Recently, “The Princeton Review” listed Southern Methodist University as No. 4 under the category ranking of “Great College Towns.”
Now, this may be naive, but isn’t a “Great College Town” known for cheap beer, college friendly prices and school spirit displayed on every street corner?
The top five schools in the category are all located in major U.S. cities. The rankings, in order, are Eugene Lang College (New York City), Barnard College (NYC), DePaul University (Chicago), Southern Methodist University and Columbia University (NYC).
“The Princeton Review” says it prides itself on being an institution where there are “specialists that help make sure students are making the best choices.” It produces these rankings by asking 110,000 college students to complete questionnaires about their university.
If you were a high school student and took its list seriously, wouldn’t you feel deceived if you came to SMU on the premise that Dallas, large metropolis that it is, was a “Great College Town?” Dallas is a lot of wonderful things, but a “Great College Town” is not one of them.
The Daily Campus recently ran an editorial spotlighting the high expense of electricity bills for students who live off campus. Friends, we all know that electricity is not the most expensive thing about experiencing college life in Dallas.
Every Thursday or Friday night, fraternities or sororities host parties at centrally located venues where drink prices are through the roof, even for a simple Bud Light. And most of us can admit that we know where the best drink specials are located and on which night of the week (anyone for $2 margaritas on Monday night?).
As many upperclassmen have realized, when it comes time to move away from the great Boulevard, the housing prices that you find shock even the wealthiest of parents. Finding the perfect apartment near campus for a reasonable price is like trying to obtain a new fall-line Gucci bag in the spring. It is almost impossible. The real estate prices around SMU are another reason Dallas will never be a “Great College Town.” I have friends who attend the University of Wisconsin and live in four bedroom abodes for the same price as a 1,000 square-foot apartment in Dallas.
As a girl, I do feel extremely sorry for the searching bachelor at SMU. Trying to impress a girl in this city is almost always going to cost you a lot more money than your parents give you every month.
Due to the large amounts of nice (expensive) restaurants in Dallas, the men of SMU are going to be spending a lot more cash to woo that hot girl in their calculus class, than say if they lived in College Station, Texas, where the nicest restaurant is a chain like Chili’s or Olive Garden.
All Mustangs agree that Dallas is a great city. But “The Princeton Review” got this category wrong. A better example of a college town is Boulder, Colo. or Austin, Texas, places where the college is engulfed in the city and vice versa.
The category should be renamed something like “Great Large Cities in which to Attend College,” because with most of the colleges listed under this ranking, that is exactly what you will get.
Renie Malchow is a senior journalism major. She may be contact at [email protected].
