How does Tallahassee rank as a college town? The financial advice website WalletHub offers its answer, and local boosters aren’t likely to be pleased. After all, nobody runs around shouting “Woo hoo! We’re number 42!”
To make matters worse from Tallahassee’s perspective, WalletHub rated four other Florida cities in its top 10. They were (3) Orlando, (4) Gainesville, (5) Tampa, and (9) Miami.
Florida was the only state with more than one listing in the top 10. WalletHub’s report “2023’s Best College Towns & Cities in America,” included all 415 municipalities that have a college within their borders. Therefore, Tallahassee’s ranking 42nd on a list of 415 is almost in the top tenth, if that’s any solace.
Meanwhile, if “college town” evokes images of small college-dominated burgs like Chapel Hill (41st) or Gainesville — i.e., places where the school is the only thing they have going on — note that WalletHub’s list is mostly oblivious to such characteristics and instead relies on other factors.
WalletHub financial writer Adam McCann explained the basis of the rankings, which he said factored in “32 key indicators of academic, social and economic opportunities for students. Our data set ranges from the cost of living to the quality of higher education to the crime rate. “
To give its findings a patina of objectivity, WalletHub assigned points in each of three categories – Wallet Friendliest, Social Environment, and Academic and Economic Opportunities — then tallied the points and ranked the cities based on those totals. Tallahassee’s score was 53.93.
The top schools in WalletHub’s system? Austin, TX at 63.27 and Ann Arbor, MI at 61.48, followed by the aforementioned Orlando at 61.42 and Gainesville at 60.89, and Tampa 59.65, with Number 9 Miami at 57.71.
Now for some context. First know that one of WalletHub’s major product is click bait, online posts designed to lure web surfers to click on a particular link, thereby boosting readership.
Wallet Hub produces more of that kind of bait each year than the Sopchoppy Worm Gruntin’ Festival has produced in its entire history, and nothing attracts clicks more than lists that purport to rank things.
So, on the WalletHub website titled “2022’s Best Places,” you can click on 22 different lists ranking cities and states in various categories ranging from Happiest Cities in America to Best States to Retire In.
Rankings are catnip for the curious, who naturally want to see how their city or state, or insurance company fared in WalletHub’s latest lists — or how their or alma mater ranked in the latest report from U.S. News & World Report.
In WalletHub’s rankings for college towns and cities, Tallahassee was undoubtedly hampered by the high cost of housing, a problem well documented in the Tallahassee Democrat’s series on homelessness. Housing and other living expenses often surpass tuition and fees as a cost for college students.
More on the affordable living crisis:‘Absolute chaos’: A day in the life of a homeless family of six in Tallahassee
Tallahassee’s crime rate, which as this was written included 106 shootings with 18 fatalities and 90 injuries, doesn’t help. Neither does the universities’ proximity to the 32304 ZIP code, which is often identified as the state’s poorest.
Finally, post-graduation job opportunities in the private sector are not exactly abundant in this area, Tallahassee’s non-governmental economy, though growing, still doesn’t offer graduates of the locale colleges much of a reason to stick around, especially not when compared with places like Orlando, Miami, and Atlanta.
Bottom line: Tallahassee needs to do better on all fronts – preferably before U.S. News & World Report’s college rankings start considering the rankings just posted by WalletHub.
Robert F. Sanchez is a retired journalist living in Tallahassee.
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Is Tallahassee a top college town? An analysis of WalletHub rankings – Tallahassee Democrat
