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I guess you have a very tired and outdated view of Philadelphia then. It's no New York, but certainly has cosmopolitan elements to it.
Oh this thread is ripe with outdated views of all 5 cities listed here from people who probably have never even been to some (or any) of these places. I started to continue reading it backwards but had to stop. Waste of time; can't believe it's still going and sorry to add another post.
I think the problem with this - As is the problem with most of these open ended, non data driven threads - Is the definition of cosmopolitan and bourgeois have no real data driven indicators or for that matter definitions that everyone can agree on.
I would say that which ever city has the most people that talk like Thurston Howell the Third and Lovey is probably the most cosmopolitan and bourgeois... oh and ascots, probably if you could identify ascot sales per capita you could nail it.
I don't really know about the other cities listed but I'd imagine Philly is probably the most cosmopolitan (although clearly last among the major East Coast cities)
Baltimore would be last and while it's not the size of NYC, DC, Boston, or Philly, it's certainly a major East Coast city by just about any standard.
Washington University, Case Western Reserve University, and Carnegie Mellon University are all great schools! I'd say that it's difficult to rank one above the other "overall" since each school seems to do better than another in specific program areas.
One quality where Pittsburgh is objectively better than Cleveland and St. Louis is the concentration of higher education. Carnegie Mellon University, Case Western Reserve University and Washington University are all Very High Research Activity private universities, but only Pittsburgh has a Very High Research Activity public university, and it happens to be located right next to Carnegie Mellon University. In fact, it's difficult for people to tell at first glance where one university ends and the other begins. All in all, this is how each metropolitan area compares in terms of research university classification:
Pittsburgh
2 Very High (University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University)
1 High (Duquesne University)
1 Low (Robert Morris University)
Cleveland
1 Very High (Case Western Reserve University)
1 High (Cleveland State University)
St. Louis
1 Very High (Washington University)
2 High (University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis University)
2 Low (Lindenwood University, Maryville University of St. Louis)
St. Louis is somewhat underrated in terms of higher education, but Pittsburgh is still on a higher level. As for Cleveland, it'd have two more High Research Activity universities if Akron was part of the MSA, but still only one Very High Research Activity university.
As for liberal arts colleges, here's how each MSA compares:
Pittsburgh
Point Park University
Chatham University
Carlow University
St. Vincent College
Washington & Jefferson College
Cleveland
John Carroll University
Baldwin Wallace University
Oberlin College
Lake Erie College
St. Louis
Fontbonne University
Cleveland has a pretty strong liberal arts presence, but still no stronger than Pittsburgh. St. Louis has surprisingly few liberal arts colleges.
All in all, Pittsburgh punches well above its weight in terms of higher education. In fact, Pittsburgh probably outdoes Detroit in this comparison too, especially with the University of Michigan not being part of the Detroit metropolitan area, and Wayne State University having lower rankings than both the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University.
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