Report: Midwest cities top Boulder, Fort Collins for new grads

Jobs? Check. Killer lifestyle? Check. Boulder and Fort Collins have them.

Affordability? Well, that’s the piece that makes life tough for new college grads looking to land locally, according to a new report released by finance website ValuePenguin.

Boulder came in 13th and Fort Collins 30th on ValuePenguin’s rankings of the best cities for new grads. The report looked at the availability of jobs, lifestyle factors such as entertainment and transportation, and affordability of housing.

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The study ranked 381 metropolitan statistical areas in each of the three categories. The Boulder MSA is actually Boulder County, while the Fort Collins MSA is Larimer County.

Boulder (first) and Fort Collins (14th) scored highly for lifestyle and respectably — 116 and 122, respectively — for jobs. But Fort Collins ranked 276th and Boulder 332nd for affordability.

Perhaps surprisingly, several cities in the Midwest were among those that landed ahead of Boulder and Fort Collins on the list, thanks in large part to scoring among the top 40 for both jobs and lifestyle.

Madison, Wis., placed first, followed by Fargo, N.D. Midwestern cities such as Bloomington, Ill. (4th), Iowa City, Iowa (11th) and Lawrence, Kan. (12th) also beat out Boulder and Fort Collins.

The Boulder and Fort Collins MSAs were tops in Colorado, however. Denver-Aurora-Lakewood came in 84th overall, and the Greeley MSA, which is Weld County, came in 189th.