outdoor recreation opportunities, including more than 200 miles of biking trails and activities on the city's five lakes.
- Tuscaloosa, Alabama. As the home of the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa is an obvious place to add to this list. The university really is the center of life here, and its sports teams make for excellent game-day outings.
May 12, 2023 · America's best college town is Stanford, Calif., followed by Williamsburg, Va. and Pasadena, Calif. With many college back to campus this fall, they are navigating a second year of pandemic measures. For many, proof of vaccination and a negative COVID test are now as commonplace as shower caddies and mini fridges. [1]
This is a list of college towns, residential areas (towns, districts, etc.) that are socioeconomically dominated by a college or university, sorted by continent. Generally, to be classified as a college town, a town should exhibit one or more of the following:
