Cambridge is costly, but offers nation’s best city for a youth environment and opportunities

Cambridge is the ninth best college town in the nation, according to a study released by WalletHub. The study looked not just at colleges themselves, but also the surrounding city and their suitability for student life. There were 326 cities ranked, in total.

Cambridge was ranked as the best city in the U.S. for ‘Opportunities,’ which oversaw the quality of higher education, percentage of part-time jobs and the job growth. Cambridge ranked second overall for highest quality of higher education, just behind New Haven. It was also ranked first under ‘Youth-Oriented Environment,’ which covered areas such as number of students per 1000 residents, city accessibility and crime rate.

However, its ‘Wallet Wellness’ rank, which looked at housing costs, tuition fees and adjusted cost of living, was near the bottom at 312. It was tied with New York, San Francisco, Berkeley and Honolulu for the highest adjusted cost of living for young people.