The American Institute for Economic Research published their yearly review of the top 20 college towns in America. Boulder, Colorado, home of the University of Colorado, claimed the top spot, and if you ask us, it’s easy to understand why: marijuana is f*cking legal. Imagine getting out of class and being able to cop an eighth of fire from a dispensary instead of an eighth of shwag from a frat house? That would significantly improve my college life, I’ll tell you that.
The rankings are divided into categories: demographics, quality of life, and economics. Under demographics falls things like college educated population and diversity. The quality of life category focuses on things such as city access, arts & entertainment, and bars & restaurants. The final category, economics, looks at youth unemployment, innovation, and rent cost.
The University of Colorado ranked in the top 20 in every single on of these categories, including #1 in college-educated population (demographics), #1 in arts & entertainment (quality of life), and #1 in innovation (economics).
The rest of the list includes some heavy hitters like Bloomington, Indiana, College Station, Texas, and State College, Pennsylvania. The only difference? Weed isn’t legal in any of those places.
So shout out to the University of Colorado. You earned it.
1 Boulder, Colo
2 Champaign-Urbana, Ill
3 Flagstaff, Ariz
4 Ithaca, N.Y.
5 Iowa City, Iowa
6 Bloomington, Ind.
7 College Station, Texas
8 Manhattan, Kan.
9 Columbia, Mo.
10 Bloomington, Ill.
11 Charlottesville, Va.
12 Lafayette, Ind.
13 Fargo, N.D.
14 Athens, Ga.
15 State College, Pa.
16 Rochester, Minn.
17 Blacksburg, Va.
18 Jacksonville, N.C.
19 La Crosse, Wis.
20 Bellingham, Wash.
