San Marcos has earned yet another ranking: In a comparison of more than 400 U.S. college towns and cities of various sizes, San Marcos was deemed 72nd best. In the same study, San Marcos was named 32nd best small college city out of 200.
In WalletHub’s listing of 2019’s Best and Worst College Towns and Cities, San Marcos outranked San Antonio, Denton, Amarillo and several other Texas college cities. San Marcos scored the same as McKinney, Texas, which bested San Marcos in academic and economic opportunities; San Marcos outranked McKinney in wallet-friendliness and social environment.
WalletHub’s comparison of college cities and towns was based on 30 key indicators of academic, social and economic opportunities. Wallet-friendliness took into account housing costs, share of rental units, cost of higher education, student loan debt per person, and the average costs of things like monthly fitness club fees, pizza and burgers, and bowling and a movie. Social environment rankings depended on factors like students per capita, share of single persons, cafes and breweries per capita, food trucks per capita, festivals per capita, attractions and crime rate. Academic and economic opportunities took into account quality of higher education, earning potential for college graduates, share of part-time jobs, median income of part-time workers, entrepreneurial activity and other factors.
Other cities in Texas fared well in WalletHub’s rankings. Austin was deemed the best large college city, and College Station ranked 8th best small college city. Edinburg had the lowest cost of living index for young people.
In 2016, 2017 and 2018, Forbes named San Marcos as one of the best places to retire. Thrillist has named San Marcos one of the best small cities to move to and one of the top cities to visit before it gets too popular.
