It’s back to school season, and those returning to college know there’s something unique about the feel of a college town.
Whether it’s hearing the school band play your alma mater’s fight song, taking a stroll through campus or reminiscing about memories made as a young adult, everyone’s college town has a special feel of “home” to it. But where can you find the best college towns in the U.S.? If you live in Ohio, you won’t have to travel far.
Three of the top college towns in the U.S. are located here in the Buckeye State, according to WalletHub’s 2023 Best College Towns & Cities in America.
Columbus, Ohio – home to more than 60,000 Ohio State University students – is the best college town in Ohio, and 28th-best in the U.S., according to WalletHub’s rankings.
Oxford, Ohio – home to Miami University and its more than 16,000 students – was just behind Columbus, ranking 30th on the list of best college towns in the U.S.
Cincinnati, Ohio, also made the top 50 best college towns in the U.S., ranking No. 48 on the list. The Queen City is home to both the University of Cincinnati and Xavier University, which have a combined total enrollment of about 50,000 students.
Ten Ohio cities made WalletHub’s rankings, which considered a total of 415 towns or cities.
Here are the 10 Ohio cities that made the list for WalletHub’s 2023 Best College Towns & Cities in America:
28. Columbus, OH
30. Oxford, OH
48. Cincinnati OH
219. Cleveland, OH
231. Bowling Green, OH
247. Athens, OH
269. Dayton, OH
312. Akron, OH
349. Kent, OH
368. Toledo, OH
WalletHub conducted its rankings by measuring metrics across three categories: Academic & Economic Opportunities (50%), Social Environment (25%), and Wallet Friendliness (25%). Those three categories considered a number of metrics, including students per capita, the number of breweries, cafés, food trucks and shopping centers per capita, housing costs, cost of higher education, earning potential for graduates, and more.
WalletHub’s full rankings of best college towns and cities in the U.S. can be found online.
Source: Cleveland
