Raleigh Ranks Fourth on WalletHub List of Best College Towns

RALEIGH, N.C. — Raleigh has landed near the top of a new national ranking of college towns, placing fourth out of 415 U.S. cities in a WalletHub study of the best places to be a student in 2027.

Only three cities finished ahead of the capital city. Austin, Texas, took the top spot, followed by Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Charlottesville, Virginia. Atlanta came in fifth, giving the Southeast two of the top five places.

The personal finance site graded each city on 31 measures sorted into three broad groups covering how affordable a city is, its social scene, and its academic and economic openings. Those measures included living costs, crime rates, the quality of local higher education, job prospects for students and graduates, and things to do outside of class.

For context on costs, WalletHub put the yearly price of in-state tuition plus room and board in first-place Austin at $34,651, compared with nearly $95,000 a year in the most expensive cities it studied.

Raleigh’s showing reflects how large a role higher education plays in the local economy. NC State University, one of the city’s major employers, has grown its enrollment to more than 40,000 students.

WalletHub released the rankings on Oct. 20. The group says the list is meant to help students weigh affordability, campus life and career options when choosing where to spend their college years.

Filed under: Raleigh NC Education News