College is the most intellectually interesting part of life for a lot of Americans, and after graduation, it really drops off. There are no more seminars or deep-thinking late-night conversations, and it gets harder to meet someone new who wants to talk about anything other than work. But a new study from Maxwell Social tries to figure out which U.S. cities are best at keeping that intellectual side of life going.
- To find out where intellect thrives after college ends, their researchers ranked the 50 largest metros nationwide on seven factors: museums, libraries, graduate degrees, universities, adult education, bookstores, and search interest in things like book clubs and philosophy lectures.
- They also surveyed 905 adults about where they still find that kind of social and intellectual community, outside of college.
- According to the poll, a third of adults haven’t had a deep conversation with someone new in over a year.
- More than half of respondents say intellectually stimulating conversations are harder to come by now than in college (61%) and that making intellectually curious friends is harder than dating (53%).
- Two-thirds (66%) of those who still go to bars admit they’d swap a night of drinking for one built around ideas and conversation and 83% say bars feel “intellectually empty.” And nearly half (49%) say alcohol isn’t really part of their social life anymore.
- Boston is the most intellectual city in the country, the study finds.
- Hartford, Connecticut, comes in second, and it has more library branches per resident than any other major U.S. metro.
- The New York City metro area has more museums (418), library outlets (730), and universities (242) than any other metro, but once you factor in population, it drops to 8th most intellectual city.
America’s Top 10 Most Intellectual Cities
- Boston, Massachusetts
- Hartford, Connecticut
- San Francisco, California
- Providence, Rhode Island
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- San Jose/Sunnyvale/Santa Clara, California
- Portland, Oregon/Vancouver-Hillsboro, Washington
- New York, New York
- Richmond, Virginia
- Washington, D.C./Arlington/Alexandria, Virginia
America’s Least Intellectual Cities
- Riverside, California
- Fresno, California
- Las Vegas, Nevada
- Houston, Texas
- Phoenix, Arizona
Source: Vice