The 20 best college towns across the US, ranked

Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? . College towns can significantly impact the student experience. WalletHub analyzed over 400 US cities based on affordability, social scene, and academics. Top college towns include Austin, Texas; Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Madison, Wisconsin. Lively college towns are pinnacles of American higher education. The communities immediately surrounding college campuses can define what a student's college experience looks like, from having access to restaurants and bars to meeting students from nearby institutions. When it comes to choosing a college or university to attend, location can be just as important as academics for some students. In a recent study , WalletHub analyzed over 400 cities across the US and ranked them based on affordability, social scene, and academic prospects in 2025. To analyze the cost of living (or "wallet friendliness"), WalletHub researchers examined data such as average housing costs, the cost of higher education, the share of rental units, and the average cost of pizza and burgers in each city. Its social rank was determined by factors like the share of the population aged 18-35, the share of single people, the student gender balance, and cafes, breweries, food trucks, and nightlife per capita, among other factors. WalletHub also looked at the quality of higher education, job-growth rate, earning potential for college graduates, and unemployment rate, among other factors, to determine each city's academic and economic opportunity rank. The study used data from federal agencies including the US Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Center for Education Statistics, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as data from companies like TransUnion, TripAdvisor, and Yelp, along with other WalletHub research. The list of top college towns - defined by WalletHub as cities with a college student population of over 7,500 students - includes a range of major cities and small education hubs. While some locations are major education hubs and house big universities alongside small private and public community colleges, we've listed the main flagship institution for each location. See which college towns and cities made it to the top 20. 20. New Haven, Connecticut School : Yale University The home of Yale University, New Haven was ranked 38th in the study's academic and economic opportunities list, and it came second overall for quality of higher education, only behind Princeton, New Jersey. However, it also had the lowest rank out of top 20 cities in the study's social environment rank, and WalletHub noted it had one of the highest costs for higher education . 19. Charleston, South Carolina School : College of Charleston Ranked as the ninth-highest city in the study's social environment ranking, Charleston had the sixth-highest social ranking out of the top 20 cities. 18. Madison, Wisconsin School : University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, Wisconsin, home to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was ranked as the 42nd-best city in terms of social environment in the study, which looked at 415 towns and cities. 17....

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