The American Institute for Economic Research has listed Fargo, home to NDSU’s main campus, among the top 75 college towns and cities for 2012-13. Fargo is ranked No. 12 in the top college towns with populations below 250,000.

Other communities listed with Fargo as top college towns were Grand Forks, N.D., home of the University of North Dakota; Lafayette, Ind.; Columbia, Mo.; College Station, Texas; Charlottesville, Va.; and Manhattan, Kan.

The institute’s “College Destinations Index” considered a dozen factors using data compiled by the Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, National Science Foundation and Small Business Administration.

Some of the factors included student concentration and diversity, research capacity, cost of living, arts and leisure, earning potential, entrepreneurial activity and unemployment rate.

Steven Cunningham, the institute’s director of research and education, said in an institute news release, “The characteristics that make up a great college destination often make a location ideal for business, retirement and tourism. A top College Destinations Index ranking should be just as important to the town or city as it is to the schools located there and the families and students attending or considering them.”

More information on the College Destinations Index is available at www.aier.org/article/7841-aier-names-75-best-college-towns-and-cities-2012-2013.

NDSU is recognized as one of the nation’s top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.