Difference between "urban", "suburban", and "rural"

M_s_Mom
Wed, 20 Jun 2012 11:37:29 +0000

There’s also two types of ‘urban.’ There’s the Georgetown/Columbia type of urban where the schools have distinct campuses with all their major buildings built on or around that campus. Then there are truly urban schools like George Washington and NYU that are integrated into the city-scape and are not built around a ‘campus’ concept.

I’d add that there are also different types of ‘rural’ Grinnell is a college town, surrounded by farms, but the campus is in the town. Middlebury is the same. You can walk into town. Then there are rural campuses where you can’t get into town without a car or a bus - they are not walking distance - Colby is an example. How much of a ‘town’ there is when you get there is another question.

I think the ‘take away’ is the urban/suburban/rural are just crude short-hands for what is really a continuum.