I’ll quibble with the wording. But, having lived in and visited many places, some with very good universities, and some not, I’m going to say yes.

At least, for my tastes, and the things I value and appreciate.

I would replace the term “prestigious” with “good”, though. The prestige and attitudes aren’t what cause the effect. Neither is it the “higher intelligence” per se, but the many effects of clever people who are interested in interesting things, and the attention given to arts and studies and people doing what they’re interested in, learning and all that comes with all of that.

Assumption built on assumption; where is your source ?

I used to live in Cambridge halfway between Harvard and MIT. I didn’t observe any special halo of intelligence, on the street, in the shops and restaurants and supermarkets, or at bus stops and subway stations. Everybody just seemed like pretty ordinary folks to me. Perhaps the rarefied atmosphere stopped at the campus boundaries.

College towns do have a special atmosphere that I enjoy. You can almost taste the youthful enthusiasm in the air. It’s refreshing. Higher IQ per capita has little to nothing to do with that though. I work with two extremes, lower IQ, uneducated workers and those at the top end of the scale. I find people I love and people I’d rather stay away from in both groups. The quality of life seems to track “is this a shitty human or not” more closely than IQ. Too many shitty humans and quality of life in their proximity takes a sharp nose dive.

Having grown up in what I like to call the “Stanford Sphere of Influence” (the area that straddles the border between San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, California, and is home to a number of wealthy, highly educated communities), I would say, yes, with an important “but”. Yes, this area is known for its high-paying tech jobs, high-performing public schools, liberal values (coming out as gay here was painless), green policies, and cultural diversity. But with that comes an extremely high cost of living that often prices people out and a lot of social pressure to conform and meet the high standards that people living here tend to have. It’s a common attitude here (especially when I was a teen) that if you don’t get into Stanford or another top school and work in tech, you’re worthless. A high school in Palo Alto became infamous for its high rate of teen suicides, often tied to the amount of pressure they were experiencing from parents and the society at large. This area is very much a “bubble” that sometimes feels like it’s disconnected from the rest of the region or even the rest of the world. I very much appreciated being raised here with all the privileges that entailed, but I was also careful not to fall into the “trap” that this place can create. As with many situations, there are downsides that follow the upsides.

. A halo of intelligence. What the hell is that supposed to mean!

If you make me pick yes or no I’d say yes, but there are very smart people everywhere and not so smart people everywhere. Really hard to generalize it. If I’m right that the concentration of higher IQ is higher near top universities, then I would also say the higher percentage is minimal.

You might get a concentration of higher IQ’s in cities with certain industries rather than specific universities. Although, the two often go hand in hand.

So many things affect the personality and feeling in a town or city.

Based on my experiences I would say yes. I will look for some studies to post here.

Living and working in the Boston/Cambridge area, I have seen that to be true. I also have a home in the Berkshire’s in Western Mass where this also holds true due to the higher learning in the area.

Higher level education institutions in an area do elevate the amount of population who are in general highly educated. This is a key indicator when measuring quality of life.

I think I wrote “higher” a zillion times.

Alot of very ” intelligent ” people cannot relate to a ” normal ” person. They are locked in their world