Oxford, Cambridge, Athens, Heidelberg – College Town USA

So, you’re a brand new state and you need a state university. Well, you’re also gonna need a town for that university too, you know.

As for the university, well that’s simple. It’ll probably just be something along the lines of the “University of [state]” or perhaps “[state] State University” or something like that. Easy.

As for the town? Well, what better name to give it than something that’s already got some academic eclat? And, looking back to our European roots, that gives us stuff like Athens, and Cambridge, and Oxford, and even Heidleberg.

So, what states out there have towns and cities with those names? And which of those have colleges? Here’s what I could find:

NOTE – The ones with asterisks by them have colleges in them.

A few observations:

• Athens and Oxford seem universally appealing. 
• Cambridge, for some odd reason, was shunned in the South. Perhaps it was already associated with Cambridge, MA, home of Harvard (and, thus, the dreaded North!).
• Heidelbergs, though few and far between, are widely dispersed. That probably just goes to show that Germans pretty much settled everywhere.
• Kentucky is the only state with all four.
• Virginia and South Carolina surprisingly have none.
• Both Georgia and Ohio have Athens and Oxfords, and both with colleges in them

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