{"id":13715,"date":"2025-10-21T10:22:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T10:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/13715\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T10:22:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T10:22:19","slug":"3-florida-college-towns-rank-on-this-list-of-the-top-10-in-the-u-s-heres-where-and-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/13715\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Florida college towns rank on this list of the top 10 in the U.S., here\u2019s where and why"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s crunch-time for many high school seniors in Florida, as college application season<\/a> approaches. For those chasing an early acceptance, the application process is already in full swing, with deadlines approaching quickly in the first weeks of November.<\/p>\n

Although choosing a college has a multitude of variables to consider, visiting campuses usually seals the deal for many soon-to-be college students. And there is no shortage of beautiful, sunny college campuses in Florida.<\/p>\n

On Oct. 21, personal finance company WalletHub released its list of the best and worst college towns for the 2025-2026 school year, and three Florida cities took places on the top 10 list, with two landing in the top five.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition to its curriculum and social environment, a college\u2019s geographical location can also have an impact on a student\u2019s academic success and personal development,\u201d the WalletHub study says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs student living expenses can reach over $36,000 for a 12-month period, students should try to find the most bang for their buck. Therefore, it\u2019s best for students to live in a city with a reasonable cost of living, as well as one that provides good academic and work opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s which Florida college towns made WalletHub\u2019s list of the top 10 in the U.S., where they ranked and why.<\/p>\n

From 2024 application season: College applicants avoid entire states because of their politics<\/a><\/p>\n

What is the best college town in America? See WalletHub\u2019s list of top 10 college towns in the U.S.<\/p>\n

To find the best college towns in the U.S., WalletHub compared more than 400 U.S. cities with colleges and universities across 31 metrics in three categories: Wallet friendliness, social environment and academic and economic opportunities.<\/p>\n

According to the study, the best overall college town in the U.S. is Austin, Texas, which is home to schools like the University of Texas at Austin, Huston-Tillotson University, St. Edward\u2019s University and Concordia University.<\/p>\n

Austin, Texas, ranked high for its academic and economic opportunities, ranking in top 10 overall for that metric category and ranking in the top 30 cities with the best annual job growth rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition, Austin has a very high number of attractions, sports clubs and shopping centers to help students destress after class, and it has one of the lowest average pizza prices in the U.S.,\u201d the study says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city\u2019s schools also enable students to pursue or watch Division 1 basketball, baseball, soccer and football, among other sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three cities in Florida made WalletHub’s list. Orlando and Tampa took top five rankings, while Gainesville slid into the bottom of the top 10, in 10th place.<\/p>\n

Here are WalletHub\u2019s top 10 best college towns in the U.S.:<\/p>\n

Charlottesville, Virginia<\/p>\n

Best college towns in Florida, Gainesville, Tampa, Orlando rank nationally<\/p>\n

The highest-ranking Florida cities on WalletHub\u2019s list were Orlando, Tampa and Gainseville, which is the only true college town of the three, meaning much of the city\u2019s culture revolves around the university it houses and much of the population in the city-center are college students.<\/p>\n

Orlando and Tampa, although they aren\u2019t true \u201ccollege towns,\u201d aren\u2019t just tourist hot spots \u2013 they both have major universities there, too.<\/p>\n

Orlando, which is home to the University of Central Florida (UCF), ranked high for several metrics, including its economic opportunities and affordable tuition.<\/p>\n

\u201cOrlando is the third-best college town in the country, and its most notable school is the University of Central Florida. Despite being a big city, Orlando has the 14th-cheapest tuition (including room and board) for in-state students, at just $24,668 per year,\u201d the study says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt also has high-quality education, ranking 54th among the more than 400 cities in our study for school quality\u2026Unsurprisingly, Orlando also provides a ton of enrichment for students outside of class, boasting an especially high number of attractions, sports clubs, shopping centers, food trucks and coffee shops per capita.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the overall list, Orlando took third place, Tampa took fourth and Gainesville took 10th. Orlando and Tampa both also ranked in the top 10 for the “Social environment” category, in sixth and fifth place, respectively.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t know, Tampa\u2019s most notable school is the University of South Florida (USF), but there are other colleges there, like the University of Tampa, as well. Gainesville has Santa Fe Community College campuses, but is most notably the home of the University of Florida; or as most sports fans would know it, the home of the Florida Gators.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Best college towns list ranks 3 Florida cities in top 10<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s crunch-time for many high school seniors in Florida, as college application season approaches. For those chasing an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[12152,28,30,29,12153],"class_list":["post-13715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-college-towns","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-wallethub"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}