The Syracuse area already brings the Rochester tech community, Syracuse University, Upstate Medical (which is currently expanding), Syracuse University, Cornell, Morrisville, etc and the city is right at the cross roads of I-90 and I-81. 

I am not sure if you will find a property manager that will do this unless you have a nice property in a desirable location.Rooming houses are more common closer to the university since college kids do not mind living with other random college kids.

Their tenant pool universally has poor credit.

She is interested in getting a property in West Hartford because her daughter is attending the University of Hartford.

I bought my first rental property 3 years ago in my area, which is located directly next to one college and within 15 min of a university.

I was fortunate to end up in Columbus, Ohio after attending The Ohio State University. 

We are looking at potential house near a local university and would plan on doing some renovations to update the house prior to next school year.

There are many variables to consider -  crime/policing strategies, transportation, city development plans, schools/universities, etc. 

You can buy a single family near a university, if it allows it, and rent out the rooms individually.

because 12 units at 100k/unit would be 1.2M needing ~400k down which I don't have access to right now.)I was in university for accounting, hurt my back and then decided that I did not want to pursue accounting.