Smartest College Towns In America

[Elwood P Dowd]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-03-27/smartest-college-towns-in-america/#

The Top 20


1. Cambridge, Mass

2. Chapel Hill, NC

3. Berkeley, CA

4. Ann Arbor, Mich

5. Ithaca, NY

6. East Lansing, Mich

7. Boulder, Colo

8. Amherst, Mass

9. State College, PA

10. College Park, Maryland

11. Champaign-Urbana, IL

12. Davis, CA

13. Madison, Wisc

14. Charlottesville, VA

15. Ames, Iowa

16. Columbia, Missouri

17. Auburn, Alabama

18. Kent, Ohio

19. Gainesville, FL

20. Norman, Okla

[Dappleganger]

1. Gainesville??

Just don't drive more than a few miles from campus, lol. You'll be in the middle of Redneck Junction.

[HopeHoops]

3. Ever do a good honkin' bong hit of Gainesville Green?

:hippie: :smoke:

[Dappleganger]

6. LOL, not there...

I took my hits in the shadows of Radford and VA Tech. ;)

[HopeHoops]

7. I don't really remember where I did it. I was sort of stoned at the time.

[Dappleganger]

9. *snort*

Not even what city or county you were in?

"I plead the 5th!"

[HopeHoops]

11. Actually, I'm pretty sure I had the Gainesville Green when I was in Columbia, MD.

[90-percent]

2. RANDOMONIUM COMMENTS

I grew up in Stony Brook NY. Saw Stony Brook University as it was being built. Not on the list above. (maybe farther down?)

Mom and Dad retired to Charlottesvile VA in 1993. Nice college town, that Charlottsville.

Gainsville, FL has one of the nicest dragstrips on the NHRA Circuit.

thanks

-90% Jimmy

[Dappleganger]

4. C-ville is a real college town.

Gainesville is really no different than Blacksburg, VA--everything is driven by the football machine, not due to more folks having college diplomas.

[EstimatedProphet]

5. I grew up in Columbia, MO

Now I live in the north shore of MA. Maybe that's why it feels so much like home.

[MadHound]

18. Kewpie or Bruin?

I grew up there as well, but moved out into the surrounding countryside over seven years ago. Columbia has become too crowded, noisy, and the local political machine has taken a definite swing to the right. I still find it a nice place to visit, and there is still a large core group of liberals and intellectuals, but it has sadly changed for the worse in my opinion, especially after the Walton spawn moved to town, and it was "discovered" as a great place to live.

[EstimatedProphet]

24. Bruin

Poor kid at the Rich Kid's School.

Actually, I haven't been back since I graduated MU in 1990. Seeing the rest of the world.

[Initech]

8. My brother is in Cambridge right now.

Not only are those guys smart, they can drink! I seriously tested my limits last time I was there. :cheers:

[Armstead]

10. Ooooo Northhampton, Mass is gonna be pissed

Northapmton (home of Smith) is right next to Amherst and with Holyoke basically forms one large college community (the five-colleges as its known).

Being shut out of the list while Amherst made it is a bit of a slight.

[90-percent]

14. Rachel

I think Rachel Maddow lives in that general area. Which happens to be about 25 miles directly north of me.

I should check that area out some time. Never been around there.

-90% Jimmy

[Armstead]

17. She lives in the hills near there

I should probably not mention the town, but she occasionally shows up at functions on the otehr side of the mountains from Northampton.

You should check out their Northampton/Amherst area. It's an interesting place. (Be sure to bring your Birkenstocks though.)

[90-percent]

20. Rachel

Rachel is almost my soulmate.

We both drive older Ford Ranger pick ups!

Rachel - do you have issues with cranky CD players? Mine growls all the time and spits the CD in and out and in and out until it gets tired.

And don't get me started on the fan blower circuitry!

-90% Jimmy

[jwirr]

12. Ames Iowa is a big agra-biz town. Unless they have changed drastically.

I wonder what criteria they used to decide this list?

[Shagbark Hickory]

13. Pointless thread. Meaningless list.

[deaniac21]

15. Really. Didn't you see Auburn, Alabama in there?

[FLPanhandle]

16. Georgia huh?

Auburn and Florida on the list must have burned you.

[backscatter712]

19. Damn, Fort Collins isn't on the list?

Oh well, it's just as awesome as Boulder.

[-..__...]

21. Shouldn't that headline read "Most EDUCATED college towns in America"?

I've lived in the vicinity of Cambridge practically all of my life (54), and have either passed through or visited the area a brazillion times and trust me... Cambridge is hardly a hot bed of brainiacs (same goes for Amherst).

[marions ghost]

22. humming alma mater

but intelligently realizing that this is splitting hairs when it comes to top-ranked universities...

I found this article at the link MORE interesting --looking at how much CITIES stimulate and promote opportunities for learning--eg. libraries, universities, numbers of book readers, etc:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-10-24/ranking-americas-smartest-and-dumbest-cities/

----------------
It does make some sense to rank cities this way...but then, are the smartest cities politically the most liberal (ie. the best according to liberals) like university towns seem to be?

[Distant Observer]

23. Where is Palo Alto, California, the home of Stanford

Maybe people don't realize that Palo Alto is the Stanford home town -- because there are actually a few
towns that surround the massive Stanford legacy property -- Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Woodside etc,

But I am sure that they all rate up there in the "Smartness" index.