Bookstores as a measure of a school...

College Search & Lists
1

<p>Anyone else feel a LAC’s bookstore is a good reflection of a school’s character?
Recently checked out a small LAC in Pennsylvania, and was favorably impressed until I saw the campus bookstore: few books, lots of cheesy athletic wear, bland and generic. Ugh.</p>

2

<p>The “official campus bookstore” anywhere is going to be kind of bleh. However, what I think you really need to look for is the REAL bookstore.</p>

<p>UChicago, for example, has the requisite Barnes and Noble that’s big on sweatshirts and small on anything academic (though it’s where a lot of the grad students pick up their textbooks). The Seminary Co-Op, though, is one of the best academic bookstores in the nation, and is an underground wonderland.</p>

<p><a href=“http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0112/campus-news/images/0112_journal-cella.jpg&imgrefurl=http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0112/campus-news/journal-coop.html&h=350&w=289&sz=33&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=8utOSi5CUOvBCM:&tbnh=120&tbnw=99&prev=/images%3Fq%3DSeminary%2BCo-Op%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG[/url]”>http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0112/campus-news/images/0112_journal-cella.jpg&imgrefurl=http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0112/campus-news/journal-coop.html&h=350&w=289&sz=33&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=8utOSi5CUOvBCM:&tbnh=120&tbnw=99&prev=/images%3Fq%3DSeminary%2BCo-Op%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>UChicago has a lot of great little bookstores in the neighborhood too… four blocks of 57th street are home to three different bookstores, all with their own flair.</p>

<p>Other great college towns with cool bookstores include Amherst, MA (I seem to remember a few great bookstores in town) and Iowa City, Iowa, where the Prairie Lights bookstore and UIowa are. I’m sure there are others-- Harvard’s Coop, for example-- that escape my mind.</p>

3

<p>I think most college have decent bookstores. However, the schools with a big reputation in sports have the really big bookstores. The Notre Dame bookstore is huge. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.</p>

4

<p>There are a lot of independent bookstores in the town of Amherst, and the neighboring town of Northampton. It’s fantastic.</p>

5

<p>I went to that bookstore when I visited UChicago and it is indeed amazing. There’s barely enough room to walk around because every available inch is stuffed with books.</p>

6

<p>I do not think the bookstore is a good measure of a school. Larger schools will have larger bookstores. So long as I have access to a computer, I can tap into the largest bookstore, Amazon. They have a more comprehensive inventory along with reader reviews. I won’t be choosing colleges based on the bookstore.</p>

<p>Anyways, I generally think that most college apparel is cheezy.</p>

7

<p><a href=“http://architecture.mit.edu/class/city/projects03/kenmore_square/peerless4.jpg[/url]”>http://architecture.mit.edu/class/city/projects03/kenmore_square/peerless4.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>\m/ 0(O_O)0 \m/</p>

8

<p>Duke, Notre Dame, UNC have very good bookstores reflecting both athletic and alumni pride. Among LAC’s Holy Cross has a good store, Dartmouth has several private stores in Hanover as does Williams in Williamstown.</p>

9

<p>Austin has the nation’s largest independent bookstore, BookPeople, as well as a large concentration of independent bookstores in general. In terms of campus bookstores, UT’s Co-op pretty much dominates the scene.</p>

10

<p>Personally, I use library holdings as a measure. And not just the # volumes, but the variety and # libraries and such.</p>