The award-winning city has been recognized as one of the best college towns in the US as well as one of the ten best places to live in the United States. College towns come with a lot of perks. 3,407 reviews. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Joe has moved all over Utah, so he knows his way around a moving truck—and he spends his time (and money) expanding his personal library so it will be even heavier next time he moves. Not that it matters, but gas has not been under $2.99 a gallon in ages, a beer is NOT $2.54 anywhere, nor has it been under $5-6 for years, and there’s no goddamn train anywhere even in Burlington. While the college’s average tuition costs are a bit higher than a few others in our top 10, the city makes up for this with low rent costs and an unemployment rate of 0% for college-aged residents. Rank 2. East Lansing is a nice little town for college students or families who enjoy the college life. Right now, millions of people are reevaluating where they want to live. These cities and towns are ranked based on academics, social environment and cost of living. So before you can even go to the University of Vermont at $31k plus a year, you already can’t afford to buy food… And isn’t this geared toward college kids who with a full time course load often don’t even work full time? Good news for those who plan to stay in Claremont after graduation: CNN Money recently named the college town the best place to live in all of California. We analyzed more than 1,000 small to mid-sized cities on factors like safety, affordability, economic stability, outdoor recreation, accessibility, community engagement. The personal finance website WalletHub recently released its report on 2020's Best College Towns & Cities In America. And using data, here are the 10 best college towns in America: Ann Arbor, MI; Fairfax, VA; Chapel Hill, NC; East Lansing, MI; Morgantown, WV; Bloomington, IN; Ogden, UT; New Brunswick, NJ; Seattle, WA; Laramie, WY; While some of these may not seem like a 'real' college town per se (hello, Seattle), when you look at the numbers, it's hard to argue against. 31 PHOTOS. Boulder has the perfect mix of student life and post graduate livability, making it an easy selection as our best college town in America. Continue your search throughout college and keep that cash flow going. The 2019 Best College Towns in America We ranked the Top 50 Best College Towns in the U.S. based on public schools, cost of living, job opportunities, crime, and local amenities as part of our 2019 Best Places to Live in America . A lively local scene with good, affordable restaurants, independent boutiques, and support of the arts. You can learn more about our site and privacy policy here. Keep reading to find a town where you can live your college life on your budget. Its college-town feel and friendly Southern hospitality has earned it local and national recognition. I’ve lived/worked in Boston which was on the “Top 10 Most Expensive College Town” list and found nicer apartments for less money than Burlington Vermont, with all the culture of being in a city, and much better paying jobs. Provo, Utah While the peanut’s status is hotly contested, it’s still a neat little landmark in this affordable college town. We’ll do the nuts and bolts first. Town's Overall Niche Grade A+. We’ve outlined ten top college towns to plan your next wilderness excursion. 63. If you want to hit the beach between hitting the books, then Malibu might seem like the perfect place to study. Economic stability, cost-of-living, cultural diversity, safety, and education are a few data points analyzed to bring you the Best Places to Live in 2020. Top 20 college towns for students. Don’t worry: Mountain views abound here, even if exotic cars are in (relatively) … Many tech giants are headquartered in the city, so it’s a great place to launch directly into a tech career straight out of college. #13 Best College Locations in America. If you’re like most first-year college students, you’re going to need to learn how to balance rent, utilities, and groceries while also staying on top of all your new coursework. The university has an incredible staff, clubs for every interest, and a great community feel. Rolling Stone magazine has called Lawrence “one of the best lil’ college towns” in the country. Douglas, GA. Home to South Georgia State College, Douglas is the most affordable college town in the country. Let us lighten your load by pointing you toward a moving company you can trust and afford. Douglas, GA. Home to South Georgia State College, Douglas is the most affordable college town in the country. Ranking the 20 best college towns in America. The city also sits right along the Arkansas River, so it has plenty to offer outdoorsy folk. To determine the Best College Towns in America for 2019, Livability and ABODO ranked all U.S. cities with at least one college campus and a population between 20,000 and 350,000 based on the following factors: 30% – The ratio of the city’s median salary (from the Bureau of Labor Statistics) to its September 2019 median one-bedroom rent. Locals know it as a significantly cheaper, much more laid-back version of Boulder, Colorado’s best-known college town (and, lately, a burgeoning tech hub where locals are increasingly priced out of a high-flying real estate market). Hays’s average tuition rate is one of the highest among cities in our top 10, but the city’s affordable apartments mean you won’t break the bank to make rent. But their gain is ours as well. Median rent is $1222.06, with a minimum wage of $10.50. This arboretum allows NMSU botany students to get a hands-on—and affordable—learning experience. Going to college means opening yourself up to new experiences, new friends, and new living costs. To help you find a college town where you can get the learning experience of your dreams without committing to decades of debt, we’ve looked at college towns across the nation and ranked them based on affordability. Sports: Angels spring training, Cardinals football and the great ASU vs. University of Arizona rivalry. It is certainly no coincidence that several of the best cities to live in every state are college towns. While the college’s average tuition costs are a bit higher than a few others in our top 10, the city makes up for this with low rent costs and an unemployment rate of 0% for college … Other cost of living factors like average utility costs, gas prices, and grocery bills weren’t included in our rankings. This staggering rental price makes Garden City the least affordable city for college students in the US. Our editors first compiled a list of every college town in California. Maybe it comes from the large populations of students, the affordable cost of living, and the unique cultures that surround them. However, higher rent prices and unemployment make it slightly less affordable for college students paying their own way. Let’s take #13 for example, and one I have intimate experience with- Burlington, Vermont. You should really enjoy living in your chosen place. Activities abound here for seniors, including driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway, fishing, attending a street festival or taking in a local performance at the university’s Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts. While choosing a university, it is very important to pay a great attention on its location. To figure out which college towns are most affordable, we looked at costs for housing, food, healthcare, transportation, and utilities, and compared them to the national and state averages. Who says you have to be a student to live in (and love!) Go beyond the standard tour and schedule an overnight visit to your prospective school at all hours. Nearby Greeley, another college town about 20 miles to the east, is the hub for Colorado’s robust (though cyclical) energy industry. Austin, Texas. Here are the 20 best cities for recent college grads: 20. The best places to go to college, based on the academic, social and economic opportunities for … U.S. News has named it one of the top ten places to live in the United States, and Niche.com has ranked it the number one best town in Alabama. We have written a list of the best towns and cities across the USA for a student to live and study. Gainesville, FL, is the home of the University of Florida, and had a much larger-than-average young-adult population. Cheapest Places To Live In Florida. See the cities … Things You Should Know about Moving Containers, How Moving Containers Can Save You Money & Stress, Best Car Shipping Companies for Your Military Move, Best Climate-Controlled Self-Storage Companies, How to Estimate the Storage Unit Size You Need, Things You Should Know Before You Rent a Self-Storage Unit. Every year, the list changes: we do surveys and studies, adjust our algorithm, add in new variables and data points, and celebrate a new #1 city. For the past seven years, Livability.com has released a data-driven list of the Top 100 Best Places to Live in America. Sophomore: BU is a wonderful school located in the heart of Boston, granting students access to all the sights of the city in addition to other college students. It shouldn’t be surprising that a town located in Happy Valley should be one of the best places in the country to live. My Take: How to Narrow Down Your College List, Why Searching for Scholarships Shouldn’t Stop at Graduation, How Overnight Visits Help You Pick a College. While the city’s average apartment rentals are a little more reasonable, this enormous tuition cost puts this college town well beyond what most students can afford. We then used Sperling’s Best Places to rank each town on general affordability. Yes, that’s a decent minimum wage comparatively, but at a 40 hr work week that means you’re pulling $1680 before taxes and before utilities. A college town in California’s Silicon Valley, Santa Clara allows technology students to study while networking and scoring internships with tech giants. However, the enormous cost of tuition and the city’s high rent prices mean Malibu isn’t a realistic option for students trying to graduate debt-free. However, over half of University Park’s college-aged residents can’t find work, so you might still have a hard time making rent and tuition payments if you study there. And with tuition prices constantly on the rise, choosing an affordable place to attend college can be just as important as getting into a good school. Here are the 20 best cities for recent college grads: 20. What Can (And Can’t) I Store in a Storage Unit? Affordability Grade C+. The South’s Best College Towns 2020 1. Associated College University of California - Berkeley. Situated in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Boone is a college town with a low crime rate, which provides beautiful scenery without fail — perfect for hiking, biking or just enjoying the view. Home to South Georgia State College, Douglas is the most affordable college town in the country. These include lively atmospheres, full calendars of local events, and usually, a lower cost of living compared to most other desirable places to live. Joe Roberts is a professional writer with a degree in writing studies and over three years of copywriting experience. Ali is the former Content Writer/Editor at Niche. 54.5. While Garden City’s median tuition isn’t the highest we’ve seen, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the city is nearly $1,000 higher than the next most expensive on our list. By Brad Crawford May 30, 2018 . Edit; Slot to 247Sports Home ; Slot to 247Sports Newsletter; Slot … Why stop at just your high school years when searching for scholarships? Did we miss your favorite? a college town? Check out our list of moving deals and discounts to make your move more affordable. Moraga is just a short drive (in good traffic) away from Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, so it’s an excellent place to study if you want proximity to cultural and technological epicenters. This makes DC a world-class college town for students in just about any field from politics to medicine. College towns have a special energy about them. As a mom of one who's lived and worked all across the country, she's glad to have once again found her niche in her hometown of Pittsburgh. Finishing off our top 10 list is Murray, KY, another Southern small town. Like the other West Coast cities we’ve mentioned, though, the city’s tuition and rent are both higher than most students can reasonably afford. Gainesville, FL, is the home of the University of Florida, and had a much larger-than-average young-adult population. Unsurprisingly, Fort Collins made our roundup of the best vacation towns to live in year-round. Home to Amherst College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the little town of Amherst has a long and interesting history that includes such figures as Robert Frost, Daniel Webster, and Emily Dickinson, among many others. Ranked by Outside magazine as one of the top 20 places to live in America, little Corvallis, Oregon has a lot to offer residents. Home to Syracuse University, Le Moyne College, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and Upstate Medical University, this northeastern town offers solid scores across multiple categories, especially its ranking for WalkScore (14th) and bars (33rd). Ada’s population is under 20,000 residents,4 making it a small, quiet town as well as an affordable place to study. Charlottesville, Virginia Image zoom Credit: Facebook/University of Virginia Hugging the foothills of the Blue Ridge... 3. Hoboken sits right across the Hudson River from Manhattan, so while its rent prices are pretty high, they aren’t as high as you might expect. 9 Comments. Affordability Grade D+. This site is a U.S. Consumer site. 1. Best Places 2020 #17-27 Woodstock, Georgia Broomfield, Colorado Abington, Pennsylvania Midlothian, Virginia Mason, Ohio Mount Juliet, Tennessee West Fargo, North Dakota Concord, North Carolina New Braunfels, Texas Braintree, Massachusetts Vernon Hills, Illinois A low crime rate and the ability to get around town without a personal vehicle are thought of as central pillars of a high quality of life in the U.S., and Newton, Massachusetts, was one of the best college towns in the country in both categories. But what really cements Los Altos in our bottom 10 is its stunning unemployment rate for college-aged residents. At the heart of Willamette Valley in central Western Oregon is the charming town of Corvallis, a must-consider on your list of college towns. Small towns don’t always offer the college experience you see in raucous ’80s movies, but they’re great places to attend college if you want to focus on your education. If you’re one of them, this list is for you. College towns make great places to live. That is, if you can manage the high rent and tuition prices. If you happen to be in town for New Year’s, walk over to downtown for one of the best New Year's celebrations in the country featuring bands, dancers, two fireworks displays and much more. Its proximity to larger towns including the capital city make it a really great place to live and enjoy small-town community life while still having access to larger cities. The city has a strong literary history, as the hometown of southern gothic writer William Faulkner, and the Ford Center for Performing Arts celebrates local artists and musicians. The net price was calculated by adding the advertised price for tuition, fees, books, supplies, and the average living costs at the school and subtracting the average grant and/or scholarship aid (such as Pell grants, school-based grants, and merit scholarships). The town hosts several arts and music festivals throughout the year and enjoys cheering on their favorite sports’ teams, of course, the MSU Spartans.