Forbes: Education ranking

[sunshine]

Based on share of population over age 25 with a bachelor's degree or higher

[Guest donaltopablo]

Is it just me or does anyone else get the feeling that Mcallen and Brownsville didn't score well in these?

[Allan]

Forbes really hates Brownsville! I'm a bit surprised at the ranking for Hickory, NC. I've been there a few times, and it didn't seem all that bad. Of course I don't know nearly as much about the area as the NC forumers probably do.

[monsoon]

[TravisNC]

I was surprised that the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area wasn't on the list as one of the best. I came across this story from the Charlotte Business Journal that shows Raleigh/D/CH is second. Both lists use the number of people over 25 who have bachelors degrees. Who should we believe the Census Bureau or Forbes/Economy.com?

Raleigh/D/CH was also the most educated place in the 2000 Places Rated Almanac followed by Boston, Albany, St. Louis, and Chicago. Places Rated used a lot more criteria though including the number of students per teacher, library popularity, college enrollment, and college variety (2yr, 4yr, night classes, etc.).

Charlotte near top of 'most-educated' list

Charlotte ranks among the top 10 U.S. cities for higher education, according to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey.

[Richhamleigh, DC]

I was surprised that the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area wasn't on the list as one of the best. I came across this story from the Charlotte Business Journal that shows Raleigh/D/CH is second. Both lists use the number of people over 25 who have bachelors degrees. Who should we believe the Census Bureau or Forbes/Economy.com?

Raleigh/D/CH was also the most educated place in the 2000 Places Rated Almanac followed by Boston, Albany, St. Louis, and Chicago. Places Rated used a lot more criteria though including the number of students per teacher, library popularity, college enrollment, and college variety (2yr, 4yr, night classes, etc.).

[Wendell FOX]

Come on, they should've at least found better images for Brownsville and Bakersfield.

I don't understand why Bakersfield and Visalia are the way they are; I had guessed that cities in that part of California would attract a lot of retirees escaping more crowded areas but not really any connection to education. I dunno about Hickory, it seems like a typical small southern city according to maps. Not surprised about the south Texan cities.

[Allan]

I don't understand why Bakersfield and Visalia are the way they are; I had guessed that cities in that part of California would attract a lot of retirees escaping more crowded areas but not really any connection to education.

The areas around Bakersfield are primarily argicultural. There's not really much wealth in the area, and the city itself did not impress me all that much. Its ranking towards the bottom does not really surprise me. My guess would be that a lot of the retirees move off to Arizona or Palm Springs.