Its interesting, many of the “best” college threads here at some point turn to discussions of California colleges. This thread has now turned to a discussion of California cities.
You won’t find a “People’s Park and homelessness” on the scale of Berkeley “everywhere in sunny CA.”
“Soho Cambridgey”? Berkeley? That’s just a wee bit of hyperbole.
As for access to water, Palo Alto is bounded by the Bay as well. I run the Palo Alto’s 10K Moonlight Run every October along the Bay. It’s actually quite beautiful. Maybe not the shoreline of Berkeley, with views of the City, but just a clarification.
I’m still not buying Berkeley and not Palo Alto in the Top 50.
I work in Cambridge and taught at Harvard. There are lots of similarities between Harvard Square and Berkeley. no hyperbole here.
OK, I can agree with that if we’re talking about Harvard Square. A couple years we stopped and had a frozen yogurt or something at Harvard Square and while sitting, a homeless person puked just a few feet from us. That’s Berkeley-like for sure. 
Berkeley seems too large for a true college town. For California, I think Davis and the town with Cal Poly, San Luis something, are best two college towns.
I agree with you about Savannah.
We’re from Virginia. My BFF got a full ride to ASU law school and lives in Tempe to this day.
Yes, Charlottesville and Williamsburg are beautiful, and the populations and infrastructure would sustain just about career.
I disagree, however, with Morgantown.
@preppedparent SLO is on the CA coast between L.A. and S.F. Beautiful town.
@whenhen @MaineLonghorn Maybe a Longhorn was on the committee and wants to keep it weird \m/
This list/ranking is pointless. It’s a methodology free summary of college towns with known attributes. Retirement requirements include healthcare, tax costs, and other important issues not addressed.
I have been to 31 of the 50 towns listed, and I wouldn’t even want to visit most of them again.
Austin outgrew the college town limit. Visiting different than living. I like visiting NY and Boston but no way I’d live there. Same for many larger cities–esp for retirement. Speaking as a recent retiree.
I’ve heard great things about Corvallis and Eugene.
I could see why. If you grew up in a small town and/or just prefer small town life, a college town is pretty perfect. It’s still small and close-knit, with most major events centering around something at the college itself. But the presence of the college often means lots of cultural activities that don’t happen in small towns without colleges, and if the college/university is big enough it can attract some awesome stuff.
I lived in State College, PA for a year and while personally I couldn’t imagine settling down there long-term (I’m a city person), I could see the appeal. While I was there Laverne Cox came to give a talk; Kevin Hart stopped there on his comedy tour; the Broadway cast of Mamma Mia! did a run in the theater downtown; there was a Garth Brooks/Trisha Yearwood concert at the stadium; the year before, apparently Yo-Yo Ma had performed there. There’s also football, homecoming, THON, the creamery, cheap pools, good schools with highly educated parents. It boosts the local economy, since it’s something that’s unlikely to close especially if it’s public, and sometimes the graduates or professors stay nearby and start businesses (like AccuWeather, Minitab). I get it.
And over time, you do form a connection with the college. In State College people would come from neighboring towns to watch and participate in Penn State events, even if they didn’t go to PSU or have any real affiliation with the college.
51 is it, exactly.
South Bend? You’ve got to be kidding me!
A serious analysis of “Best College Towns to live in forever” would have to:
- include only “college towns”; not full-fledged cities that incidentally happen to have a college in them, someplace; (as mentioned previously)
- evaluate factors important to “forever”. Including retirement costs, health care( as mentioned previously).
But also health and breadth of the local job market, ability to work there after graduation. If more people could actually sustain their careers there, more of them wouldn’t leave. Given the advantages in #51.
But since is just click bait (as mentioned elsewhere) it hardly matters.