The city of Ann Arbor is becoming a magnet for awards and recognition from various sources. The American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) recently named Ann Arbor to its list of country’s 75 Best College Towns and Cities for college students. Ann Arbor ranks #2 (of 20) among small cities (those with populations of 250,000 to one million residents) on the AIER’s College Destination Index. That ranking is up from #3 last year.
 
The Institute looks past the most frequently used factors in choosing a college, including the schools themselves, costs, academics, and athletic programs. Their criteria analyze other less used but equally important variables. Rather than focusing on the schools themselves, the AIER looked at the types of opportunities – social and economic – which are available to students and graduates in the cities themselves.

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