usually when i return from a long quest a dragon shows up to the college and attacks ive already had 6 dragons come up so far. im wonderin if im the reason why they come up. any suggestions?

You are the Dragonborn, so............or maybe they just hate Winterhold.

Have you defeated all the dragons? Or is it the same dragon over and over again?

Also, I have taken to saving before fast traveling to a city, traveling to a place near a city and wait a minute or two, if no dragon shows up, then I go to the city. For the College, I believe it is Sky Temple that is right near it. But, anything in that hold would work.

Also, I think there is a quest that triggers a dragon attack at the college. But, I am not sure about that, I just know it is common for attacks to occur there.

i just meh with it as far as i know no one at winterhold can die (maybe guard if flies into town but theres never any npcs wandering about town except guards and the people at winterhold are invincible)

Do you fast travel to the college? Because that would be the main reason why dragons would continually spawn there.

I think I read somewhere that it all depends on where you frequent most. I have the same situation for my Mage at the moment and in my first playthrough I had the same situation in Dawnstar. Not quite sure if that is correct but that's what I think.

Fast travel is the main culprit of frequent dragon attacks.
I have a habit of saving if I do fast travel anywhere in this game.

yeah depending how far away i am from the college

yeah i have but im not sure if its the same dragon theyre all blood dragons so maybe

It's related to fast travel. It's like everytime you fast travel the game resets and the chance to get a dragon increases. When I rarely fast travel I see much less dragons.

Like others I've mentionned I tend to save before fast travelling, although I've never had an NPC die at the College. Dragons don't last long with 5 mages attacking them.

I think you are right. Dragons hit the college most often for me as well.

Yeah, I always seem to run into a dragon at the College of Winterhold courtyard. I have seen dragons appear in the same spots before but it only happens like 2 times. At the College, I have seen a dragon about 5 or 6 times.

Ah... I'm glad I don't FT because then dragon fights would get boring...

Fast travel is to blame....i know it happened to my mage A LOT....but with that many storm atronachs and expert mages attacking, they usually die pretty quick.....

I Fus Doh Rahed the merchant of the cliff once as I forgot to change to dragon rend she died and her husband took over the store. Maybe it is all the magic beacons at the college that attracts them as it is a common occurence to fight them there, particularly if you fast travel in.

I had this on my first playthrough as a spellsword.

You could just not do the quest at the begining of the game (Before the storm) on you're next playthrough. This way the dragons will not attack anywhere until you progress the main quest. Handy if you are playing a stealth/thief/assassin who has no time for stupid dragons.