Moving into a new city is always a challenging experience for a lot of people. As students are selecting colleges and understanding what each college has to offer, one of the major factors that can not be overlooked is the city or the town itself. Many colleges in the US are located in a college town, which is defined as a town that is dominated by the population of the college.
International students are less eager to apply to certain schools as they hope to be living in a big city. In here, we will look into the benefits and some advantages that college town have over big city:
The Cost of Living in a College Town
The cost of living is a major thing that students should be considering when selecting their choice of college. Even if you are a student with a scholarship, you will still need to live in thatcity, which requires the use of money to buy food, to get drinks and go around the city. Thedemographic of people living in a college town is usually people that are making less money than people living in the city. With this being said, rent and cost of food tends to be significantly lower than in the city. This allows students to save up more money on necessity and spend it on something that they wish.
Employment Opportunities
Many international students are unaware of the conditions and the regulations of their visa. International students who hold a F1 visa can not be employed by an employee that is not related to the college they are enrolled in. However, colleges in college towns are usually really big in size and are always looking to hire their students for the various jobs that they have openings. This is a great thing to point out as the only way international students can work while they’re studying abroad is through college employment. By being bigger in size, this usually means more classes and more professors in their school, this opens up more opportunities for
students to participate and collaborate in various research projects or become a teaching assistant for professors of their school.
Safety and Friendliness
Some international students that are studying abroad far from home are experiencing being away from their family for a long period of time for the first time in their lives. This is a time of a lot of exposures and a lot of exploring. One of parent’s main concerns when their kids are going abroad for the first time is understanding that their kid is going to be safe. Being in a college
town definitely offers more safety than being in a big city, where crime rates and population is a lot lower than big cities.
Campus Life
With less distractions and things to do than a big city, this allows students to focus more on the campus life and what is offered from the college itself. Students are forced to hangout with the people that they go to school with and are forced to study because there are less things to do. This might be seen as a negative thing by a lot of people but your grades will definitely be going up rather than going down. College town offers more activities for you to do and more clubs for you to join, and they make sure that you’re having the best time of your life for the next four years you’re enrolled.
Some renowned colleges that are located within a college town are the following:
• The University of Colorado Boulder, located in Boulder, CO
• The University of Alabama, located in Tuscaloosa, Al
• University of Wisconsin Madison, located in Madison, WI
• Cornell University, located in Ithaca, NY
• Miami University, located in Oxford, OH
• The University of California Berkeley, located in Berkeley, CA
• Syracuse University, located in Syracuse, NY
• The Iowa State University, located in Ames, IA
• Penn State University, located in State College, PA
• The University of North Carolina, located in Chapel Hill, NC
• Indiana University, located in Bloomington, IN
• Purdue University, located in Lafayette, IN
• The University of Michigan, located in Ann Arbor, MI
• Brown University, located in Providence, RI
• University of Kansas, located in Lawrence, KS
