[badger74]

http://www.smartertravel.com/travel-adv ... id=2407731

[shukcb04]

burlington is a "hippie town"? glad to know i didn't get that internship at st. Michaels college then.

[Sly Fox]

No Austin on the list makes it all suspect.

But I get the feeling badger pointed this out for a certain cold weather locale that likes to consider itself Austin North.

[SuperJon]

Isn't Austin more than just a college town though?

When I think college town I think of towns that are nothing without the school (Blacksburg comes to mind).

[Sly Fox]

By that definition you would have to eliminate Madison and both Boulder & Berkeley would be suspect.

[SuperJon]

I was surprised to see Madison on there. I don't count them as "college town."

[badger74]

While the city has grown some the core downtown is still dominated by students and the businesses that serve them. Austin has outgrown the college town feel and is now a great mid sized city. Boulder and Berkeley are still college towns too. I'd add Ann Arbor and maybe Chapel Hill to the list.

[mrmacphisto]

If there has to be a hippie town on the list, I'd throw Lawrence, Kansas in there. Nice downtown shopping area, some decent venues that make for a pretty good music scene, not too big.

I like Badger's suggestion of Ann Arbor too.

[Sly Fox]

The entire list outside of Madison are hippie towns.

Lawrence is nowhere near Top 5-worthy. Cool town but not top five. And I've spent way too much time in all of the Big XII towns over the past decade.

[El Scorcho]

No Chapel Hill? No Athens?

Lame list.

[LUconn]

This is blatent West Coast Bias. Also Northampton, MA is a dump. The only redeaming quality is it's a stop on the Warped tour. And that probably isn't cool to me anymore anyway.

[Fumblerooskies]

This is blatent West Coast Bias. Also Northampton, MA is a dump. The only redeaming quality is it's a stop on the Warped tour. And that probably isn't cool to me anymore anyway.

A great town...if you like the "alternative lifestyle"...some may call it the Asheville of the NE.

[bigsmooth]

i tend to go with the A&E tv top 10 that year end year out has austin, tx, charlottesville, chapel hill on the list and also includes burlington, vt and maryville, tn. as far as college towns this must be a ben and jerry's tree hugger list because you do not have southern towns on here that to me exemplify what a "true" colllege town is. congrats to madison though

[pbow]

this list sucks big time...they missed out on great college towns like Ann Arbor, Morgantown, and Chapel Hill

[LUconn]

well they only did 5

[bigsmooth]

morgantown is great if you want burning furniture and binge drinking

[pbow]

morgantown is great if you want burning furniture and binge drinking

well a lot of college students are into at least one of those activities so I guess it works pretty well as a college town but in all seriousness morgantown really is a nice college town where a ton of the businesses there center around the college being there

[paradox]

Ann Arbor, Columbus, and South Bend need to be on the list, otherwise it's bogus.

Austin and Madison are legit and definetly high on the list.

Charlottesville is a nice play to live and the UVA campus is impressive, but there's not much to that twon at all, it's nothing like the places mentioned above.

[badger74]

Some other lists including some of the missing towns.

http://americasbestonline.net/ctowns.htm

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2003/s ... index.html

http://www.epodunk.com/top10/colleges/index.html

[shukcb04]

i just went to that americas best website, now i know why I like boston so much: it's ranked as the #1 place for single folk .

[scuzdriver]

Boulder is beautiful, but it is nothing but a liberal hole! We call Boulder 50 sq miles of #$%^%$## surrounded by reality! I use Ward Churchill as one of many examples.

[thepostman]

I think Lynchburg should be top 5....seriously...this is like the best college town ever!!!!

[bigsmooth]

columbus better than cville??? no way. i think a lot of people look at these lists and equate them to football. i have never been to ann arbor, but south bend is cool as well as madison and austin.

[Fumblerooskies]

columbus better than cville??? no way. i think a lot of people look at these lists and equate them to football. i have never been to ann arbor, but south bend is cool as well as madison and austin.

Oh yes...COLUMBUS is way better than Hoo-ville. At least on Saturdays it is.

[bigsmooth]

well duh rooskie im not stupid.saturdays are way better in columbus. as a town though i will take cville. it is a "college" town, not much else there than the university. columbus has much more than ohio state.