The World’s 15 Best College Cities

A university’s location can make or break someone’s college experience.

Ithaca, New York.
Ithaca, New York. | Bruce Yuanyue Bi/GettyImages

When students decide where they’ll be continuing their education, they shouldn’t just consider the school itself: The city (or town) where the college or university is located matters, too, as it’ll be their home for the next four years. 

To figure out the world’s most student-friendly cities, researchers at Immerse Education conducted a study that analyzed 37 popular university locations. The list isn’t just limited to the United States—people hoping to pursue higher education overseas (or even just enjoy a semester studying abroad) will have plenty of options to consider. 

Immerse Education’s research focused on various factors that affect a student’s quality of life in any given place. The company looked at the number of restaurants, cafes, and bars/pubs in a city; the number of art galleries, art museums, and history museums; the quality of green spaces; the global index quality of life scores; and safety index scores.

Here are the 15 college towns and cities that came out on top.

The Best Cities for College Students

Rank

City

Country

No. of restaurants/ cafes/ bars/ pubs per 10,000 people

No. of art galleries and history museums per 10,000 people

Quality of life score

Safety index score

Quality of green space

1

Ithaca

United States

96.2

4.8

147.4

68.5

-

2

Princeton

United States

44.4

1

206.2

82.6

90

3

Amsterdam

Netherlands

33

1.3

196.8

71.4

83.9

4

Edinburgh

Scotland, UK

35.2

1.3

184.9

68.8

81.8

5

Stanford

United States

12.6

5.5

166.2

50

51

6

Munich

Germany

20.85

0.34

193.3

79

85.5

7

Copenhagen

Denmark

16.52

0.60

194.4

74.1

81.3

8

Cambridge

United States

37.68

1.18

172

68.4

94.4

9

Madison

United States

30.82

0.98

183.9

65.1

86.2

10

Zurich

Switzerland

12.92

0.30

193

77.7

69.8

11

Lausanne

Switzerland

16

0.4

194

73.2

85.9

12

Ann Arbor

United States

41

1.6

140.6

77.2

87.5

13

Tokyo

Japan

26.6

0.2

178.9

76.1

62.4

14

San Francisco

United States

64.8

2.6

153.6

38.0

62.5

15

Austin

United States

33.4

0.9

178.2

57.7

74.4

According to the study’s findings, Ithaca, New York—home to both Ithaca College and Cornell University—is the best university city in the world. It ranked much higher than the rest in terms of restaurants, bars, and museums per 10,000 people; it also had a solid safety index score.

Princeton came in second due to its winning combination of a high safety score and an extremely high ranking in the quality of its green spaces. Amsterdam, which claimed the third spot, had a very balanced set of stats—reasonably high quality of life and safety index scores, plenty of social spaces, and decent greenery. 

Of course, there are several other factors to consider when choosing a school. You may be more interested in the best colleges and universities—regardless of their location—or you might prefer a college that’ll get you the highest return on your investment.

Read More About Education: