WASHINGTON — As millennials embark on their search for the perfect college, new research suggests several places in the D.C. area are some of the most appealing.
A ranking by college search website, OnlineColleges.com, found that D.C., Virginia Beach and Baltimore rank as some of the top U.S. cities for millennial college students.
Virginia Beach ranked No. 8, D.C. came in at No. 11 and Baltimore ranked 12th.
The ranking, which OnlineColleges.com released Thursday, focused on cities with populations of more 400,000 and evaluated factors such as the annual mean wage, the unemployment rate, the percentage of the population aged 20-34, the cost of living, the average in-state tuition and entertainment options.
Hans Hanson, owner of Total College Advisory, said in a news release that the best cities are those like No. 1-ranked Austin, Texas, that are poised to attract millennials’ cravings for entertainment as well as the industries to which millennials are drawn.
“The city needs to be progressive for attracting business and young professionals; the city needs to be progressive in offering cultural and social entertainment to attract the businesses; and the city needs to have industries, such as technology in Austin, that are positioned for growth over the next decade or two,” Hanson said in the release.
The research found that Virginia Beach is appealing to millennials. It ranked third in the percentage of young adults who reside there and second in the percentage enrolled in college or graduate school. Also, the beach scene provides many entertainment options.
Many millennials interested in making a change in the world find D.C. to be a favorable college city, OnlineColleges.com found. The District ranked high in some categories: it is second when it comes to the annual mean wage and third when considering the percentage of the population commuting on public transit.
Baltimore combines a large college-student presence with many social experiences, the research determined. It ranked fifth for the percentage of the population that attends college or graduate school and eighth for the percentage of people who commute on public transit.
Large cities such as New York and Chicago did not make the list, researchers notes, because of the “high living costs, steep tuition prices and more intense job competition.”
Below is the top 15 list:
- Austin, Texas
- Omaha, Nebraska
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Seattle, Washington
- Colorado Springs, Colorado
- San Francisco, California
- Columbus, Ohio
- Virginia Beach, Virginia
- Boston, Massachusetts
- Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota
- Washington, D.C.
- Baltimore, Maryland
- Raleigh, North Carolina
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Albuquerque, New Mexico
