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> From 2000 to 2017, Austin’s population climbed about 45%, according to the Census Bureau and the City of Austin, as demand for housing contributed to a 72% su
by cbanek 7y ago
> From 2000 to 2017, Austin’s population climbed about 45%, according to the Census Bureau and the City of Austin, as demand for housing contributed to a 72% surge in average rents. West Campus median gross rents outpaced the city as a whole, rising more than 87% in the same period.
As someone who went to a good school in the middle of nowhere, where rent was cheap and we were surrounded by farmland for 50 miles in every direction, I wonder if that's not the more sustainable way to do it.
Like computer science, having a college in a town doesn't require a lot from its location. It doesn't need to be near a river, oil or mineral deposits, etc. People travel there all the time to simply be there.
Going to college in an already large city, many of which have housing affordability problems already, seems to compound the issue. They aren't making any more land for housing near UCLA.
While it can be nice to have lots of cultural and interesting things to do in the town where you go to school, I'm not sure it's really required.
I wonder if this means that schools in smaller "college towns" will be more appealing... although it seems like reputation is everything, and everyone still wants to go to an expensive school thinking it will make a difference in their life, as opposed to getting a similar education with less name recognition, as shown by the article:
> “But I clicked ‘accept’ on my admission anyway,” she says, figuring that attending UT Austin’s lauded journalism school would lead to more internship opportunities and, ultimately, a job after she graduated.
Although maybe this is all just naive thinking. Perhaps this would just end up with the system con-ing them somewhere else. We always find a reason and a way to extract more money from students.
- lettergram 7y agoMakes me think you went to UIUC, Purdue or one of the other “near by” universities (I’m near UIUC now). I have an 8 minute commute to campus, where my wife is a grad student. I work near by (similar 8 minute commute). Even on campus rent for a 1 bedroom is $400-$500 Honestly, it’s not just universities... everyone should consider if they really need to be in a large city. While there are some drawbacks (childcare), generally my quality of life is higher and the cost of living is affordable.
- dillonmckay 7y agoThai food? 2 hour drive for me.
- meowface 7y agoIt's stuff like that that keeps me away from small towns (except for vacations). Indian and Thai food is too much for me to give up.
- maxerickson 7y agoThe Thai government supports Thai restaurants. Lots of small towns have them. Really. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/paxadz/the-surprising-reason-that-there-are-so-many-thai-restaurants-in-america https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/paxadz/the-surprising-rea...
- dillonmckay 7y agoI was hoping to find a form to signup my area.
- justinator 7y agoYou can make thai food at home. It's fun!
- BurningFrog 7y ago...and surprisingly easy!
- dillonmckay 7y agoI can and do, but sometimes it is nice to be served, and also not know how much half-and-half you are using to make thai iced teas.
- anonuser123456 7y ago
- maxerickson 7y agoSustainable for how long? Ann Arbor was a sleepy village in 1837, the university helped to create the city. That part of Michigan, and adjoining parts of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois are sort of a megacity now though, so the University isn't a main factor these days.
- DoreenMichele 7y agoManhattan, KS had about 50k people when I lived there years ago. It seems to have 52k now. Between students, faculty and staff, the university probably accounts for at least 40% of the population and sometimes over half. It was one of the best experiences of my life. Terrific little town. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan,_Kansas https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan,_Kansas I think Athens, Georgia was about 100k people 40 years or so ago and is now 125k. It is home to UGA, one of the big two universities in the state. It's also a source of some big name bands, like R.E.M. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athens,_Georgia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athens,_Georgia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Athens,_Georgia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Athens,_Georgia
- squish78 7y agoManhattan is doing some incredible work in Bio- and Agro- defense research. Some of the best scientists in the world are in Manhattan https://www.usda.gov/nbaf https://www.usda.gov/nbaf
- tptacek 7y agoAnn Arbor still is a sleepy little college town. It's expensive to live in (1) a nice place (2) within a short walk of the quad, but --- at least a few years ago --- was significantly cheaper than, say, Chicago if you lived a short bus ride away, let alone in Saline or Ypsi.
- maxerickson 7y agoThe Diag? Isn't a big part of the thrust of the article that walkable housing is becoming less and less affordable? If the university owned a bunch of adjoining vacant land, it would be easy to add housing. But it's more or less land locked.
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoFor CS, internships, part time jobs, industrial speakers, everything, depends on being in a hot area. If you are in a cornfield, then you have none of that, even getting faculty can be challenging. The best schools for CS are in hot tech areas for good reason.
- cbanek 7y agoUIUC is in a cornfield. Highly ranked CS school. No problem with internships or speakers. We always had a great job fair.
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoUIUC relies heavily on international students who have no idea its in a cornfield before they attend. On top of that, they have a theory focus.
- adjkant 7y agoThis is an outlying cornfield though (along with a few others). I think they succeed despite their location.
- walshemj 7y agoOK so exactly what local businesses would you intern at - its not like Cambridge (UK) where there are huge numbers of startup's and business.
- lol768 7y agoWhy do you need to intern somewhere locally? A good majority of my coursemates ended up travelling to London (or indeed Cambridge) to take up internships during my time at Warwick - there was no need to be shackled to finding somewhere in Coventry!
- walshemj 7y agoIts easier for the uni to build relationships locale and the OP was talking about being several hundred miles at minimum away.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- walshemj 7y agoIs not " lots of cultural and interesting things to do" the point of going to Uni ?
- doctorpangloss 7y ago> schools in smaller "college towns" will be more appealing... We always find a reason Yes, schools are not fungible. As soon as you think you've thought of some axis to evaluate your options on, like rent affordability, you can always find another that would give you an opposite order of choices, like the quality of the opportunities the program gives you. Rather than pricing these priorities, there's merit in emotional reasoning. Like maybe getting a student excited for an affordable choice is more important than making the "right" choice. Maybe this is why, when comparing colleges, many students choose the maximum affordable prestige (i.e., respond to peer pressure, something very emotional). I agree that your line of thinking is helpful, but it can't compete with Internet posts digesting US News rankings; parents trying to one up each other; other students wearing their Harvard and Stanford sweaters to school. So the question isn't, Can someone get a great education in a small college town? Of course that's true, nobody is going to litigate that with you. The question is, is a measured approach to making those choices fundamentally opposed to the reigning psychology of all the involved consumers?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- nfltn 7y agoExcept for residential students. Living rent-free with parents [0] in Chicagoland and taking the commuter rail into UIC/U Chicago/Northwestern is going to be a lot cheaper than renting an apartment in Champaign-Urbana. Moving to a major metro area for university doesn't make much sense, but having universities in major metro areas makes a lot of sense. [0] Admittedly not universally an option, but probably pretty common.
- astura 7y ago>Like computer science, having a college in a town doesn't require a lot from its location. It doesn't need to be near a river, oil or mineral deposits, etc. It needs faculty and faculty generally want to live somewhere with good quality of life and ample job opportunities for their spouse and children. Unlike students, faculty arent transients, they are in their permanent home.