When it comes to rankings of the best college towns and cities in America, we've come to expect that Boulder and Fort Collins will wind up near the top.
Note that Boulder finished first in two separate 2014 surveys — one by SmartAsset, the other courtesy of Best College Reviews — with Fort Collins winding up in tenth and fourteenth place, respectively.
So it comes as something of a shock to discover that in WalletHub's new report about "2016's Best and Worst College Towns & Cities in America," neither Boulder nor Fort Collins reached the top forty — and they landed only a little higher than Denver, which seldom shows up at all on studies of the best college communities.
A list of the hundred highest scorers can be found on page two of this post.
Granted, all three Colorado places did better in their respective sub-categories. Denver came in eleventh among large cities (defined as places with populations of 300,000 or more), while Fort Collins was the ninth-best midsized college city (populations of between 125,000 and 300,000). But Boulder only managed to get to number 33 in the small (under 125,000) city division, behind such places as West Lafayette, Indiana, Iowa City, Iowa, Provo, Utah and Laramie, Wyoming.
To find out the reasons that Boulder and Fort Collins had such mediocre performances and Denver's was better than anticipated, we reached out to WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez.
According to Gonzalez, Boulder was downgraded significantly in the WalletHub report because of how expensive it is.
"Boulder ranked below average for the WalletFitness category due to its higher cost of living for young people, with a COL index of 128.14, which ranked 356th for this specific metric," Gonzalez notes via e-mail. "The city also has a fairly high cost of housing, with an average of $1,240 to rent a two-bedroom apartment per month."
These weren't the only drags on Boulder, Gonzalez adds: "Housing costs, food costs and earning potential for bachelor's degree holders are also factors that influenced Boulder's overall ranking."
In previous surveys, the bankroll size required to live comfortably in Boulder was typically offset by other considerations, including the city's much-lauded social environment. But even by this standard, Boulder fell shorter than expected in the eyes of the WalletHub crew despite some prominent attributes.
"Boulder ranked thirteenth for the social-environment category, with the highest number of cafes and breweries per capita," Gonzalez allows. "The city also has a high number of nightlife options, shopping centers and attractions."
As for Fort Collins, Gonzalez reveals that it "ranked highest in the Academic & Economic Opportunities category, 60th. The city has a high percentage of part-time jobs at 50 percent and a low unemployment rate at 3.2 percent."
Meanwhile, Denver "ranked the highest in the social-environment category, 55th, with a high number of nightlife options, cafes, breweries and attractions," Gonzalez points out.
To fill out the rest of the details, WalletHub provided us with data sets for Boulder, Fort Collins and Denver in a slew of categories. Below, we've shared fifteen of them: housing costs, adjusted cost of living for young people, average monthly fitness-club fee, percentage of rental units, cost of higher education, number of students per 100,000 residents, percentage of the population between the ages of eighteen and 35, number of nightlife options per 100,000 residents, number of cafes per 100,000 residents, number of breweries per 100,000 residents, number of sports clubs per 100,000 residents, number of festivals per capita, the earning potential for college graduates, the unemployment rate and the communities' brain drain.
Taken as a whole, this information produces portraits of Boulder, Fort Collins and Denver as college towns — ones that the folks at WalletHub feel aren't as outstanding as have other survey-takers in the past.
Continue to see where Boulder, Fort Collins and Denver finished among the top 100 college towns or cities and data for each in fifteen categories.
WalletHub data sets for Boulder, Fort Collins and Denver
Housing Costs
Boulder results: $1,240
Boulder ranks: 299
Fort Collins results: $996
Fort Collins ranks: 225
Denver results: $1,305
Denver ranks: 312
Adjusted Cost of Living for Young People
Boulder results: 128.14
Boulder ranks: 356
Fort Collins results: 101.51
Fort Collins ranks: 200
Denver results: 106.94
Denver ranks: 254
Average Monthly Fitness-Club Fee
Boulder results: $83.56
Boulder ranks: 291
Fort Collins results: $48.38
Fort Collins ranks: 254
Denver results: $46.42
Denver ranks: 247
Percentage of Rental Units
Boulder results: 51.7%
Boulder ranks: 160
Fort Collins results: 45.9%
Fort Collins ranks: 230
Denver results: 50.2%
Denver ranks: 176
Cost of Higher Education
Boulder results: $11,531
Boulder ranks: 99
Fort Collins results: $11,080
Fort Collins ranks: 95
Denver results: $20,864
Denver ranks: 143
Number of Students per 1,000 Residents
Boulder results: 294.78
Boulder ranks: 62
Fort Collins results: 220.92
Fort Collins ranks: 85
Denver results: 80.73
Denver ranks: 288
Percentage of Population Aged 18 to 35
Boulder results: 46.1%
Boulder ranks: 57
Fort Collins results: 39.5%
Fort Collins ranks: 87
Denver results: 30.8%
Denver ranks: 154
Number of Nightlife Options per 100,000 Residents
Boulder results: 93.34
Boulder ranks: 78
Fort Collins results: 63.93
Fort Collins ranks: 173
Denver results: 132.38
Denver ranks: 29
Number of Cafes per 100,000 Residents
Boulder results: 85.64
Boulder ranks: 1
Fort Collins results: 45.66
Fort Collins ranks: 85
Denver results: 57.57
Denver ranks: 46
Number of Breweries per 100,000 Residents
Boulder results: 22.13
Boulder ranks: 1
Fort Collins results: 14.35
Fort Collins ranks: 10
Denver results: 10.77
Denver ranks: 19
Number of Sports Clubs per 100,000 Residents
Boulder results: 4.81
Boulder ranks: 53
Fort Collins results: 2.61
Fort Collins ranks: 267
Denver results: 5.70
Denver ranks: 40
Number of Festivals Per Capita
Boulder results: 13.47
Boulder ranks: 37
Fort Collins results: 2.61
Fort Collins ranks: 218
Denver results: 10.93
Denver ranks: 45
Earning Potential for College Graduates
Boulder results: $35,456
Boulder ranks: 363
Fort Collins results: $44,313
Fort Collins ranks: 275
Denver results: $50,229
Denver ranks: 160
Unemployment Rate
Boulder results: 3.1%
Boulder ranks: 21
Fort Collins results: 3.2%
Fort Collins ranks: 28
Denver results: 3.7%
Denver ranks: 53
Brain Drain
Boulder results: 0.57%
Boulder ranks: 91
Fort Collins results: 0.52%
Fort Collins ranks: 104
Denver results: 0.95%
Denver ranks: 22
Overall Score
Boulder: 56.03
Fort Collins: 55.04
Denver: 53.72