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Everyone's opinion will differ, but this is mine.
Nice town, half residents and half college students (maybe a little more residents, but lots of students!)
Safe town. Bicycle theft is definitely one of the top crimes, mostly college kids taking them on their way home from the bars then ditching them in a bush or yard once they get home.
There is stuff to do besides bars. Lots of activities on campus for students. Movie theater, places to eat (though could be more, but there are plenty).
The campus is large and spread out. Commuting there isn't handy, parking is few and far between so better to live close to campus and bike or walk. Nice commons area, wellness center.
University has very helpful staff. I'm actually going there this fall for my masters degree and did a few undergrad courses there also. I enjoyed the on-campus classes. Online classes weren't as good as some other school's I've taken, but in class had excellent teachers and options for courses.
I'm not sure where you're from but winter can get real cold and snowy. If you're not commuting it's not as bad, just bundle up for the walk across campus
I spent 5 yrs there (graphic arts) really enjoyed it. Nice parks, generally a well kept town. Raen made great points in regards to parking and the long cold winters. The town is very spread out - downtown, campus, grocery and discount stores, and parks all spread across different areas - the town is easy to get around in though with wide streets.
Good amount of industry there which helps for some types of internships (Larson door/window, 3M, Daktronics to name the larger ones). Being a well rounded University, it also creates diverse personalities between engineering, arts, science, and math, and professors from all over.
it's a nice town with progressive leadership as of late. New nature park being created this fall to complement the existing parks. Town is attracting some money as of late, lots of new home construction and apartment construction going on, lots of construction period. Very low crime, very good economy (consistently in the top 20 counties in america for least economic stress)
Could use a few more stores, and one of the worse climates in the state too, being up on the couteau des prairies, it's quite a bit cooler some days in the spring, fall, and winter the compared to places like Sioux Falls and Yankton.. that air has to travel upward to get to brookings and cools as it does. There was 15 inches of snow on the ground here, and just a couple to zero around Sioux Falls and south come late February this year.. it stays below freezing in Brookings in Dec, Jan, and Feb for the most part where it can be 7-10 degrees warmer in Sioux Falls, and 10-15 degrees warmer in Yankton and Mitchell. It's basically, with Watertown, the coolest climates in the state, and rarely are there warm fronts during these 3 months for Brookings unless you count 25 degrees as warm. Big adjustment from eastern WI climate I was used too, where 25 was the typical high, teens was considered cold, and 30's to 40's for highs not at all uncommon.
I'd rather be in Yankton, and like Watertown more (the lake and natural topographic features in that area) , but Brookings is a nice town, and it's easy to commute to both Watertown and Sioux Falls and all the state parks in the area. Brookings is in a pretty centralized location where it's not super far to drive to any given area. Ultimately Brookings will have the better future compared to Yankton and Watertown, due to location and the University, progressive town leadership, and more. They are playing catch up, and they will catch up and surpass both towns in every way, it will just take time. They are really just missing variety in commercial shopping and eating. Towns with much lower populations (Marshall, MN, Mitchell, SD, Yankton, SD, Watertown, SD) all seem to have more shopping.
Stockwiz, where DO you get your information?
I grew up in mid to northern South Dakota and winter-weather-wise, Brookings is a treat compared to what you experience there. Think Summit and north, always windy, always road warnings. The Summit exit is the "twilight zone" of South Dakota, it's always a different story there. Even Watertown is often horrible driving compared to Brookings, as I commuted there from Brookings for 2 years, I often left Brookings with decent roads to run into horrible roads right around the Toronto Exit. Terrible wind, but the fault line (?) and continental divide have something to do with it, along with much more flat land between those two areas.
You really need to get out more
As far as shopping, there was much more shopping at one time, but those stores closed. Since we are so close to Sioux Falls many people work there, and shop there. Stores exist or fail in Brookings due to consumer response, and it's the consumers that decide. Alot of people have tried to open up shop just to close down 6 months to a year later. I can already see that with the new "mall".
yep that's true, it's easy enough to just drive to sioux falls. As for weather, yeah I probably do need to get out more. I'm looking more at temps, not road conditions. Living right in town, only the strongest storms keep me inside, and for maybe 4-6 hours. It's not so much driving conditions, it's more about outdoor enjoyment.
Just trying to lay all the cards out on the table here. The area of the couteau des prairies has some of the most consistently cool temps in the state. As far as climate goes, I think Rapid City is the clear winner of all the larger cities in the state. Brookings and Watertown are the losers (purely going by temperatures, not road conditions) .. but everyone has different tastes.
Doesn't make Brookings bad, it's a fine town, it's just worth noting for people who haven't visited here or aren't used to cold. The real difference between Brookings and Sioux Falls comes around springtime when the warm air starts to move up from the south.. no need to take my word for it, here's March 2011 data for both cities. I threw in Yankton and Rapid City as well. Warm air has a harder time climbing the Coteau Des Prairies, making winter seem to drag out.
No, No, I agree that Sioux Falls is by far the warmer choice. It's just the picture you were painting (the way I took it) is that Brookings is the end-all of cold weather in South Dakota, when I know where my family lives north of Watertown they are often 5 to 10 degrees colder in the winter. I go by road conditions, because that tells me the wind is more fierce heading north of Brookings as well.
That's all
Is it a good idea to bring a car to SDSU? My daughter was thinking about the school for the Pharmacy program. We currently live in Southern California, so not used to driving in extreme weather. Are there buses and or shuttles that can take you around town if you don't have a car?
Driving in town in the winter isn't bad if you wait until they plow the streets. It's driving out of town that can be tricky, but it's not always bad.
There is a bus in town: Untitled Document
Sometimes kids make friends that have cars so they can give them a lift also.
I know alot of people that don't have cars and get around with the bus just fine, or friends.
You can easily get by without a car, but it's not dangerous driving if you have one either
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