College Town Props
The best college cities in America? Austin's at the top of the class.
As high school seniors gear up to make big decisions about college, a recent study may sway them towards heading to Austin.
WalletHub recently released its rankings of best college towns and cities, and Austin ranks as the second best large college city, up one spot from last year. Only Atlanta surpasses us.
To determine the list, WalletHub analysts compared 415 U.S. cities using 26 key indicators, with categories ranging from cost of living and higher education to the number of nightlife options. Based on a weighted average across all 26 metrics, an overall score was calculated for each city.
While Austin fared well for its quality and cost of education and nightlife options, one metric didn't help our score: city accessibility. Austin ranked No. 183 in that category, which measured the percentage of workers in each city who bike, walk, or use public transportation.
Austin earned a score of 59.83 and a spot at 18 on the overall list. Not bad for a list of over 400 cities, although one Texas town edged us out: College Station earned the 10th spot overall.