Flagship state university towns

[edale]

I enjoyed a visit to Charlottesville a few years ago. I found the pedestrian mall to be really charming and vibrant, and the whole town, campus, and surrounding landscape was very pretty.

I also think Ann Arbor is a great college town. It has multiple pockets of activity, and felt like a small city to me, rather than a real college town. But clearly everything there revolves around U of M. Like many college towns, I found AA offered food and cultural offerings beyond what you'd expect from another similarly sized town. Lots of Asian restaurants and boba places, bagel shops, etc. You can tell Michigan draws lots of international students and kids from NYC.

Oxford, Ohio, where Miami University is located, is small, but a great little town. Campus itself is gorgeous, and High Street gives the classic college town vibe. Athens (Ohio U.) is also very pretty, though also a bit run down and shabby looking. Definitely feels Appalachian in Athens-- pretty dramatic topography around there.

[SunDevil]

Originally Posted by Docere

Flagship universities in the United States (Wikipedia):

University of Arizona (Tempe)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catego..._United_States

Ummm..... are they trying to say Arizona State University (Tempe) or University of Arizona (Tucson) or maybe University of Arizona State (Tumpe)

Anyway, the only "University Town" in AZ is Norther Arizona University is Flagstaff but it isn't a "flagship". Very cool town though, It's up high in the pines and stays much cooler than most of the rest of the state.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

Three of the best SUNY schools are Buffalo, Albany, and Stony Brook. Buffalo and Albany aren't college towns and Stony Brook is entirely suburban. I don't think Binghamton is really considered a college town, either. Maybe New Paltz is the closest thing to a college town in the SUNY system.

SUNY has a LOT of smaller colleges; Geneseo, Potsdam, Morrisville, Oswego, etc while the large research universities tend to be in or near bigger areas. Though SUNY Plattsburgh (where my mom went) is in a small town way up north. Albany does have a college town feel though as there a few other colleges and universities there besides SUNY Albany and it's small enough to retain the college town feel. Unlike Austin which grew out of it and feels more like a high tech major city with a university.

Originally Posted by iheartthed

University of Houston also isn't a flagship state university.

It recently it achieved 'Tier One' status, so yes, they are now. Go Cougs.

[Docere]

Originally Posted by SunDevil

Ummm..... are they trying to say Arizona State University (Tempe) or University of Arizona (Tucson) or maybe University of Arizona State (Tumpe)

My mistake, I wrote Tempe instead of Tucson.

[SunDevil]

Originally Posted by Docere

My mistake, I wrote Tempe instead of Tucson.

I was just having some fun with it.

[Atlas]

Originally Posted by IWant2BeInSTL

I lived in Boulder for 2 years. The foothills and proximity to the mountains are nice but otherwise it was was pretty meh. Very West coast pretentious. The area around Pearl street is urbanish with some decent architecture but outside of that it feels like a suburb.

Not sure I agree with this assessment, other than the fact that outside of the college students it's filled with wealthy, pretentious former hippies.

The downtown is great and the neighborhoods around it are lovely. Just don't expect to be able to afford to buy a house there. There's another nice urban node at The Hill and there's a pretty good bus transit system. There are some suburban areas, especially in south Boulder, but nothing like the subdivisions in nearby Superior and Broomfield (which are more affordable).

[harryc]

MadTown - during the height of the pandemic.

[pdxtex]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Madison is now almost getting too big to really best exemplify the textbook university town.

Ann Arbor is probably the best of the lot in the big 10, though Iowa City and Bloomington, IN are pretty nice too.

Champaign is pretty good too, and getting better.

West Lafayette didn't impress me a ton, probably the most lackluster of the big 20 college towns I've been to

Minneapolis and Columbus are great cities, but they're too big, and Evanston is great too, but again as a suburb of a GIANT city, it's not quite the same thing either.

Never been to East Lansing nor any of the newer big 10 towns east of Ohio.

I went to MSU. East Lansing is nice but its more of a strip than a grid if that makes any sense. Ann Arbor is way more of a city, city. I like the general area tho. Lansing is gritty but creative, and growing. MSU is the Arizona State for Chicago kids.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by JManc

It recently it achieved 'Tier One' status, so yes, they are now. Go Cougs.

A state can only have one "flagship" university, though.

[Steely Dan]

^ yeah, but texas is like a whole other country.

so they get like 5 of them.

don't mess with texas.

[eschaton]

The ultimate "feels like a college town but isn't really" is probably Asheville.

Yes, I know there's a UNC campus there - and some others as well - but that's not why Asheville is what it is (as opposed to Boone, where Appalachian State University is the only thing that distinguishes it from the surrounding area.

Portland, ME might be another example, but University of Southern Maine is actually about twice the size of UNC Asheville, and it's a smaller city, so I think it more straddles the border between college town and non-college town.

[pdxtex]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

A state can only have one "flagship" university, though.

Don't tell California or Massachusetts that.

[Crawford]

I'd say plenty have more than one, or even none, at least by traditional definitions.

In Michigan, U-M is the oldest, most famous and most prestigious, but MSU is the largest, broadest offerings and the official land grant university. Or in Indiana, how would you decide between Purdue and IU?

In Ohio, OSU is a pretty clear flagship. Same for Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota and many others.

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

University of Houston also isn't a flagship state university.

If Texas Tech is, UH most certainly is. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Houston



But, personally, I would generally consider UT Austin to be the flagship school.

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

don't mess with texas.

It’s amazing how many outsiders know TXDoT’s anti-litter campaign slogan!

[JManc]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

A state can only have one "flagship" university, though.

Not Texas where UT Austin and Texas A&M shared that distinction; Tier 1 and exclusive access to state's Permanent University Fund (PUF). U of Houston and a couple of other universities have been elevated to Tier 1 along with a brand new medical school. No access to PUF since that would mean changing several laws and plenty of Aggies and Longhorns in the Legislature so that's not going to happen anytime soon.

[LuckyJ26]

Originally Posted by craigs

UCLA ranks higher than Berkeley these days in a few of the rankings, including USN&WR, but Berkeley established itself far earlier in history so I'd say it's still the flagship. The only UC in a true college town is Davis, but it's not a flagship.

The only Cal State schools in true college towns are Arcata, Chico, and San Luis Obispo, none of which are considered flagships either.

Not quite. That may be true that UCLA ranks higher in the national USN&WR ranking, but if you look at their global universities ranking, Berkeley is ranked 4th just behind MIT, Harvard, and Stanford.

https://www.usnews.com/education/bes...l_Universities

UCB is still the flagship school.

[TWAK]

Originally Posted by LuckyJ26

Not quite. That may be true that UCLA ranks higher in the national USN&WR ranking, but if you look at their global universities ranking, Berkeley is ranked 4th just behind MIT, Harvard, and Stanford.

https://www.usnews.com/education/bes...l_Universities

UCB is still the flagship school.

The UC would be Cal and the CSU has Cal Poly as most prestigious, but there is no main "California State". CSU Fullerton has the most students and SD State has the highest endowment.
I vote for Sac State as the official flagship of the CSU .

[JManc]

It's all about the UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs.

[Antares41]

As a U on Wisconsin-Madison grad I really have high praise for Madison as a college town (And this from someone who grew up in the Bronx). But, I do think being the state capital give it a certain verve (energy, enthusiasm, vigor) that not typical of a true college towns which sometimes can seen more detached. I been to a few college towns: Ann Arbor, East Lansing, and many I wont bother to list because they were in urban setting: Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio State, Arizona State, etc. My son attended Penn State. State College seemed a world onto itself, with the university being front and center to everything that exist there... it is a true college town in every sense of the term.