Eight WA state locales recognized in list of top 400 U.S. college towns and cities
Personal finance website WalletHub has included eight Washington state universities in the 2023 edition of its “Best College Towns & Cities in America” list, which aims to rank 400 cities nationwide based on academic and economic factors.
Seattle received 18th place overall and 5th for social environment, while Bellevue came in 6th for academic and economic opportunity. Pullman, Spokane, Vancouver and Kent also represented the Evergreen State.
The list was published Nov. 29 and evaluates and compares cities based on three main variables: wallet friendliness, social environment and academic and economic opportunities. Each city receives a ranking based on those factors, then an overall score is calculated. An additional list groups cities based on whether they’re small, midsize or large.
The report includes analysis from experts in higher education about the characteristics of college towns that are valuable not just to students, but to families and retirees looking for access to community engagement and resources.
Other WA college town rankings
Tacoma made the list’s top 200 ranking, coming in at 185th overall. It holds a similar ranking for social environment at 174th and comes in at 129th for academic and economic opportunity. The city fits in the midsize category and took 60th place out of 151 similarly-sized locales.
Five institutions offering four-year programs are located within, or close to, Tacoma. They are the University of Washington-Tacoma, the University of Puget Sound, Faith International University & Seminary, Northwest College of Art & Design, and Pacific Lutheran University. The city of Tacoma is ripe with educational diversity and home to a mix of technical colleges and professional certificate programs. They include Bates Technical College, Summit Salon Academy, BJ’s Beauty & Barber College and Tacoma Community College.
Bellingham also cracked the top 400 list, ranking just a few spots below Tacoma, at 190. It ranked much higher for its social environment at 70th place. Bellingham was in the small-city category and got 79th place out of 198 on that roster.
Bellingham is home to four colleges, two of which are two-year public institutions: Bellingham Technical College and Whatcom Community College. The institutions that offer four-year programs are Western Washington University and Northwest Indian College, and Bellingham Technical College also offers two bachelor of applied science degrees, according to Zoe Fraley, director of communications and marketing at the school.
The city’s scores can be linked back to the diversity of options available, according to Jonathan Higgins, director of university communications at Western Washington University. Bellingham offers outdoor recreational activities, cultural events, student club engagement, over a dozen local craft breweries, local sporting events and a vibrant restaurant scene.
“We hear from many of our students, and faculty and staff for that matter, that Bellingham falls into a kind of Goldilocks zone,” Higgins said via email. “It’s not such a large city that it may make people feel lost, overwhelmed or stressed out by crowds, traffic and long commutes. But it’s big enough that many in our community vouch for its variety of recreational opportunities.”
Higgins added that the city offers a rich nightlife scene, live music venues and outdoor regions to hike, kayak and mountain bike.
Aside from students, experts state that college towns are great places for the general population to settle because they often have vibrant sports scenes, cultural events and good K-12 public schools.
