Retire to a college town

April 15, 7:10 AMBaby Boomer ExaminerPaul Briand

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Scene from Chapel Hill, N.C.

Baby Boomers thinking about retirement -- assuming they can afford to retire these days -- have lots of options about where and how they want to live.

One option is a town or city with a college or university.

Especially for Baby Boomers the need to be entertained on the one hand but challenged on the other are key ingredients to how they want to live out their lives.

"You get a little bit of everything if you retire in a college town--cultural activities, athletic events, educational opportunities, and excellent medical facilities--which make them perfect places to retire. It's no wonder that they are becoming some of our most popular retirement destinations," says Ideal-Places-to-Retire.com.

This particular web site recommends:

• Oxford, Miss., home to the University of Mississippi - Ole Miss
• Bloomington, Ind., home to Indiana University
• Austin, Tex., home to the University of Texas
• Madison, Wis., home to the University of Wisconsin
• Knoxville, Tenn., home to the University of Tennessee

Do a Google search of "college towns for retirement" and you end up with 789,000 results.

Kiplinger.com, for example, in a slideshow suggests:

• Chapel Hill, N.C.
• Tallahassee, Fla.
• Athens, Ga.
• Hattiesburg, Miss.
• Fayetteville, Ark.
• Columbia, Mo.
• Eugene, Ore.
• Flagstaff, Ariz.
• Corvallis, Ore.
• Fort Collins, Colo.

A good resource to check out on what makes up a good college town is "The American College Town," a new book by Blake Gumprecht, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Geography at the University of New Hampshire.

Interestingly enough, the town of Durham, N.H., which is home to UNH, does not fit Gumprecht's own criteria as having the make-up of a good college town ... too much college and not enough town, he says.

The key is doing the same kind of research your children did for choosing a college: Check it out online, find recommendations pro and con, visit the place, get a feel for it, picture yourself there during each of the four seasons and what you could be doing to amuse and challenge yourself.

And try to answer two questions: What does a college town offer you in retirement? What do you offer a college town in retirement?