The "best" college party town in Minnesota isn't what you'd think...

Rochester... REALLY?! 

Yes, Rochester was named the best college town in Minnesota, thanks to a study from reviews.org, where they got the results from data from the United States Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some of the factors analyzed were:

  • overall population
  • student population
  • rental costs
  • college education rates
  • transportation access
  • unemployment rates
  • and bar availability

Now I don't know about you, but outside of bar availability I'm not sure which of those factors plays a part in picking the best party town... but then again, I'm not a data scientist.

Here's the catch though... only college towns with fewer than 250,000 residents were included in the study, which then means the Twin Cities doesn't count as a "college town" and the University of Minnesota was excluded. As a biased U of M alum... I can now say this makes sense. Then again, I've never been to Rochester for a night on the town.

All of this being said, it seems even people on campus don't understand Rochester making this list. U of M Rochester spokesperson John Hachtel said, "It’s not a party atmosphere at all. This is the least partying campus I’ve ever worked at, and I’ve worked at eight of them.”

If it's not U of M Rochester that's giving the town this reputation, it must be the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine... right??


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