Lancaster would be a different place without F&M. I've always thought college town meant the college supported most if not all of the local population, something like West Chester, the town would still exist without WCU but it would be just like Downingtown then, nothing super special. I think lancaster would be in a very similar spot.

You're forgetting that West Chester is the county seat of Chester County PA, the fastest growing and richest county in the entire state (and usually somewhere in the top 25-40 of the US.) So, you have the county courthouse and all the typical government stuff, which Downingtown lacks.

Lancaster is much larger than either, though different cities have varying land areas they count. Lancaster is also the seat of its same named county.

I look at 'college town' as defining somewhere where school(s) are located, and the population count of 18-24 makes up almost 50% of the population. Newark, DE (University of Delaware) and Bloomsburg, PA (Bloomsburg U) seem to fit that better.

F&M is not actually among the top employers [0]. Whereas in State College, Penn State is the top employer by a ridiculous margin [1].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancaster,_Pennsylvania#Econom...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_College,_Pennsylvania#Ec...

Put another way: State College has a permanent population of 40,000. Penn State at State College employs 27,000 people (already over half of the population). And during the school year there are 46,000 undergraduates in the main campus. So over 100% of the permanent population are associated with the school during the school year.

In contrast: Lancaster City has ~60,000 population, F&M employs ~1100 [0] and F&M has 2400 students. That accounts for 5% of the population during the school year and <2% of the population permanently.

[0] https://www.linkedin.com/school/franklin-&-marshall-college/

I agree it isn't a true "college town" but I think with the gentrification and the art college it feels more like a college town than say Carlisle that also has one main college. I think it also has a lot of the cultural diversity that you'd expect from a bigger college town. But in either case, it is great!

Yeah specifically what I mean is that the median age in Lancaster is 33 and the median age in State College is 21.

So even if there are schools there the feel is more young adult than college student.