Bozeman, MT Ranked as 2024 Best College Town in the Country

This is going to be something that can either be used as bragging rights or used as motivation for the upcoming big game. Either way it's used, Bozeman, Montana has been ranked as the "2024 Best College Town in the U.S."

Yes, you read that right. Not the best college town in Montana, the Northwest, or the West, no, they are ranked as the best college town in the country. This is according to Rentcafe.com.

They considered a few factors, including tuition, cost of living, the percentage of students receiving grants, scholarships, or aid, graduation rates, air quality and more. Bozeman ranked high enough to take the number one spot, in the entire country. They looked at 236 college towns in total.

Bozeman isn't the only town from Montana that made the list. Missoula also made the list, but they didn't even make the top twenty. According to their rankings Missoula comes in at number forty-five on the list.

The rankings have both schools with 100% of the students receiving some form of aid, scholarship, or grant. MSU has a higher graduation rate (57%) compared to U of M (46%). Bozeman also outperforms Missoula in other metrics, such as the student-to-faculty ratio.

The top five best college towns are:

Bozeman, MT
Pullman, WA
Clemson, SC
Gainesville, FL
Boone, NC

This week is also the "Brawl of the Wild", the rivalry football game between the MSU Bobcats and the U of M Grizzlies. This will be their 123rd meeting, making it one of the longest rivalries in the country. The rivalry has also spawned food drives in the local communities, with "Can the Cats" in Missoula and "Can the Griz" in Bozeman. If you can donate to either one of those this year, it will be appreciated by both communities.