Why are a lot of college campuses located in terrible neigbourhoods?

Question

Columbia, Yale come to mind immediately.

There are many more.

Which is the worst?

Answer 1

Many schools, as in the case of USC, were not in a bad neightborhood when they were built. Some were in good neighborhoods; some the middle of nowhere. But cities grew up around them, flourished and faltered. There's a neighborhood of old Victorian houses north of USC... but they're all in a hideous state of disrepair. They were once lovely, now belong to poorer people who can't afford to fix them up except to rent them out to students, who often just make them worse.

I bet there's a strong correlation between the age of the school and how bad the neighborhood is.

Answer 2

Most college campuses are in bad neighborhoods because they were built in nice rural areas on the outskirts of /bordering cities, but then the city expanded an ended up all around the college and a bad area came up around it. Which is the worst.... hmmmm tough call! Right now I would give it to Columbia after talking to a few people. IT stinks whn you go to a nice college in a crappy neighborhood. I haven't experienced this yet, but I may have to for grad school.

Answer 3

Johns Hopkins in Baltimore has armed security on campus. It's pretty much the worst place - and it's the nation's top medical school.

Answer 4

schools usually need to keep their capital expenses down, which means the cost of their real estate needs to be low. the best way to keep real estate costs low is to go to less desired areas where land is cheap...of course, around the campus, housing costs are usually artificially elevated to gouge students who need to live close to campus, but overall, the college being in the area props up the local economy.

Answer 5

What do you mean by neighborhoods? You must mean UCLA...