ITHACA -- If you're a parent or student planning to take the college tour, you may want to check this out. There's a new list of the 75 best cities for college students and it appears location is key. If you or your child will soon be college-bound, you may want to take a peak at the 2010-2011 College Destination Index.
"Most students and their parents think about location in a vague way. They have a general impression of locales, but they don't have much solid information, and it's hard to compare one to another. And that's what we're trying to do - so they can get a picture of that," Kerry Lynch, senior fellow at the non-profit American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) tells USA Today.
The AIER compiled a list of 222 metropolitan areas with at least 15,00 students, then narrowed it down to the top 75. It ranks cities by si\ze, from the largest metro areas to small college towns. The rankings are based on several criteria, including academic environment, quality of life and professional opportunity.
Locally, Ithaca ranks number one among best college towns. Rochester ranks 8th in midsize metros.
Click here to get a free copy of the index.
Top 10 major metro areas (Populations over 2.5 million)
1. San Francisco
2. New York
3. Washington
4. Boston
5. Seattle
6. Baltimore
7. Los Angeles
8. San Diego
9. Minneapolis-St. Paul
10. Philadelphia
Top 10 midsize metro areas (Population 1 million to 2.5 million)
1. San Jose
2. Austin
3. Raleigh, N.C.
4. Hartford, Conn.
5. Portland, Ore.
6. Pittsburgh
7. Salt Lake City
8. Rochester. N.Y.
9. Buffalo
10. Nashville
Top 10 small cities (250,000 to 1 million)
1. Boulder, Colo.
2. Ann Arbor, Mich.
3. Bridgeport, Conn.
4. Trenton-Ewing, N.J.
5. Gainesville, Fla.
6. Madison, Wis.
7. Durham, N.C.
8. Santa Cruz, Calif.
9. Honolulu
10. Fort Collins, Colo.
Top 10 college towns (under 250,000)
1. Ithaca, N.Y.
2. State College, Pa.
3. Iowa City
4. Ames, Iowa
5. Champaign-Urbana, Ill.
6. Charlottesville, Va.
7. Corvallis, Ore.
8. Bloomington, Ind.
9. Lawrence, Kan.
10. Logan, Utah
Source: American Institute for Economic Research
