For a normal town, East Lansing is pretty smart. For a college town, it’s even smarter.
East Lansing was ranked sixth in a list of America’s smartest college towns in a list complied by The Daily Beast, an online news publication. The company based the rankings on the number of bachelor and graduate degrees per capita as well as median math and reading SAT scores for student populations in the cities. This year, the rankings also took the number of libraries per capita into consideration.
According to the U.S. Census, of East Lansing residents 25 years and older, about 33 percent of the population have a bachelor’s degree, and 34.7 percent have a graduate or professionals degree.
The rankings graded 25 college towns — defined as a town with a population of at least 25,000 where at least one major national college is a driving factor in the town’s economy and culture. Cambridge, Mass., was ranked the number one college town, followed by Chapel Hill, N.C., in second place and Berkeley, Calif., in third. Ann Arbor, home to the University of Michigan, was ranked fourth.
International relations professor Mark Axelrod, a resident of East Lansing, said although many professors do choose to live close to the school, the city has attracted a variety of people.
“It’s more diverse than professors,” Axelrod said. “There are a couple people affiliated with MSU on (my) street but not the whole street.”
June Youatt, senior associate provost, said the relationship between East Lansing and MSU benefits from cultural events, libraries and even health care within the city.
“It’s a symbiotic relationship,” Youatt said. “The town has the rating because of the university, and the university is hosted by this community.”
Ginny Haas, director of community relations at MSU, said although MSU had an advantage in the ratings from being a larger university with more professors, Haas felt the university and community had a strong, mutually beneficial relationship.
“All the students around help business,” Haas said. “It keeps the community young and vibrant.”
East Lansing City Manager Ted Staton said although he wasn’t surprised to hear MSU had made the list — MSU was ranked seventh in 2009, the last time The Daily Beast did such a list — he still was thrilled.
“We try to be good hosts for the university and provide cultural and other education opportunities … (for) faculty staff and students,” Staton said. “(MSU) is an enormous cultural and educational presence in this relatively small town. It creates this dominant force that bring attention to the city.”
Physiology sophomore Eric Bowden said he wasn’t surprised with the ranking because of the high ratings received by several of MSU’s departments and the high concentration of professors in the area.
“All my professors have the highest degree in their field,” Bowden said. “And they all live about 15 minutes from campus.”
For Axelrod, the city’s attraction was obvious.
“How could it not draw people?” he said.
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