A+ Bloomington/Normal! Smartest City in Illinois!

[Maintainschaos]

Originally Posted by BUalumni

As for Bloomington being the smartest in city in Illinois, it intrigued me, but didn't suprise. Champaign has the much larger university, but that is it. Almost every person that I have met from Champaign/Urbana was either a student, instructor, or had a job that directly related to the campus. It influences the entire area. While Bloomington/Normal has the smaller campus, the job market is far larger than that of Champaign.

I would think that argument would lend credence to C-U being the "more educated" city. I don't think it really matters either way...the Forbes ratings are normally terribly skewed.

[Drover]

Yeh, Forbes tends to use some rather bizarre criteria for their "best of" and "worst of" rankings.

[BUalumni]

Originally Posted by Maintainschaos

I would think that argument would lend credence to C-U being the "more educated" city. I don't think it really matters either way...the Forbes ratings are normally terribly skewed.

Like I said, Champaign is huge university town through and through. People that graduate from ISU aren't as likely to take their education to Urbana (unless they are transfering schools), as people from Urbana are in coming to Bloomington/Normal for the job market. I would say that if both Bloomington/Normal, and Champaign/Urbana were stricly university towns, then you could safetly say that Champaign is the "smarter" city just because U of I is twice the size of ISU.

[Maintainschaos]

Originally Posted by BUalumni

Like I said, Champaign is huge university town through and through. People that graduate from ISU aren't as likely to take their education to Urbana (unless they are transfering schools), as people from Urbana are in coming to Bloomington/Normal for the job market. I would say that if both Bloomington/Normal, and Champaign/Urbana were stricly university towns, then you could safetly say that Champaign is the "smarter" city just because U of I is twice the size of ISU.

Oh, by the by, I'm also a BU alum.

[PtownGuy]

Peoria would actually have to grow to be part of a Peoria/Morton/Bloomingotn.

[RC2216]

Many smart people go to U of I for college but leave when they are done.
Many smart people move to bloomington-normal to work, that is the difference.

Bloomington also has Illinois Wesleyan University, a nationally ranked liberal arts college.

[mrkool]

Originally Posted by BUalumni

It seems that Forbes magazine has rated Bloomington/Normal as not only the smartest city in Illinois, but 20th in nation. .

Then I won't move there and hose you guys by knocking the smart quotient down a couple of points.