[iheartthed]

I think I've only been to four flagship college towns that aren't a major or large city:

Ann Arbor
Berkeley
College Park
New Brunswick

I was drunk most of the time that I was in College Park, so I don't really remember a lot of the details. Ann Arbor and Berkeley are fairly evenly matched. Ann Arbor might have a slight edge on having a more iconic campus, while Berkeley has the better location (much more scenic and easier to commute into the city from there).

New Brunswick is okay, but definitely not as pretty as Ann Arbor or Berkeley. The biggest plus is having a train station right on the Northeast Corridor line, which means direct commuter rail access to NYC and Philadelphia, and also easy Amtrak access to Boston, Baltimore and D.C.