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??