I've lived in many college towns. Both in Texas and California. Universities have varying degrees of civic interaction. From insular to interactive.
Let me detail my experiences. I started life in the San Francisco Bay Area near SJSU and I currently reside in Fort Worth near TCU.
I'm going to subjectively rate these schools from 1 to 5. Five being "very involved" in the community.
SJSU -3
Stanford -2
UC Berkeley - 2
UCLA - 5
CSULA - 4
UT Austin - 4
Midwestern State - 4
TCU - 1
TCU wants you to go to their football, baseball and basketball games. That's where they make money. Sadly, their primary community art gallery is located in a tiny strip mall off campus. Not much there.
UC Berkeley and Stanford are the proverbial ivory towers. It's all about academics and they don't offer much programming for the public. But they do much better than TCU.
UCLA is heavily involved in the Los Angeles arts and culture scene. When I lived in Southern California, it seemed every week there was either a lecture, an exhibition or an event my wife and I would find interesting. Same with CSULA.
So there you are. These are my impressions of various universities I've experienced. I loved going to UCLA and UT Austin. Too bad conservative TCU, just 10 minutes away, is a stick in the mud. I'd rather be in Austin or LA. Or in the Bay Area near my familia.
