Ann Arbor ranks 15th in a recent listing of best college towns, and, OK, we’ve seen that before, even if it seems a little low.
What jumps out in a survey theoretically tailored to Generation Z is the city ranked six slots ahead, at No. 9:
East Lansing.
No. 1 for the third straight year, according to an apartment search site called RentCafe.com, is a place you’re highly unlikely to guess. The study covered 244 cities of 10,000 to 300,000 people, at least 10% of them students, and here’s a suggestion if you want to visit the winner: Bring a warm coat.
As for East Lansing and Ann Arbor — or East Lansing vs. Ann Arbor, as these things usually go — I’m curious to hear what you think, via NARubin@freepress.com.
Keep in mind, if you care to, an advisory from the author of the RentCafe study.
“It’s less about the fun,” said Mihaela Buzec, 39, who holds a Ph.D. in neurolinguistics, “and more about looking beyond the traditional markings.”
Buzec has not been to either city. Since Spartans and Wolverines tend to be oversensitive about bias in favor of whichever school they don’t root for, I should point out that I like both campuses and their surroundings, and I do not have a dog in this particular scuffle.
While I have a graduate degree from Michigan State, nearly all of it was acquired at the extension campus tucked within Birmingham Groves High School, not known for its buoyant night life. I wrote many more checks to the University of Michigan, where one of my sons earned a pair of degrees.
I make occasional small donations to MSU, but am much more likely to support my undergraduate alma mater, the University of Northern Colorado.
This aligns with my theory that the tightest bonds are formed with the place where you were a wide-eyed 18-year-old, curious and eager, exploring freedom and responsibility and testing the limits of yourself and the world.
Or, to put it another way, your heart lies where you threw up.
Pluses and minuses by the numbers
Gen Z, the group born from 1997 to 2012, is the first generation raised entirely with the internet and social media.
It’s also the first to realize that the planet is a front porch, there’s a flaming bag of dog droppings on the doormat, and they’re stuck stomping out the flames.
Hence, Buzec said, “there are a lot of things this generation values that sort of move away from what we’ve always considered in top college towns.”
With job prospects uncertain and stability unlikely, the current college cohort is even more concerned than its predecessors about affordability, research has shown. It wants fresh air, ready access to nature, and a built-in community of Gen Z peers.
East Lansing is younger than Ann Arbor, so more points for that go to Sparty. While both have an unusually educated populace, UM had a slight edge there.
The average monthly cost of living in East Lansing is around $3,500 per month, according to the Economic Policy Institute, compared with $4,200 in Ann Arbor. The Environmental Protection Agency gives East Lansing another edge in air quality.
For its fourth annual survey, RentCafe dropped college ranking by U.S. News & World Report as a category, and replaced it with retention of students — “a student happiness metric,” Buzec said. Michigan ranked a giddy 30th, with MSU only three slots behind.
The widest gap in UM’s favor could stretch from the front door to the loading dock at a Walmart. In admission yield, the percentage of admitted students who opt to attend, Michgan ranked 24th out of the 244 schools, suggesting strongly that it was applicants’ first choice.
MSU was 145th, a number that translates to a phrase Spartans are woefully tired of hearing:
“Backup plan.”
High in the ratings, and on the map
The No. 1 college town in all the land is blessed with a university whose annual in-state tuition fee is only $8,946, about $10,000 less than the national average. The population is a comfortable 53,293, approximately 4½ times the state’s number of moose.
Welcome to Bozeman, Montana, home to Montana State University.
“We’ve done a lot of research on the behavior and values of Gen Z,” Buzec said, and Montana State — the MSU of the Gallatin Valley — provides abundant financial aid and strong biotech and engineering programs in a community with easy access to arts, entertainment and recreation.
The runner-up is Pullman, Washington (Washington State University), followed by Clemson, South Carolina (Clemson), Laramie, Wyoming (Wyoming) and Gainesville, Florida (Florida).
A solid sign that this is not your father’s list, or your fraternity brother’s, shows up at No. 6: Provo, Utah, where both alcohol and coffee are banned at Brigham Young University.
For the full list, go to RentCafe.com. And for Spartan fans still wounded by that reference to backup plans, take careful note of No. 12, three places behind MSU and three ahead of Michigan.
It’s Boone, North Carolina — the loving home of Appalachian State.
The University of Northern Colorado is in Greeley, the unquestioned best college town in all of Weld County. Reach Neal Rubin at NARubin@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Is East Lansing truly a finer college town than Ann Arbor? You tell us
Reporting by Neal Rubin, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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