Large universities in the middle of nowhere

[noelbotevera]

I thought about posting this in Random Thoughts but I figured a thread was better.

I'm defining "large" to be an enrollment size of 10,000+ students (there's plenty of small universities/colleges that are purely regional). Also excluding university systems (ex. Texas, Penn State, UNC...basically every state school) and online schools (so stuff like Western Governors University is excluded).

Some examples that strike out to me:

-I'm surprised UAB (University of Alabama, Birmingham) isn't the flagship campus, but is now the largest employer in Birmingham. 'Bama is about as old as the state itself, so it seems like Tuscaloosa was intended to be a college town right from the get go. Meanwhile Auburn is also far from a major city, though I guess you could argue that it's close to the state capital of Montgomery. Interestingly, Auburn's located in the Black Belt of Alabama yet doesn't have a HBCU history.

-Washington State really strikes out to me. That is about as isolated as you can get; imagine if Oregon State was located along US 95, or if Kansas decided to set up shop in Dodge City instead of Lawrence. It's also really close to the University of Idaho, which I'm guessing was for cooperation's sake. Still though, why is the state school located as far away from Seattle as humanly possible?

-Oklahoma State's location in Stillwater. I guess it's supposed to be located between OKC and Tulsa, though the location favors OKC. Makes sense but doesn't erase the fact that Stillwater is in the middle of nowhere.

-Ole Miss and Mississippi State are both located away from major interstates and nowhere near any major cities. Ole Miss is fairly close to Memphis (83 miles), though Memphis already has the University of Memphis.

-The University of Florida is off of I-75 but is nowhere near anything. Closest city is Jacksonville (73 miles).

-The University of Illinois is nowhere near anything major in Illinois (not the state capital in Springfield nor Chicago). I guess this makes sense because Chicago already has a ton of major universities (Northwestern and University of Chicago off the top of my head), but usually the state school is in the state capital (MSU, OSU, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona).

-Indiana University isn't terribly far from Bloomington and IN 37 has been 4 lanes for a while, but why isn't the major state school in Indianapolis?

-Ohio University is very very far from the major C cities in Ohio. Justified that each C city has a major university (Cincinnati, Ohio State, Case Western + Kent State). Probably a historical reason as to why Ohio University is in the middle of Southern Ohio and not off an interstate.

-Penn State is egregiously far from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, though the distances favor Pittsburgh. It's probably the most notable landmark off of I-80 in PA. To be fair, there's already established schools in both cities (Pitt in...Pittsburgh, and Penn/Nova/Temple in Philly). PSU should really be in Harrisburg, but here we are.

[Max Rockatansky]

Saint Leo University last I checked was within earshot of 10,000 students.  It is pretty much in the middle of rural Pasco County in the town of the same name.  The traffic pattern on FL 52 always suggested to me that the bulk of the students were coming from Tampa.

[Rothman]

UConn feels like it's in the middle of nowhere.

[noelbotevera]

UConn feels like it's in the middle of nowhere.

By Connecticut standards? I'd call that middle of nowhere (in the eastern part of the state and 26 miles from Hartford, an eternity when stuck in New England traffic).

Might as well mention that UMass is also kinda isolated. Makes more sense for it to be in Springfield or Worcester (or in true state school tradition, put it in Boston and rename it University of Boston).

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I've always felt U of Minnesota lost something sitting right next to downtown Minneapolis. None of the major U of MN campus locations are great classic college towns.

[Rothman]

UConn feels like it's in the middle of nowhere.

By Connecticut standards? I'd call that middle of nowhere (in the eastern part of the state and 26 miles from Hartford, an eternity when stuck in New England traffic).

Might as well mention that UMass is also kinda isolated. Makes more sense for it to be in Springfield or Worcester (or in true state school tradition, put it in Boston and rename it University of Boston).

Storrs feels even more rural than the Amherst/Northampton area.  Also, Amherst, Smith and Mount Holyoke Colleges are in the area....heard something about Hampshire avoiding outright closure...

Tangent:  The casino in Springfield makes it look like Biff Tannen's Hill Valley...

[noelbotevera]

Tangent:  The casino in Springfield makes it look like Biff Tannen's Hill Valley...

Biff Tannen's Pleasure Paradise

"Welcome Bikers"

[Max Rockatansky]

Tangent:  The casino in Springfield makes it look like Biff Tannen's Hill Valley...

Biff Tannen's Pleasure Paradise

"Welcome Bikers"

One of the few okayish things that Biff did with his fortune was successfully lobbying to legalize gambling. 

[Road Hog]

The University of Arkansas was located in Fayetteville in 1871 in order to avoid malaria, as I have been told.

More on the skeeter problem from the university itself:

https://arthropod.uark.edu/arkansas-arthropods-in-history-and-folklore/

[Molandfreak]

...Oh, you mean universities that just aren't in a very big town. Saint John's University is super interesting to me even though the student population isn't very large. It is sort of close to Saint Cloud, MN, but there is literally nothing but farmland immediately surrounding the university. It's actually pretty jarring to drive through, because you would never expect a university to be there.

[RZF]

U of Arizona is in Tucson, not Phoenix; Arizona State is near Phoenix (in Tempe).

Oregon State finds itself in Corvallis, a small town between Eugene and Salem not along I-5.

U of Georgia in Athens is far-enough away from Atlanta.

If we want to consider towns like Las Cruces and Lubbock as "in the middle of nowhere", then NM State and Texas Tech fit the shoe.

Kansas State in Manhattan, KS (ironic town name) is in the middle of nowhere.

Military Academy at West Point, NY has to fit this list.

Interestingly enough my alma mater, Cal State Channel Islands (enrollment ~7500), is located in a rural part of Southern California, roughly a 10-15 minute drive from the nearest town. It was placed on the site of a former mental hospital.

[Scott5114]

-Oklahoma State's location in Stillwater. I guess it's supposed to be located between OKC and Tulsa, though the location favors OKC. Makes sense but doesn't erase the fact that Stillwater is in the middle of nowhere.

Its original name was Oklahoma Agricultural & Mechanical College. Makes sense to have a college primarily teaching agriculture in the middle of nowhere. It's since expanded into a general-purpose university, although it still focuses more on rural-oriented stuff.

Many of the universities mentioned in this thread (including OSU, KSU, and WSU) are land-grant universities that were established by the federal government granting the states a large tract of land, of which a small portion was retained for the campus and the rest sold off to fund the construction and operation of the university. Large tracts of federal land are not found in developed areas. Instead they're in...the middle of nowhere.

[Bruce]

WSU was placed in a very fertile region (the Palouse) primarily to study agriculture and other sciences that would benefit the rural sides of Washington. Pullman offered plenty of land and had good railroad connections at the time to Spokane and Portland, so the state government was convinced.

Washington really should have more large universities given its size and wealth, but UW and WSU basically run the show. WSU has even expanded to Vancouver (WA) and Everett after UW pulled out of building a campus for the latter.

[noelbotevera]

...Oh, you mean universities that just aren't in a very big town. Saint John's University is super interesting to me even though the student population isn't very large. It is sort of close to Saint Cloud, MN, but there is literally nothing but farmland immediately surrounding the university. It's actually pretty jarring to drive through, because you would never expect a university to be there.

From my eyes it looks like one of those regional Catholic colleges. I was gonna point out Saint Francis University in PA; Loretto is basically a golf course (thanks to a D1 basketball team) and a restaurant -- there's not even any traffic lights. However that is definitely one of the weirder colleges around; it's an exit off I-94 and surrounded by lakes.

U of Arizona is in Tucson, not Phoenix; Arizona State is near Phoenix (in Tempe).

Oregon State finds itself in Corvallis, a small town between Eugene and Salem not along I-5.

U of Georgia in Athens is far-enough away from Atlanta.

If we want to consider towns like Las Cruces and Lubbock as "in the middle of nowhere", then NM State and Texas Tech fit the shoe.

Kansas State in Manhattan, KS (ironic town name) is in the middle of nowhere.

Military Academy at West Point, NY has to fit this list.

I guess the question to be asked in this thread is, "If you removed the university, would the town still exist?" Towns like Manhattan, KS or Storrs, CT probably won't exist if you remove their universities. Las Cruces and Lubbock definitely could survive without NMSU or Texas Tech. I think Molandfreak best stated it (big universities in tiny towns).

Interestingly enough my alma mater, Cal State Channel Islands (enrollment ~7500), is located in a rural part of Southern California, roughly a 10-15 minute drive from the nearest town. It was placed on the site of a former mental hospital.

I forget which college this was (Texas Tech? University of Houston? It was a major college in Texas), but they converted a Motel 6 into dorm housing. Supposedly even the hotel furniture and outdoor swimming pool was kept.

[noelbotevera]

Many of the universities mentioned in this thread (including OSU, KSU, and WSU) are land-grant universities that were established by the federal government granting the states a large tract of land, of which a small portion was retained for the campus and the rest sold off to fund the construction and operation of the university. Large tracts of federal land are not found in developed areas. Instead they're in...the middle of nowhere.

Good read!

It also looks like the Morrill Act retroactively designated some colleges as land grants. Several of the colleges named in the 1862 act were already open and operating (Wisconsin, Auburn, Rutgers, Tennessee, Vermont) though the towns they were located in were pretty backwater at the time. Technically, PSU and Michigan State were built before the Morrill Act, but I know that in PSU's case they hadn't actually accepted students and graduated a class.

This also means the University of California system (Berkeley, UCLA, UC Davis, UC San Diego) are all land grants even though some are located next to or inside cities.
Speaking of California, the California State University system -- which is another public system that does not consist of land grant universities -- are derived from normal schools (aka teacher schools). Chico is the only university that fits this thread; the rest are located in LA/Bay Area/San Diego, and some have grown to be bigger than others (SDSU, Fullerton).

[Road Hog]

WSU was placed in a very fertile region (the Palouse) primarily to study agriculture and other sciences that would benefit the rural sides of Washington. Pullman offered plenty of land and had good railroad connections at the time to Spokane and Portland, so the state government was convinced.

Washington really should have more large universities given its size and wealth, but UW and WSU basically run the show. WSU has even expanded to Vancouver (WA) and Everett after UW pulled out of building a campus for the latter.

Eastern Washington is Division I FCS, and of course there's Gonzaga. But Western and Central are probably large enough to support at least a jump to FCS.

[Bruce]

Eastern Washington is Division I FCS, and of course there's Gonzaga. But Western and Central are probably large enough to support at least a jump to FCS.

I should clarify that I meant Washington should have more large public universities. There's 5 major four-year universities in the state that have a combined enrollment of 131,000 students while a state of comparable population (Virginia) has over 200,000 students spread across 7 universities. A few community colleges have started adding bachelor's programs to try and compensate for the lack of major four-year institutions out here.

[MikeTheActuary]

FWIW, the University of Illinois - Urbana is located where it is because when Illinois was debating taking advantage of the opportunity from the Morrill Land-Grant, local officials from various communities around the state lobbied the state...and Urbana won.

[1995hoo]

.... Interestingly, Auburn's located in the Black Belt of Alabama yet doesn't have a HBCU history.

....

I had always understood that the term "Black Belt" was originally a reference to the highly fertile black soil in that part of the country and not so much to the skin color of laborers in that area. Either way, though, the historically black university in that part of Alabama is a relatively short distance down the road in Tuskegee; it was founded in 1881, about 25 years after Auburn University and, perhaps unsurprisingly, after the War Between the States but before Jim Crow really took hold.

[dfilpus]

Michigan Technological University is in the middle of nowhere. It's 200 miles from the nearest cities (Duluth MN and Green Bay WI). It was originally the Michigan Mining School and was established in the mining country.

[NWI_Irish96]

I thought about posting this in Random Thoughts but I figured a thread was better.

I'm defining "large" to be an enrollment size of 10,000+ students (there's plenty of small universities/colleges that are purely regional). Also excluding university systems (ex. Texas, Penn State, UNC...basically every state school) and online schools (so stuff like Western Governors University is excluded).

Some examples that strike out to me:

-Indiana University isn't terribly far from Bloomington and IN 37 has been 4 lanes for a while, but why isn't the major state school in Indianapolis?

First of all, thanks for properly identifying it as Indiana University and not the University of Indiana.

Secondly, when it was founded in 1820, nearly all of the state's population lived in the southern half and the capital was still at Corydon.

[WillWeaverRVA]

Longwood University is a moderately large school (about 5,000 students) well removed from any nearby metropolitan areas in Virginia - Farmville is roughly halfway between Richmond and Lynchburg.

Although it's not a university, the Appalachian College of Pharmacy is located in Oakwood, Virginia, which is basically in the middle of nowhere (about 30 minutes from Richlands). It only offers Doctor of Pharmacy degrees but has a relatively large enrollment (about 150 students). The related Appalachian School of Law is in Grundy, which is an incorporated town but only has a population of about 850 people.

[formulanone]

-I'm surprised UAB (University of Alabama, Birmingham) isn't the flagship campus, but is now the largest employer in Birmingham. 'Bama is about as old as the state itself, so it seems like Tuscaloosa was intended to be a college town right from the get go.

The Alabama's capital was once in Tuscaloosa, which explains it.

[steviep24]

Would Cornell University count? It's not near any major city in NY state.

[WillWeaverRVA]

Would Cornell University count? It's not near any major city in NY state.

Ithaca is large enough to have a recognized metropolitan area, so probably not.