OU grad here. Athens is an incredible place to attend college. The fall in Athens is one of the most beautiful landscapes I’ve had the privilege of living in to this day. Tucked away in the hills/valleys that span from SE Ohio to Kentucky, Pennsylvania and West Virginia it really is a gem. It’s a smaller campus that you can walk across in 15 minutes but somehow houses around 20k kids. Not huge on fraternities although they exist. All housing around campus is college kids so weekends you could literally just walk up to houses and people would hand you a beer, with the expectation that you’d return the favor. Entire streets filled of college kids hanging on the porch partying shooting the **** and bumping music. It’s a very chill down home Midwest vibe without really no pretentiousness. I think OU students think of themselves as a little more blue collar than OSU, even though 3 of my buddies are now doctors and 4 are accountants lol
The locals around don’t have it nice. Joe Burrow talked about the poverty level in his heisman speech. Heroin and painkillers and poor education plague the county, whose main economy is driven by the university. I believe Athens county is the poorest in Ohio or one of them. Many locals are offspring of coal miners and hill folk.
That being said, I met great friends that are still my boys to this day and haven’t once regretted going to school there. There is a reason alumni are very proud of going there. It’s such a random school with so much to offer. We used to call it Disney land without parents so we want to share it with everyone hahaha. Also because Ohio State thinks it’s our big brother, but their students would come visit us for the big party weekends. Don’t get me wrong, Columbus during football season is a great time too, but Athens in the spring/street fest season is undefeated.
Weather wise, we definitely got spring earlier and was probably warmer in the fall/summer than Cleveland but we still had our fair share of snow and cold days off from school. One time we had a week off. Of course that turned into a drinking escapade for everyone lol.
If any of you randomly find yourself driving through southeast Ohio I can’t recommend Athens enough. Go checkout the hocking hills, old man’s cave and have a beer on court st and enjoy the vibe. Also miller’s chicken is a must
Apologies for the ramble but I never imagined OU would be brought up on this forum so I had to chime in. Thanks for letting me reminisce.
