Tremendous amounts of interest and anxiety are expended on answering the question of where a student might go to college. Usually, though, the focal point is the school and not the community around the school, when sometimes the setting makes all the difference. Amy and Mike invited educator Ryan Allen to explore the question of what makes a great college town.

What are five things you will learn in this episode?

1. What is a college town?

2. Why are some towns with colleges not proper college towns?

3. What are some of the best college towns in the United States?

4. What features or factors make or break a college town?

5. Should more schools aim to create a full college-town experience?

MEET OUR GUEST

Ryan M. Allen is an Associate Professor of International and Comparative Education and Leadership at Soka University of America. His academic research centers on the internationalization of higher education, global mobility, and the intersections between education and urbanism, with a particular emphasis on the US and East Asia. He is also the founder and editor-in-chief of College Towns, a Substack where urbanism meets higher education. He holds a PhD from Teachers College, Columbia University, an MA from Yonsei University (Seoul, South Korea), and a BA from the University of Central Oklahoma.

Ryan can be reached at collegetowns.org.

LINKS

What Even is a College Town?

Morrill Act (1862) | National Archives

The Education and Urbanism of Breaking Away

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ABOUT THIS PODCAST

Tests and the Rest is THE college admissions industry podcast. Explore all of our episodes on the show page.

ABOUT YOUR HOSTS

Mike Bergin is the president of Chariot Learning and founder of TestBright, Roots2Words, and College Eagle. Amy Seeley is the president of Seeley Test Pros and LEAP. If you're interested in working with Mike and/or Amy for test preparation, training, or consulting, get in touch through our contact page.