Choosing College Towns: Ranking Places on Apartments, Nightlife, Part-time Jobs

'Tis the season to winnow down college choices, so here's a new list that could be useful. WalletHub has ranked college towns on academic, social and economic opportunities for students in 2016’s Best College Towns & Cities in America.

According to the financial services website, some experts think an institution’s geographical location is just as important as a strong curriculum and supportive school environment to a student’s academic success and personal development.

Coming in at No. 1 nationwide overall: Oxford, Ohio, home to Miami University. Ithaca was the only city in New York to make it into the top 25 overall.

A popular destination for Hudson Valley kids, Stony Brook University is in a community that grabbed the No. 1 spot in two categories. Stony Brook has the most students per 100,000 residents, 944.4, which is 20.5 times more than in Cape Coral, Fla., the city with the fewest at 46.1. And the town has the highest percentage of part-time jobs, 95.9 percent, which is four times higher than in Pearland, Texas, the city with the lowest at 24.1 percent. Overall Stony Brook was ranked No. 91.

Wondering what WalletHub is basing these rankings on?

Its analysts compared 415 U.S. cities based on 26 key indicators of academic, social and economic opportunities for students. The data set ranges from “cost of living” to “quality of higher education” to “crime rate." The cities were limited to those with a university or college population of at least 7,500 students.

For example, their "WalletFitness" score has to do with these six criteria:

• Housing Costs: Full Weight (~4.17 Points)Note: This metric measures the price of a two-bedroom apartment rental.
• Adjusted Cost of Living for Young People: Double Weight (~8.33 Points)
• Percentage of Rental Units: Full Weight (~4.17 Points)
• Average Monthly Fitness-Club Fee: Half Weight (~2.08 Points)
• Average Cost of Pizza & Burgers: Half Weight (~2.08 Points)
• Cost of Higher Education: Full Weight (~4.17 Points) Note: This metric measures the average tuition fee weighted by the number of students.

Just two Hudson Valley communities got onto this national list — and both wound up at the bottom.

New Rochelle, which has several colleges including Iona, the College of New Rochelle and Monroe, clocked in at No. 396 with a score of 29.91 out of a possible 100. Yonkers, which is home to Sarah Lawrence College, ranked No. 411 with a score of 27.13.

In fact, Yonkers made the reports list of most expensive places to live for college students along with New York, San Fan, Honolulu, Irvine CA, and Fremont, CA.

Check out the complete list and methodology here.

Image: College of New Rochelle via GoogleMaps