Colleges in Cute Walkable College Towns

[momsearcheng]

Lafayette in Easton, PA
Surprisingly now GaTech in midtown Atlanta is quite walkable.
Lehigh University?

[gotham_mom]

Williamstown, the small town with big city prices

[LionsTigersAndBears]

These don’t completely overlap with the topic at hand, but for anyone looking for more ideas, here are two past threads that cover some similar ground:

Up and coming small cities/large towns

My daughter just came back from visiting a friend in Missoula, Montana. She loved the mix of hipsters/cowboys/outdoorsy types. There were plenty of restaurants and bars. Lots of independent shops, not many empty store fronts. There was a craft brewery beer festival the weekend she was there, which was packed despite the cold and being outdoors. D said there were help wanted signs all over. She and her friend went to a U Montana v. Montana State basketball game, which was packed and lively. D’s friend moved to Montana after doing most of a year there with Americorp during the pandemic. It was easy for her to find full time work, and her rent and groceries are reasonable. The people she knows seem to mainly be from out of state, both east and west of Montana: Washington, California, Illinois, NY. Is it just because the university is there? Or is it a combination of affordability combined with excellent outdoor activities and increasing numbers of younger adults moving to the area? Wha…

College town rankings, from an urbanist's perspective

CityNerd is a YouTube channel talking about new urbanism — how architecture, public policy, transportation, infrastructure, and culture combine to create enjoyable, livable cities. In a recent video, he goes over his top ten college towns, including a few that come up on CC pretty regularly. We all have our heuristics for evaluating college towns; I thought it was neat to see a list that doesn’t actually have anything to do with the universities themselves, moreso the context the universities are in. [College Towns Are Awesome, and These Are the 10 Best]

Two California towns (cities, I guess) mentioned in those threads that I haven’t seen here yet: Davis (UC Davis) and San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly SLO), both of which are cute and walkable, and have a bit more going on than some of the smaller towns often cited in threads like this.

[Calliemomofgirls]

I did a quick browse hoping not to duplicate. I’ll add UVM (University of Vermont). It’s maybe my favorite college town I’ve ever walked around. I love Church street and the whole downtown area. it’s the right mix of “college town” but also a full community outside of the students. A true small city, which I love. Plus I love water so it being on the Lake, with views from everywhere on campus, on the hill above the lake – I just love it. I’m from California so I also really love the New England charm and vibe. Plus, I love that there is the historic Flynn theater downtown which gets great theatre tours and musical artists/concerts. Truly an amazing place to spend four years.
I went to UVM for undergrad, and TBH I had no idea how special it was to have all that right there. Also, I will say that I was really not the right fit for UVM socially – I was kind of always a fish out of water. But even so, I had a really wonderful experience and am proof that you don’t have to find your perfect fit to have a worthwhile college experience. My daughter and I visited UVM a few months ago, and I’ve been back for some reunions over the years – but WOW – I saw Burlington through my daughter’s eyes on our recent visit, and we both fell in love with it. Yes, it is an actual city with urban issues, but we both just loved Burlington and UVM. Burlington and its walkability and robust city offerings on a lake make UVM very high on my daughter’s list!

[cam2932]

For me, Chapel Hill is the quintessential college town and always the one I compare other places to. The closest feel I have found to it so far would be Smith in Northampton and Agnes Scott in Decatur.

[DadTwoGirls]

You are likely to get a very large number of responses.

I agree that the area around Harvard is quite attractive and walkable. We had dinner recently near there with a daughter and after dinner I asked: “Is every restaurant around here really good, or do you just pick the good ones?”. There is a lot to do in the area. Parking the car? Not as easy (but usually possible if you can figure out how to program the parking meters – a degree in software engineering from Harvard should be sufficient for this purpose).

The area around Bowdoin is somewhat different, but still attractive and walkable. If you visit Bowdoin, personally I would recommend a walk down Maine Street, and a stop to get gelato (it should be obvious where). My wife would prefer the shops.

Three small universities in Canada that most would not think of: Acadia University (Nova Scotia), Bishop’s University (Quebec), and Mount Allison University (New Brunswick). All are in small walkable towns, although Bishop’s is in a small town right next to a medium size (and largely French speaking) city.

Anything in Amherst, Massachusetts would also count. Amherst College comes to mind.

[ljs1]

Southwestern University in Georgetown Texas. The town square is a few minutes walk from campus with boutique shops, restaurants, theatre etc, plus the added bonus of Austin being a short drive away.

[momsearcheng]

Georgetown University in Washington DC is walkable.

[surfcity]

Franklin and Marshall

West Chester University

Bucknell University - the town of Lewisburg is great, lots of stores and restaurants

[KatMT]

James Madison (JMU) – I think the downtown in Harrisonburg is cute and is walkable from campus.

Shenandoah – Winchester has a cute walkable downtown.

Plymouth State University – The campus is integratedinto the town and Plymouth has a super cute main street with shops and restaurants.

[adogwillbesad]

Bucknell in Lewisburg, PA has a cute little historic commercial area, within walking distance to campus. It looks like it fell out of a Hallmark movie. There’s also the Scratching Post cat cafe there, which might be my favorite spot from our college tours.

The Claremont Colleges are located very close to a cute little town as well, with the added bonus of being a 1 hour train ride away to Los Angeles.

[blueberriesforsal]

Great suggestions, I’d also add:

Reed College—it’s in the middle of a lovely residential neighborhood and it’s also sandwiched between two nice shopping and strolling neighborhoods (Woodstock and Sellwood). Plus you can bus/light rail anywhere in Portland, Oregon easily from there.

Whitman College—Walla Walla is terrific small town; it’s in the middle of wine country so it gets a lot of visitors and consequently there is a surprising amount of fantastic cafés, coffee, restaurants, etc. It’s pretty picturesque and a great place to visit (my S23 is a student there).

[MaineLonghorn]

Susquehanna, not too far from Bucknell, also has a cute main street. The Susquehanna River is very close, too. I LOVE that river. There’s one stretch that I would run along every time I visited my daughter at school.

[L_NewEngland]

In addition to UVM, Champlain is also walking distance to Burlington…

[DadOfJerseyGirl]

@momsearcheng

Surprisingly now GaTech in midtown Atlanta is quite walkable.

Walkable, but I wouldn’t call Atlanta a “cute college town”.

[circuitrider]

Agree. Mainly because how then would we describe Tulane and surrounding area? Maybe, just stipulate that NYC, San Francisco, downtown LA, Austin, Houston, Nashville, are all great destinations but not necessarily college towns.

[Blers]

Ole Miss - The square in Oxford is very cute, very walkable with lots of unique shops, award winning restaurants, a super famous independent bookstore and all is less than 1 mile from the beginning of campus. Very nice walk through a pleasant residential area connects the two. In our many college visits over the years we have not found a better combination.

[Illinoisparent12]

I thought of another one that I don’t think is mentioned yet: Lexington, VA. Washington & Lee and the Virginia Military Institute are both located there. Lexington is an awesome college town, with good restaurants, wide array of nice hotels, and cute shops. It’s right in the midst of the natural beauty of the Shenandoah Valley with access to nature trails and the gorgeous views from the Blue Ridge Parkway right there.

[NemesisLead]

Princeton, Brown, Harvard, Dartmouth, Wellesley, Michigan, and Middlebury.

[sevmom]

cinnamon1212 mentioned Lexington quite a few posts ago. It’s a really nice town. Also in Virginia(and already mentioned )- Charlottesville, Blacksburg, Harrisonburg(JMU) , Williamsburg.