College town ranking

[srru86]

Wallet Hub
2014′s Best & Worst College Cities & Towns in America

For what it is worth, which I don't know if it is much, but NB is just behind Albuquerque and ahead of Honolulu. Pretty much in the middle of the pack. The best Oxford, OH (Miami), worst Yonkers, NY (Sarah Lawrence)

 

[RU-ROCS]

Any ranking that has Syracuse in the top-100 is suspect to me. Have they actually been there?? Oxford, OH is #1 and Boston is #128. Really??

 

[srru86]

Originally posted by RU-ROCS:
Any ranking that has Syracuse in the top-100 is suspect to me. Have they actually been there?? Oxford, OH is #1 and Boston is #128. Really??

All good points. In only a minute or two of reading their methodology it seems low cost housing counts heavily toward some of these bizarre ratings.

 

[sct1111]

This ranking also doesn't really take into account that half of our campuses are in Piscataway and Cook is partly in North Brunswick.

 

[Korbermeister]

Acknoweding north Brunswick and piscataway would most likely bring our score DOWN.

 

[lawmatt78]

Another bizarre ranking.

 

[NotInRHouse]

You can't compare a place like Boston to a town with a few thousand people. Each will have their own appeal to different people. What I might be interested in is a ranking of all the P5 college towns, but again, you have Seattle and LA and then New Brunswick or Ann Arbor. It's not that easy.

 

[retired711]

Not only is it "not that easy," but also it's a stupid exercise designed only to attract eyeballs. We would be better off with a *lot* fewer attempts at ranking what can't be ranked.

 

[lawmatt78]

Originally posted by camdenlawprof:
Not only is it "not that easy," but also it's a stupid exercise designed only to attract eyeballs. We would be better off with a *lot* fewer attempts at ranking what can't be ranked.

Agree, but if they're going to do it, at least create reasonable categories based on size and other metrics.

 

[retired711]

Originally posted by lawmatt78:

Originally posted by camdenlawprof:
Not only is it "not that easy," but also it's a stupid exercise designed only to attract eyeballs. We would be better off with a *lot* fewer attempts at ranking what can't be ranked.

Agree, but if they're going to do it, at least create reasonable categories based on size and other metrics.

That's reasonable, but it makes it harder to have a dramatic headline, and that's what the media wants. Moreover, there is no such thing as a "better" or "worse" college town; prospective students value different things. One student may prefer an isolated location, while another might want to be where there are lots things to do. And intangibles, which are hard to measure, play a big role as well. This is why I think fewer "rankings" would be a good thing.