United States of America Travel Answers

On the other end of it is Montana State University in Bozeman. They have some of the best education in the country on certain subjects, such as engineering. The climate is mild compared to much of the state, because it is in a bowl of different mountain ranges. The skiing is great and there is a great deal to do out of doors there.

This is a question so broad as to be almost unanswerable. There are nearly 2,800 four-year colleges in the US. I would venture that at least 500-700 towns/cities can legitimately call themselves "university towns," from places as small as Bozeman to as large as Boston. What do you actually want, in addition to "not too hot?"

Things that are important to me are: green, safe, seasons, affordable, good food, nice surroundings in terms of nature for outdoor activities .(e.g lakes)

On the other hand, some university towns are much more pleasant than others. We just loved Chapel Hill, North Carolina although it does get hot (and humid) there and it is fairly expensive. If you want cooler and less expensive, look at Ann Arbor, Michigan. It's a really pleasant town in a good climate and with reasonable costs. Any university town will be higher in costs than non-university towns because there is a captive audience there (students and faculty). If you are interested in the American West, look at Boulder, Colorado where mountains are added to the mix. Kansas City, Missouri is not a town, per se, but it does have a university, very moderate costs, is family-friendly, has great culture options and is easy to traverse. If you didn't mind a larger city, I would highly recommend it. Have fun; you have many delightful choices!

The only one Bozeman might fall a little week on would be the food. It is not bad, just not upper crust stuff. They do have a really good organic store. It even has buffalo steaks you can purchase to make up. But then food is what you make it.

Ithaca, NY and Eugene, OR both fit your requirements.

It would be good to know the subject matter and if you want a state run school or private or religoius (and if so, what? Protestant? Catholic? etc.). The town won't matter too much if the school isn't one that has your course of study.

Bloomington, Indiana Hilly countryside, 45 minutes from Indianapolis, great courthouse square, good restaurants (within a block of Indiana University you can have dinner in 7 different ethnic restaurants including one owned by the Dalai Llamas nephew. Our 2 oldest sons went to school there and both they and we loved the town. It is also about 3 1/2 hours from Chicago, 1 1/2 hours from both Louisville and Cincinnati.

I think it mostly depends on your income level, as "affordable" means very different things to different people. For instance, Boulder (already mentioned) is fantastic, but it has a very high cost of living, particularly if you want to purchase a home. Most people who work there have to live in surrounding cities. The same can be said for Flagstaff, Arizona: gorgeous, very safe, family-friendly, but very expensive. On that same list, I would also put Bellingham, Washington, which has always been one of my favorite towns in the country. It's gorgeous and the people are great. Then there's Missoula, Montana; Corvallis, Oregon; Lincoln, Nebraska; Santa Cruz, California; Cedar City, Utah; Lawrence, Kansas. All nice, small, family-friendly college towns. Athens, Georgia is nice as well. Very progressive, very pretty and close enough to Atlanta to realistically commute to some of the suburbs. Cost of living is not as bad as it could be. My wife and I moved to Bloomington, Indiana about a year ago and hate it. I recently took a job in Indianapolis to get away. If you have young children or are in college, it works. Otherwise, it does not. We moved from Tucson, which is considered by many to be a college town because that's what dominates the town. Both my wife and I worked for the college for a period. Great town, great people, great food, and an very low cost of living. However, if Texas is too hot for you... And there are other similar cities, where there's a dominant university and it has a similar vibe to a college town, but it's not a "college town" per se. Like Knoxville, Tennessee; Lexington, Kentucky; Columbus, Ohio and Boise, Idaho. Any nice college town in the country has the perpetual problem of a lack of jobs and low wages. It's never a good idea to move to any of these towns without a job expecting to find something. If you're in a position where you can live anywhere with internet though, then they're sometimes a good choice. Hope that helps.

@colin - Need to change the location on your personal page from Bloomington to Indy. I would love to live in Bloomington and my kids are grown and I'm near retirement.

Yup, "affordable" is the question here. It means something different to everyone. And there is that problem of jobs in smaller college towns. Charlottesville, Va., Olympia Washington and Corvallis Oregon are supposed to be nice. If you get really serious about your search, I'd look at any location of interest on citydata.com to see what the locals say. It's free, has active forums, and the first place I send members looking to relocate within the U.S.

I second Eugene, Oregon. Home of Steve Prefontaine. Great outdoor activities. Laid back, pleasant, lots of restaurants. 4 seasons but nothing too drastic. Missoula, Montana is another pleasant spot. I went to school in Colorado Springs, Colorado, but with over a million people now it has lost it's "town" status.

I still spend roughly 60% of my time there as that's where my wife works. VT's profile is not set up for the modern commuter. Should also throw out Madison, Wisconsin and Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Eugene, Oregon is good for certain people, but University of Oregon doesn't have certain programs, ie engineering. For that you have to go to Corvallis and Oregon State. (This is why it is useful to know what the course of study will be). If education is going to be your thing, there is Monmouth and the Western Oregon University, and for drama nothing beats Ashland and the excellent opportunities offered by Southern Oregon State College and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival next door. However, for most other courses of study they have somewhat less of a reputation than U of O and OSU. All of these are also pleasant college towns, but like most of Oregon there are a lot more people who want to live there than can be supported by the jobs available - unless you have a certain high demand specialty, or are a student there. Also, the culture of the various institutions and cities surrounding them can be a factor. For example, for many decades Eugene and the U of O had somewhat of a hippie reputation but some of that has gone away now, and due to Phil Knight these days Nike has a huge amount of influence over decisions made at the school. Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA also used to have a reputation as being a center for surviving hippie culture long after it had died off in other places. Much of that has changed in recent years with the huge suburban population that has developed there.

The poster didn't mention attending the college and he wants something family-friendly which presupposes he already has a family. I suspect he is just looking at college towns for the open-minded attitude and access to culture along with a small-town atmosphere. Our youngest attended IU in Bloomington, Indiana and she loved it there. She swears she is going to retire there although that will be a few years. ;^) We've visited Bloomington and Eugene, Oregon and they were both very nice. Columbus, Ohio would strike me as a large, busy, crowded city. I grew up north of Columbus and have been back often. Not my idea of a "college town" but it is a nice, though busy, city. I'll stick with my suggestion of Ann Arbor, Michigan because it seems to have everything he wants.

> I'm looking for a family friendly, open-minded, affordable university town in the States. To move to/visit/do a sabbatical at/send your kids to??

To move there.

You might also consider Asheville, NC. It probably wouldn't get called a university town (although there is a university there, UNC-Asheville) but it is very similar in attitude/education level. Asheville is a cool, funky place that is smack in the middle of some amazing mountains and scenery. There are seasons, including snow.

University of California at Davis. Everyone bikes there...lots of things to do, and you can get to Sacramento and the bay area quickly. Weather is great, too. Trouble is... getting in. But take a look.

Asheville, NC would be a good choice. It's in the mountains so would be much nicer weather than the major university options. Good idea. Davis, California is wonderful but it's also very expensive. You might look at Sacramento, California which has several historic districts, lots of trees, wonderful entertainment and culture, the State Fair and State Capitol and you can drive over to Davis and bike. We do sometimes! Sacramento is much less expensive than many places in California and is also one of the most diverse places in the entire nation. It's also one of the best kept secrets in California . . . and yes, there is a university here.

Asheville is becoming more well known and thus the prices for homes in the area have been going up at a steady pace at least until the last couple of years. But I agree it is a nice area. One of the areas that I might retire to if not for the fact that all my relatives still live in the Chicago area. A town about 20 miles away from here, Waynesville, although not a university town is also very nice.

Unless your employment is related to the university, I doubt very much you will find anything satisfactory in any of the cities suggested in Oregon. They are too far from major employment centers for most people to want to commute over those distances (there are a few) and there isn't too much in the way of alternative economy going on in those places. Corvallis maybe an excption as there are some parts of the Hewlett-Packard office that haven't moved yet, and CH2M-Hill has its headquarters there, but most of their activity is in other cities. Eugene has some activity too outside U of O but not too much. At either city you'll want to make sure you have employment lined up beforehand as there are just too many people moving to this region and trying to find employment.

My daughter would say Tuscaloosa, U of Alabama...and I certianly enjoyed visiting when she went to college there. I also like Eugene Or, Boulder would be cool. Karl

> To move there. Unless to retire, I suppose your final choice would be affected by the academic field you are in/job availability there? Not trying to pry but I, myself, had always visited/gone for sabbatical/research leave at an institution/U which offers an area related to my own academic field.. And, so, consider the field of study available at a particular U (not just the above-mentioned criteria - in your post) would somehow be relevant to the choice you would finally make? No? ;-) All the best! :-)

Don't overlook Denton, Texas. It's only hot in the summer, it's clean, green (%40 of electrical power is wind driven) . Local taxes are low due to revenue producing city owned oil and gas wells, low unemployment too and little crime. It's also in the final six of Rand Mcnally's Most fun Small Town in America contest. Home to NTU and Texas Women's University.

I lived just north of Asheville as a kid and now visit about twice a year as I have a friend living there. It's amazing how much it's gentrified from what it was. There are a ton of New York transplants there now and housing prices are kind of ridiculous. Reminds me of the college town where I grew up though: Johnson City, Tennessee. When I was a kid, it was more geared toward local industry but the college there (ETSU) has grown quite a bit (while the industry has shrunk) and it has much more dominance over the city and its culture now. It's somewhat of a gritty town (I've been back several times in the past couple of years) but the people are probably the nicest you'll meet anywhere else in the country, the weather is really nice, there's lots to do and it's a fairly progressive town. If I had young kids, I would take them there. Not sure if I would stay for them to get into high school though.

Wow, Johnson City. That brings back some memories. When I was in college, late 80s, I dated a guy from Jonesborough. The first time we went down there, at one point we were at a seriously divey bar in Johnson City, shooting pool with a couple of guys who might have had a dozen teeth between the two of them. I recall to this day that one of them was named "Wallet." Over the course of the afternoon we got to be such good buddies that we were invited to the home of one of them. We went over and rounded out the evening with a gallon jug of Carlo Rossi (our contribution) and a cleaned-out gallon bleach bottle filled with diluted Lysol (theirs). I only wish I were making that last part up, but I'm not...! I may be undermining the point about JC being a great place to live, but it was a funny story! Perhaps the town has gotten a little more cleaned-up since 1988.

I would say Boulder CO. Santa Barbara, but it is costly. San Diego & San Los Opispo, CA. Athens GA Seattle WA,