Talk:List of college towns

Untitled
This page should be deleted and moved back to the original. It serves no purpose here by itself. --DavisJune (talk) 00:25, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

What are the criteria to be included in this list?
What is the list based on? (BigTurnip (talk) 11:01, 13 May 2012 (UTC))

Quite. I mean, is a town that one day acquires a single reasonably small new university (High Wycombe being a particular place in point) a University town? It's hardly "dominated" by its student population. Oxford's entire existence is down to its university and nothing else (particularly), so it is definitely a University city. London? "Dominated" by students? Perlease! I strongly suggest changing this to a list of towns with universities, and making it somewhat more comprehensive. Also, probably worth separating different countries onto different pages, because the meaning of a "college" in the USA is probably very different from the meaning of a "university" in the UK? Silly page. Dotdotdotcomma (talk) 16:52, 19 November 2012 (UTC)

Baltimore has 30,000 college students in the city and surrounding communities. The city itself has 600,000 residents. Yet it doesn't make the list? Johns Hopkins alone has the majority of these students. Cyberbytli (talk) 16:35, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

I removed Olympia Washington and Evergreen State College from this list for similar reasons. Pullman Washington has a population of 7,000 when school is not in session and 27,000 when it is. That is a college town. While a place like Baltimore could never be considered a college town. If anything, any place that has multiple universities is probably not a college town. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.174.26.165 (talk) 15:15, 27 April 2014 (UTC)

I think this list is ridiculous. Just because a town has one or more colleges does not make it a college town.Naddruf (talk) 18:09, 21 September 2019 (UTC)

Yes, it is ridiculous. For instance London is included but clearly is not dominated by its university population; and some of the places in Wales, for instance, are much too small to be considered as towns.---Ehrenkater (talk) 19:06, 20 September 2020 (UTC)


 * I agree that this is an ill-defined list at best. For the Netherlands, Rotterdam for example should not be in this list. 87.208.187.37 (talk) 18:59, 11 February 2022 (UTC)

Just ran across this list. It shows no feel whatsoever for what a college town actually is. The whole thing is awful and should be junked. Wasted Time R (talk) 23:44, 26 August 2023 (UTC)

Austin as a College Town?
You've got to be kidding me. Undoubtedly the University of Texas at Austin has a major presence within the city and contributes greatly to its unique culture, but it is hardly "dominated" by the college presence. It's the capital of Texas and stands alone without the college presence, even if it is rather large. College Station is a better example of a "college town" in Texas.

I propose that Austin be removed from this list. --Ðrdak (T) 20:40, 13 April 2014 (UTC)

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Suggestion:
Loma Linda, California and Loma Linda University

2606:6000:FECF:4100:A592:803E:E711:46B3 (talk) 06:24, 7 May 2017 (UTC)

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Establishing objective criteria for inclusion
At present, the only criteria we have for inclusion is that a town is "dominated by its academic population", but because "domination" is not specified, there are a number of very dubious entries in this list which, overall, creates a article of somewhat dubious encyclopaedic value. As a result, I think this list would benefit significantly if we could identify one or two clearly outlined criteria against which entries could be judged for inclusion.

As an initial suggestion, I would propose something along the lines of:

1. A municipality/town/city in which students comprise at least X% of the overall population.

2. A municipality/town/city which is predominately associated with, or built around, a particular university.

What do people think? Eloquai (talk) 18:05, 22 November 2017 (UTC)


 * This might also be a good opportunity to discuss a rename of the page to 'List of college towns and university towns', since 'college town' is not a universal term. Eloquai (talk) 18:14, 22 November 2017 (UTC)

The changes made since November 2017 do not address the fundamental problem with this page which is the concept of these towns being "dominated" by their universities. In the vast majority of cases this is simply not true. The easiest way to address this is not to invent some criterion for inclusion (Wikipedia's rules suggest that it should not present original research), so unless there is a generally accepted, objective, scientific definition of a "college town", the page should just be a list of towns (or cities) with colleges/universities in them. In which case what does the page add over a simple list of colleges/universities? I maintain that the page is silly and should be deleted. Dotdotdotcomma (talk) 13:54, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

I would suggest that for likely candidates we could try and find at least one example of newspaper or other media outlet referring to a city as a "college town" within the last few years and remove it if one cannot easily be found. The article may have some value since term is frequently used, but obviously about 80 to 90 percent of these listings should be removed. (at least the US ones.) Bracewell94 (talk) 22:33, 26 September 2021 (UTC)

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List for Australia is simply false
Most of the universities and towns listed for Australia are simply not university towns - a lot of them are in the middle of major cities (ie Sydney, Melbourne etc). Like Circular Quay? Really? I can understand the inclusion of universities in Canberra, Newcastle, Ballarat, Hobart, Townsville, Rockhampton, Gold Coast (maybe), Armidale, Wollongong. Pretty much anything in the major cities shouldn't be on the list since the student population of each university makes up ~1% of the overall population. A couple I can understand that are in the major cities are the ones in relatively distant suburbs where it's the main/major institution in the local economy (Macquarie Park, Richmond etc). 82.36.143.254 (talk) 12:23, 16 May 2019 (UTC)

Czechia/Czech Republic Universities are in City
Those universities are in CITY rather than town. They have to be dropped from this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:C7F:7EA2:9B00:60CF:B73A:E683:166E (talk) 14:19, 8 September 2019 (UTC)

Los Angeles
I think the whole list needs a revamp. Any volunteer? While the city and its surrounding communities do host a number of colleges and universities, there is no way Los Angeles can be named a college town in any way, shape or form. If the criterion is that a city has a post-secondary institution to be named college town, then all big cities in the world are college town, which makes the distinction meaningless. Jusfiq (talk) 20:26, 31 December 2019 (UTC)

Yes. Someone got the list from a ranking of the "towns" containing all colleges and universities in the United States. That does not qualify them to be college towns. I think Los Angeles could be removed altogehter. Very few big cities can be college towns. Boston may be an exception.— Naddruf (talk ~ contribs) 21:39, 31 December 2019 (UTC)

Canada
The "college towns" in the Canada section lists major cities like Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver. These are not college towns, these are major cities... Of course they have numerous colleges/universities. This list needs to be completely overhauled. 174.89.129.51 (talk) 13:33, 26 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Definitely agreed, the Canada section seems to have been trying to serve as a comprehensive list of every town or city that has a university or college at all, which is not what the term means. Even some of the entries that were still in the list after the likes of Toronto and Montreal and Vancouver were removed are still problematic entries, where it's still very unclear that they actually meet the definition — so I've been left with little choice but to remove the Canadian section entirely, pending the proper use of reliable sources to support inclusion. Bearcat (talk) 17:34, 7 June 2021 (UTC)
 * The same comments apply to most or all of the countries on the list. Suggest we delete the whole lot and start again.---Ehrenkater (talk) 18:43, 20 August 2023 (UTC)

Europe needs total overhaul
Virtually every single major city in every European country is listed here as a college town, regardless of the importance/size of the colleges relative to the population.

Berlin & Paris & London et al. being called college towns is just absolutely silly, and this list is also basically a list of every single UK town with more than 100 000 people. This list bears zero resemblance to the college town article.


 * The question is: Are college towns mostly just an American/US phenonmenon? Should we keep all these countries' lists at all? —Lights and freedom (talk ~ contribs) 15:50, 7 June 2021 (UTC)
 * Additionally, I recently came across the category Category:University towns, which also needs to be defined. I started a discussion at WikiProject Europe. —Lights and freedom (talk ~ contribs) 16:33, 7 June 2021 (UTC)

Australia and "College Towns"
I have changed the title of "College towns in Australia" to "University towns in Australia". A College in Australian English refers to a secondary school (high school in US terminology), not a tertiary school, all of which are called universities in Australia - aside from the rough local equivalents of community college, called TAFE (though TAFE focuses more on vocational education.) I suspect this was the original title of the section, as it's alphabetised immediately after "United States". Presumably it has been changed by an American without any local knowledge. Wikipedia is a global resource; at the very least, pages about non-American subjects should not be Americanised.

Lastly, I note the post above about inaccuracy of the Australian list - they are correct; most of the list are not Uni towns by even the loosest definition. Khardankov (talk) 10:27, 19 November 2022 (UTC)

How significant of a population?
This list appears to include a lot of cities that would not traditionally be called "college towns". Anchorage, for example, has a population of around 300,000, and the university in it (UA Anchorage) has a student population of around 15,000. That's around 5%. Is that the cutoff?

I personally don't view Anchorage as a college town. Not like Fairbanks, anyways. Does anyone know if there's a generally-accepted limit wherein a city can be considered a "college town" due to its population? 167.224.100.82 (talk) 03:33, 1 May 2023 (UTC)