April 28, 2024
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WalletHub News Release
2018's Best & Worst College Towns & Cities in America
With application season in full gear and college living costs reaching $24,980 per student for nine to 12 months, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2018’s Best & Worst College Towns & Cities in America as a follow-up on its College & University Rankings.
To help college-bound high school seniors determine their future home for the next several years, WalletHub compared more than 400 U.S. cities – also grouped by city size – based on 28 key indicators of academic, social and economic growth potential. The data set ranges from cost of living to quality of higher education to crime rate.
| Best Large College Cities* | . | Best Midsize College Cities* | . | Best Small College Cities* | |||
| 1 | Austin, TX | 1 | Orlando, FL | 1 | Ann Arbor, MI | ||
| 2 | Las Vegas, NV | 2 | Scottsdale, AZ | 2 | Rexburg, ID | ||
| 3 | Tampa, FL | 3 | Gainesville, FL | 3 | Provo, UT | ||
| 4 | San Diego, CA | 4 | Plano, TX | 4 | West Lafayette, IN | ||
| 5 | Seattle, WA | 5 | Irvine, CA | 5 | Storrs, CT | ||
| 6 | Portland, OR | 6 | Madison, WI | 6 | East Lansing, MI | ||
| 7 | Los Angeles, CA | 7 | Pasadena, CA | 7 | Amherst Center, MA | ||
| 8 | Atlanta, GA | 8 | Salt Lake City, UT | 8 | Orem, UT | ||
| 9 | Miami, FL | 9 | Tempe, AZ | 9 | Berkeley, CA | ||
| 10 | Chicago, IL | 10 | Chandler, AZ | 10 | College Station, TX | ||
| *For simplicity, we used the term “Cities” to refer to both cities and towns. | |||||||
Best vs. Worst
- Jonesboro, Arkansas, has the lowest cost of a two-bedroom apartment rental, $662 per month, which is 4.7 times lower than in San Francisco and Daly, Calif., the cities with the highest at $3,121 per month.
- Edinburg, Texas, has the lowest cost-of-living index for young people, 76.02, which is 4.7 times lower than in Stanford, California, the city with the highest at 359.79.
- Albany, Georgia, has the lowest cost of higher education, $17,398 per year, which is 4.1 times lower than in Evanston, Illinois, the city with the highest at $70,496 per year.
- Storrs, Conn. is among the cities with the most enrolled students (per 1,000 residents), 907, which is 20.6 times more than in Cape Coral, Florida, the city with the fewest at 44.
- Rexburg, Idaho, is among the cities with the fewest violent crimes (per 1,000 residents), 0.3, which is 68.3 times fewer than in Detroit, the city with the most at 20.5.
- Storrs, Conn. is among the cities with the highest share of part-time jobs, 93.64 percent, which is 3.9 times higher than in Pearland, Texas, the city with the lowest at 24.16 percent.
To view the full report and your city’s rank, please click here.
