Another "Best Of...." rating for Ithaca.
From The Ithaca Journal:
Traffic on Cayuga Street passes the west end of The Ithaca Commons. / File Photo
Ithaca rated best college town in U.S.
High on acadmics and living, low on post-college opportunities
3:31 PM, Nov 21, 2013
Written by
David Hill
Ithaca is the top college town for college students, according to the American Institute for Economic Research College Destinations Index 2013-2014, out today.
Ithaca was first among the smallest communities ranked, ahead of Ames, Iowa, State College, Pa., Crestview, Fla., and Iowa City, Iowa.
New York was the top-ranked major metro area, San Jose the top mid-size metro, and Boulder, Colo., the top small metro.
“In today’s economic climate, simply attending a great university isn’t enough,” said Steven Cunningham, Chief Economist at AIER. “The city or town the university is located in can have as much an effect on a student’s experience and future prospects. With the economic recovery taking root, more businesses are opening throughout places we studied and that leads to greater opportunity for students, both now and in the future. Our aim is to provide an additional resource to students and their parents to help them evaluate their college decision.”
AIER describes itself as conducting independent research to educateindividuals, and taking no advertising in its publications.
It ranked the college communities based on an array of federal demographic, economic and educational data.
Ithaca got top ratings among college towns in research capacity, defined as academic research and development expenditure per capita; degree attainment as defined by the percentage of 25- to 34-year-olds with a bachelor’s degree or higher; accessibility as determined by people who commute via public transportation, bicycle or on foot; and the percent of workforce in the creative class.
Other top-three rankings for Ithaca were in the college students per 1,000 population, diversity as reflected in the share of students who are not U.S. residents, and in establishments per 100,000 people in arts, entertainment and recreation.
But Ithaca was 17th in “brain drain or gain,” the year-to-year ratio of people with a B.A. degree living in the area, and low in other measures of professional opportunity. It was ranked 11th in income per capita, at $34,643; eighth in entrepreneurial activity, defined as the net increase in the number of businesses per 100,000 people; and in the unemployment rate of 4.8 percent — which is consistently among or the lowest in New York but evidently higher than that of other college- and university-oriented small communities. The rated college town with the lowest unemployment rate was Iowa City, at 3.1 percent
More on the survey is at
https://www.aier.org/cdi.
Here's the link:
http://www.ithacajournal.com/article...nclick_check=1