Smartest College Towns
The Daily Beast crunched the numbers to determine the smartest college town in America.
Diego Lezama / Getty Images
Major Colleges: Harvard University and MIT
Total Population: 106,255
Population with graduate degrees or higher: 43%
Population that are students: 23%
Overall Grade: A
2009 Rank: 4th
Diego Lezama / Getty Images
Major College: University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
Total Population: 52,241
Population with graduate degrees or higher: 47%
Population that are students: 36%
Overall Grade: A
2009 Rank: 1st
Major College: University of California Berkeley
Total Population: 100,877
Population with graduate degrees or higher: 37%
Population that are students: 29%
Overall Grade: A
2009 Rank: 5th
Major College: University of Michigan
Total Population: 113,656
Population with graduate degrees or higher: 43%
Population that are students: 38%
Overall Grade: A
2009 Rank: 2nd
Major Colleges: Cornell University and Ithaca College
Total Population: 29,821
Population with graduate degrees or higher: 34%
Population that are students: 59%
Overall Grade: A
2009 Rank: 11th
Major College: Michigan State University
Total Population: 46,957
Population with graduate degrees or higher: 35%
Population that are students: 68%
Overall Grade: B
2009 Rank: 7th
Major College: University of Colorado Boulder
Total Population: 98,737
Population with graduate degrees or higher: 34%
Population that are students: 32%
Overall Grade: B
2009 Rank: 3rd
Major College: University of Massachusetts Amherst
Total Population: 35,971
Population with graduate degrees or higher: 43%
Population that are students: 59%
Overall Grade: B
2009 Rank: 10th
Major College: Penn State University
Total Population: 39,602
Population with graduate degrees or higher: 38%
Population that are students: 72%
Overall Grade: B
2009 Rank: 8th
Major College: University of Maryland College Park
Total Population: 27,202
Population with graduate degrees or higher: 23%
Population that are students: 56%
Overall Grade: B
2009 Rank: 19th
Major College: University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana
Total Population: 117,391
Population with graduate degrees or higher: 28%
Population that are students: 40%
Overall Grade: B
2009 Rank: 21st
Major College: University of California Davis
Total Population: 61,866
Population with graduate degrees or higher: 38%
Population that are students: 36%
Overall Grade: B
2009 Rank: 14th
Major College: University of Wisconsin Madison
Total Population: 229,051
Population with graduate degrees or higher: 23%
Population that are students: 23%
Overall Grade: B
2009 Rank: 6th
Major College: University of Virginia
Total Population: 41,393
Population with graduate degrees or higher: 24%
Population that are students: 27%
Overall Grade: B
2009 Rank: 13th
Major College: Iowa State University
Total Population: 54,853
Population with graduate degrees or higher: 27%
Population that are students: 44%
Overall Grade: B
2009 Rank: 9th
Major College: University of Missouri Columbia
Total Population: 98,831
Population with graduate degrees or higher: 24%
Population that are students: 27%
Overall Grade: C
2009 Rank: 12th
Major College: Auburn University
Total Population: 55,439
Population with graduate degrees or higher: 28%
Population that are students: 43%
Overall Grade: C
2009 Rank: 18th
Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images
Major College: Kent State University
Total Population: 27,951
Population with graduate degrees or higher: 17%
Population that are students: 45%
Overall Grade: C
2009 Rank: 24th
Tony Dejak / AP Photo
Major College: University of Florida
Total Population: 115,146
Population with graduate degrees or higher: 22%
Population that are students: 39%
Overall Grade: C
2009 Rank: 17th
Major College: University of Oklahoma Norman
Total Population: 105,870
Population with graduate degrees or higher: 18%
Population that are students: 23%
Overall Grade: C
2009 Rank: 22nd
Wesley Hitt / Getty Images
Major College: Texas A&M
Total Population: 80,972
Population with graduate degrees or higher: 28%
Population that are students: 49%
Overall Grade: D
2009 Rank: 16th
Wesley Hitt / Getty Images
Major College: Oregon State
Total Population: 50,800
Population with graduate degrees or higher: 28%
Population that are students: 34%
Overall Grade: D
2009 Rank: 15th
Major College: University of Georgia
Total Population: 111,814
Population with graduate degrees or higher: 20%
Population that are students: 31%
Overall Grade: D
2009 Rank: 25th
Mary Knox Merrill / Getty Images
Major College: University of Kansas
Total Population: 90,028
Population with graduate degrees or higher: 24%
Population that are students: 32%
Overall Grade: D
2009 Rank: 20th
Major College: University of Notre Dame
Total Population: 104,199
Population with graduate degrees or higher: 9%
Population that are students: 8%
Overall Grade: F
2009 Rank: 23rd
Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images
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