Large universities in the middle of nowhere

[Rothman]

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

Hardly. The campus is bordered by CT 195, US 44, CT 31 and CT 275. Can basically get anywhere in the state from there.

You can get anywhere in a state from anywhere on a road in a typical state.

Visit Storrs sometime and get back to me.

[tdindy88]

I wonder if the University of Alaska in Fairbanks would qualify. The Greater Fairbanks is a relatively large-sized city for the area, but beyond that there REALLY is a whole lot of nothing for a long distance in any direction.

[oscar]

I wonder if the University of Alaska in Fairbanks would qualify. The Greater Fairbanks is a relatively large-sized city for the area, but beyond that there REALLY is a whole lot of nothing for a long distance in any direction.

Fairbanks has the second largest city population in the entire state, ahead of state capital Juneau and behind only Anchorage.

But with less than 7000 students (less than UA-Anchorage), does UAF qualify as a "large university"?

[jdb1234]

Troy University is the Alabama example that fits this thread. 

I have not been out there is nearly 20 years, but would also consider Jacksonville State as well. 

[JayhawkCO]

This thread has just proven to me that people have never been to the middle of nowhere.

You are the odd one out there, then.

If a 300,000 person, capital city of a state is the middle of nowhere, then I need to come up with new adjectives to describe places like Winnemucca, Minot, and Gillette.

Not saying those have large universities (or universities at all for that matter), but those towns are actually in the middle of nowhere.

For the purposes of this thread, of the top 120 enrolled universities listed here: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d21/tables/dt21_312.10.asp, I'd entertain arguments for "middle of nowhere" for the following:

Texas A&M
University of Illinois
BYU - Idaho
University of Indiana
Oregon State
Washington State
University of Iowa
East Carolina
Utah State

I'm not counting the places like Southern New Hampshire that are largely online.

[SEWIGuy]

This thread has just proven to me that people have never been to the middle of nowhere.

You are the odd one out there, then.

If a 300,000 person, capital city of a state is the middle of nowhere, then I need to come up with new adjectives to describe places like Winnemucca, Minot, and Gillette.

Not saying those have large universities (or universities at all for that matter), but those towns are actually in the middle of nowhere.

For the purposes of this thread, of the top 120 enrolled universities listed here: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d21/tables/dt21_312.10.asp, I'd entertain arguments for "middle of nowhere" for the following:

Texas A&M
University of Illinois
BYU - Idaho
University of Indiana
Oregon State
Washington State
University of Iowa
East Carolina
Utah State

I'm not counting the places like Southern New Hampshire that are largely online.

The only one on this list that I would call "in the middle of nowhere" is Washington State.  Utah State and Oregon State make a good case as well.

But Indiana, Illinois and Iowa? Not a chance.

And I wouldn't call BYU-Idaho a major university. 

[NWI_Irish96]

This isn't meant to be an exhaustive list, some may arguably not be "in the middle of nowhere despite the low populations, but here are several universities over 10k students with the population of their cities:

Troy - Troy, AL - 17,727
Idaho - Moscow, ID - 25,435
Maine - Orono, ME - 11,183
New Hampshire - Durham, NE - 14,638
South Dakota State - Brookings, SD - 23,377

[JayhawkCO]

The only one on this list that I would call "in the middle of nowhere" is Washington State.  Utah State and Oregon State make a good case as well.

But Indiana, Illinois and Iowa? Not a chance.

And I wouldn't call BYU-Idaho a major university. 

Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa are all in cities without a huge population outside of the school itself and don't have any other large cities nearby. There's a lot of driving through the real middle of nowhere to get there.

BYU-Idaho was just on the list and I've been to Rexburg and the campus. Rexburg isn't close to anything else population-wise and isn't a large city in and of itself.

[WillWeaverRVA]

And I wouldn't call BYU-Idaho a major university. 

I don't typically call BYU-Idaho a major university either.

However, they have an on-campus enrollment of about 17,000 people, which does qualify it as a large university. Rexburg itself has a population of about 39,000.

[SEWIGuy]

The only one on this list that I would call "in the middle of nowhere" is Washington State.  Utah State and Oregon State make a good case as well.

But Indiana, Illinois and Iowa? Not a chance.

And I wouldn't call BYU-Idaho a major university. 

Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa are all in cities without a huge population outside of the school itself and don't have any other large cities nearby. There's a lot of driving through the real middle of nowhere to get there.

Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa are all in cities above 70,000. Iowa City is just a stone's throw from Cedar Rapids - many of its employees actually live there. Champaign Urbana is a metro area of over 250,000. Bloomington is less than an hour away from the Indianapolis metro.

None of those are remotely similar to Pullman or even Corvallis.

And I have been to all five of those places.

If you were looking for a remote major university in the midwest, look at Southern Illinois in Carbondale.  18,000 students in a town of 25,000. You could even include Western Illinois in Macomb.

[WillWeaverRVA]

And I wouldn't call BYU-Idaho a major university. 

I don't typically call BYU-Idaho a major university either. I call it a cult with even more crazy restrictions than BYU's main campus in Provo.

However, they have an on-campus enrollment of about 17,000 people, which does qualify it as a large university. Rexburg itself has a population of about 39,000.

Thanks for agreeing with me, but we can leave out the religious references.

removed

[JayhawkCO]

The only one on this list that I would call "in the middle of nowhere" is Washington State.  Utah State and Oregon State make a good case as well.

But Indiana, Illinois and Iowa? Not a chance.

And I wouldn't call BYU-Idaho a major university. 

Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa are all in cities without a huge population outside of the school itself and don't have any other large cities nearby. There's a lot of driving through the real middle of nowhere to get there.

Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa are all in cities above 70,000. Iowa City is just a stone's throw from Cedar Rapids - many of its employees actually live there. Champaign Urbana is a metro area of over 250,000. Bloomington is less than an hour away from the Indianapolis metro.

None of those are remotely similar to Pullman or even Corvallis.

And I have been to all five of those places.

Well if you're ONLY including things like Pullman and Corvallis, then this thread won't exist for anything east of the Mississippi. As I put in my post, the universities that I listed are the only ones that seemed even moderately close to the definition.

[SEWIGuy]

The only one on this list that I would call "in the middle of nowhere" is Washington State.  Utah State and Oregon State make a good case as well.

But Indiana, Illinois and Iowa? Not a chance.

And I wouldn't call BYU-Idaho a major university. 

Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa are all in cities without a huge population outside of the school itself and don't have any other large cities nearby. There's a lot of driving through the real middle of nowhere to get there.

Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa are all in cities above 70,000. Iowa City is just a stone's throw from Cedar Rapids - many of its employees actually live there. Champaign Urbana is a metro area of over 250,000. Bloomington is less than an hour away from the Indianapolis metro.

None of those are remotely similar to Pullman or even Corvallis.

And I have been to all five of those places.

Well if you're ONLY including things like Pullman and Corvallis, then this thread won't exist for anything east of the Mississippi. As I put in my post, the universities that I listed are the only ones that seemed even moderately close to the definition.

I just edited my post to mention Southern Illinois in Carbondale, Western Illinois in Macomb.

Also Penn State and Auburn are way more remote than the three-I schools you mentioned.

[JayhawkCO]

The only one on this list that I would call "in the middle of nowhere" is Washington State.  Utah State and Oregon State make a good case as well.

But Indiana, Illinois and Iowa? Not a chance.

And I wouldn't call BYU-Idaho a major university. 

Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa are all in cities without a huge population outside of the school itself and don't have any other large cities nearby. There's a lot of driving through the real middle of nowhere to get there.

Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa are all in cities above 70,000. Iowa City is just a stone's throw from Cedar Rapids - many of its employees actually live there. Champaign Urbana is a metro area of over 250,000. Bloomington is less than an hour away from the Indianapolis metro.

None of those are remotely similar to Pullman or even Corvallis.

And I have been to all five of those places.

Well if you're ONLY including things like Pullman and Corvallis, then this thread won't exist for anything east of the Mississippi. As I put in my post, the universities that I listed are the only ones that seemed even moderately close to the definition.

I just edited my post to mention Southern Illinois in Carbondale, Western Illinois in Macomb.

Also Penn State and Auburn are way more remote than the three-I schools you mentioned.

I can get on board with Penn State.

The Auburn MSA has more people than the Iowa City MSA.

[WillWeaverRVA]

Also Penn State and Auburn are way more remote than the three-I schools you mentioned.

Yeah, Penn State would fit the bill in my opinion. Sure, State College constitutes its own metropolitan area, but it sure does feel like it's in the middle of nowhere if you go just a few miles out in any direction, and it's 50 to 60 miles away from the nearest municipalities of comparable size (about 55 miles from Williamsport with 27,000 people; about 65 miles from Harrisburg with 50,000 people).

[DTComposer]

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).

Drifting off-topic, but of note is UCLA, which was originally the southern branch of the State Normal School at San Jose (later San Jose State). The southern branch was transferred to the University of California in 1919 to become the southern branch of UC Berkeley, and wasn't formally considered of equal status to Berkeley until 1951.

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).

If you're going to include Chico State (14K students, 111K in the urban area), then you should consider Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (22K students, 57K in the urban area) (although the SLO metro is bigger than the Chico metro, but both include more distant urban areas).

[SEWIGuy]

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).

Drifting off-topic, but of note is UCLA, which was originally the southern branch of the State Normal School at San Jose (later San Jose State). The southern branch was transferred to the University of California in 1919 to become the southern branch of UC Berkeley, and wasn't formally considered of equal status to Berkeley until 1951.

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).

If you're going to include Chico State (14K students, 111K in the urban area), then you should consider Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (22K students, 57K in the urban area) (although the SLO metro is bigger than the Chico metro, but both include more distant urban areas).

What about Humboldt State?

[Rothman]

Heh.  The idea of BYU-Idaho being a major university is laughable.

Had a gen ed night English class that was taught by a former kindergarten teacher.  One night, she brought in a boom box.  Halfway through the class, she said something like, "I brought this radio in because there a song that I think you need to hear that's really touched me."

She then proceeded to play "I Write the Songs" by Barry Manilow.

[DandyDan]

The University of South Dakota in Vermillion has to be the state flagship university in the smallest city. Not much going on in Vermillion, regardless of what my former coworker thinks.

Another one whose campus I have seen is Ball State in Indiana.

[Rothman]

Hm.  I have an acquaintance that owns a bookstore in Vermillion...

[elsmere241]

Heh.  The idea of BYU-Idaho being a major university is laughable.

Had a gen ed night English class that was taught by a former kindergarten teacher.  One night, she brought in a boom box.  Halfway through the class, she said something like, "I brought this radio in because there a song that I think you need to hear that's really touched me."

She then proceeded to play "I Write the Songs" by Barry Manilow.

I hope it was still Ricks College then.  Even still . . .

[Rothman]

Heh.  The idea of BYU-Idaho being a major university is laughable.

Had a gen ed night English class that was taught by a former kindergarten teacher.  One night, she brought in a boom box.  Halfway through the class, she said something like, "I brought this radio in because there a song that I think you need to hear that's really touched me."

She then proceeded to play "I Write the Songs" by Barry Manilow.

I hope it was still Ricks College then.  Even still . . .

Even still, when a college "upgrades" to a university satellite campus by then getting rid of their football team, how can the rebranded 4-year school be considered a "major university"?

[elsmere241]

Even still, when a college "upgrades" to a university satellite campus by then getting rid of their football team, how can the rebranded 4-year school be considered a "major university"?

Tell me about it.  I saw their catalog recently and they don't offer a lot.  I know why they upgraded it, it seemed to be the only reasonable way to keep it open.  I do think its purpose now is to siphoning off the MRS degree seekers from Provo.

(I shouldn't say much more - my wife got her AAS from there when it was Ricks.)

[elsmere241]

Well if you're ONLY including things like Pullman and Corvallis, then this thread won't exist for anything east of the Mississippi. As I put in my post, the universities that I listed are the only ones that seemed even moderately close to the definition.

I don't know about that; Salisbury University and Maryland-Eastern Shore come to mind.  (Then again, nearby Cambridge does seem like the middle of nowhere, as would any place on the Virginia Eastern Shore.)

[JayhawkCO]

Well if you're ONLY including things like Pullman and Corvallis, then this thread won't exist for anything east of the Mississippi. As I put in my post, the universities that I listed are the only ones that seemed even moderately close to the definition.

I don't know about that; Salisbury University and Maryland-Eastern Shore come to mind.  (Then again, nearby Cambridge does seem like the middle of nowhere, as would any place on the Virginia Eastern Shore.)

I was basing my comment on the list of the Top 120 universities in enrollment that I posted. UMES isn't on that list.