Edit: Why is this opinion so unacceptable here?
Many 'college towns' were college towns before they were much else.
A largely transient population creates economic incentives to create and perpetuate all sorts of bad and immoral behavior.
And by "bad and immoral" I'm not talking about drinking to excess and the bar that doesn't ID, I'm talking about running a predatory towing company, being a jerk slumlord landlord because your tenants won't be around to take you to court, etc. etc. Often times the local governments even try and take a cut by engaging in revenue policing (as if they weren't already in a better revenue position than the surrounding towns). And when you're in an economic environment like that the only way to get ahead is to do all the bad things everyone else is doing. You can't run an honest business when your commercial landlord is setting rates based on the profits of all the dishonest businesses.
Crazy markups at retail, over charging for services, exploitative labor practices against a labor pool that is mostly ill-informed of their rights. And it all rolls around in a giant cycle that nobody can break out of. This is basically a 1:1 copypasta from a seasonal tourism economy.
The guy who wants to run an honest bookstore on mains street can't afford the rent because the rent reflects the money you'd make importing overpriced clothes branded with the town name. The commercial landlord can't lower the rent because the plumber and electrician know there's big bucks to be made so they charge accordingly. The guy who wants to run a landscaping service has to charge the plumber big bucks to grade his yard and work his employees to the bone because the tire shop charged him $2k to put $500 tires on his skid steer because he's being screwed by his landlord who's being screwed by his plumber.
And this rat race where everything is inflated wears out and runs down the people who want to make an honest living (they tend to get out if they can). And eventually over time the only people left are the ones who drink the kool-aid and the ones who don't see anything wrong with this sort of "screw everyone as hard as you can every time, you win some you lose some but hopefully you win more in the end" behavior that becomes the default in the local economy.
I'm sure (just like tourist towns) some college towns are better and some are worse depending on how much of the local industry money gleaned from the transient population represents.
Students aren't exactly known for having a lot of money. What is it that lets you markup in a college town?