I went to a Jewish wedding in Santa Cruz CA on Saturday. I got there about 1.5 hours early and needed to change into a suit, so I hit Starbucks and lounged around for that time. In addition to having a weird culture to begin with, UCSC is located here. It is the only campus in the famed UC system that does not give letter grades. It's an absolutely gorgeous locale with the ocean, mild weather and lush vegetation; however, God are there weird people there!
Other weird college towns:
Eugene OR - California-hating Oregonians and earthy-crunchy frumps galore
Bellingham WA and Olympia WA - more of the same; also, lots of Subarus - what saves Bellingham is that it's closer to Vancouver Canada than to Seattle -- a mere 22 miles from the border check.
Other not as weird college towns:
Berkeley CA - at the wedding yesterday, I was told it is now too expensive to be weird. Heck, one might even find a Republican or two.
Chico CA - now, I like Chico. Why? It's a college town without the college town weirdness. It's also in an eerie location at the foothills of the Sierra Nevada but too low to see any snow. It's a toaster during the summer.
None of the college towns in So Cal qualify as weird. They are all too suburban, hedonistic and conservative.
ADD SOME MORE WEIRD COLLEGE TOWNS.
I've been to Burlington VT while in Montreal. It was SORT of weird, I guess. I know the Northeast has a handful of them.