By Hemera Technologies
New York City is home to plenty of entertainment opportunities for college students, but it also houses some of the country’s up-and-coming new media businesses.
America has no shortage of great colleges. From California to Maine and everything in between, you’re bound to find the right school for you. But sometimes finding the right city first could lead you to the right school, because where you live might determine your quality of life and what opportunities you’re exposed to.
Take a good look at these three cities when deciding where you’ll go to college.
• New York City
It’s a safe bet to assume that, in nearly every category, New York City does it better and has more of whatever “it” is. In this case, “it” is colleges and New York City has an abundance of them. According to the City of New York website, there are nearly 500,000 college students in New York City and 110 higher education institutions. The Big Apple wins again.
In addition to all those schools, from Columbia University to Brooklyn College, New York City just flat out has a lot to offer a college student. (Learn about 10 community colleges in New York state.)
Ranked the fifth most diverse city in America in a Brown University study, NYC places college students among people from all over the world, opening them up to several kinds of viewpoints and industries. Referred to as “Silicon Alley,” NYC has a vast array of technology and social/new media companies, ranging from Tumblr to Squarespace. The city’s also the Mecca for mainstream publishing houses like Random House, home to Wall Street and a major center for international relations. If you make it here, as they say, you can make it anywhere. New York is the top for so many industries, while still maintaining a great start-up scene (ranked third best for start-ups by Mashable).
Though rent runs high and the city’s fast pace isn’t for everyone, it’s still an incredibly fun city to attend college in. The pizza, the museums on Fifth Avenue, the street food, gems like Pete’s Candy Store in Brooklyn (free, live music every night), public transportation — there’s just no better city than New York.
• Austin, Texas
There’s a reason so many people who come to college in Austin don’t want to leave after graduation. It’s not just festivals like South by Southwest and Austin City Limits, great hiking or the city’s burgeoning food truck scene: Austin has jobs. Lots of them.
Dubbed “Silicon Hills” for its large technology industry, Austin continues to attract large companies, like Facebook and Samsung, to the area. When students graduate from one of the city’s many great colleges (the University of Texas at Austin is in the top 50 national universities by U.S. News & World Report), they enter a thriving workforce with lower-than-average unemployment (5.4% as of May 2013, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics). And the cost of living in Austin, though higher than many Texas cities, still lingers far below many large American cities, proving affordable to many young people.
Whether you enjoy a good protest at the Texas Capitol or excellent barbecue food at Franklin Barbecue, you’ll have plenty of fun stuff to do in the live music capital of the world during your college years. Just make sure to keep Austin weird and you’ll be embraced by friendly locals.
• San Francisco Bay Area
If you’re going to San Francisco, be sure to … attend college there. This city and the entire Bay Area (San Jose, Berkeley, Oakland, etc.) is a college student’s dream come true.
The renowned companies you may have an opportunity to intern at during college (and work at after college) in the Bay Area (Silicon Valley) are numerous: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Craigslist, Pixar, Wells Fargo, eBay, YouTube, Virgin America … the list goes on and on and on. In fact, according to a 2013 list by Forbes, San Francisco is the best city in which to find a job. The area also hosts some of the best colleges in America, such as Stanford University and University of California – Berkeley.
There’s good reason why Bloomberg Businessweek ranked San Francisco as America’s best city in 2012: plenty of museums, annual jazz and literary festivals, free art walks in the Central Market neighborhood, world-class restaurants and more. Just choose a category that matters to you and the Bay Area probably thrives in it.
While New York City, San Francisco and Austin are three great American cities like no other, there are a number of other cities that offer unique experiences to college students. Whichever college you choose to go to, it’s probably smart to make sure you like the city it’s located in. If not, it may take a toll on your overall happiness and satisfaction with your college experience. For city folks who like tech and the arts and great food, these three cities are some of your best bets in America.
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