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Methodology: What Makes a Place Fun to Live In?

By U.S. News & World Report

When deciding whether to move to a new city, most people evaluate the cost of living there, the job prospects and quality-of-life aspects such as crime rate and access to good schools. But another important question to ask is: Will you enjoy living there?

Defining what makes a place “fun” to live in is no easy task. For some, it’s having access to parks and biking trails. For others, it’s having plenty of food and nightlife options to choose from. And for others still, it’s having the ability to easily exercise their credit cards at local malls and boutiques.

That’s why, when it came to determining what makes a place a fun place to live, we at U.S. News & World Report asked the public to help define it for us. In May, using Google Consumer Surveys, which targets general internet users in the U.S., we asked people across the country to tell us which leisure amenities are the most desirable: parks and outdoor recreation, restaurants, shopping venues, museums and other attractions, theaters and live music venues, professional sports, or bars and nightlife. Two thousand people — ranging in age from 18 to 65 and older — from all across the U.S. weighed in. The responses we received helped determine the methodology used to choose the 2016 Most Fun Places to Live.

The survey results also taught us a thing or two about what the average American defines as “fun.” Here’s what we learned.

The greener the better. According to the survey, fun means access to parks. Of the 2,000 people who responded, nearly 30 percent said that of the options listed, parks and outdoor recreation was most important to them. As a result, places with large amounts of green space and plenty of outdoor activities performed well on the Most Fun Places to Live ranking. San Diego — home to expansive shorelines and the beautiful Balboa Park — came in first place, while Portland, Oregon, with its Asian-inspired gardens and easy access to snow-capped Mount Hood, took the number three spot.

Playing is more fun than watching. Our survey tells us that Americans jump at the chance to be active outdoors, but when it comes to watching from the sidelines, they’re not as enthusiastic. Less than 9 percent of respondents identified professional sports as the amenity they’d most like to have access to in their home towns.

You can’t have fun on an empty stomach. More than 20 percent of the 2,000 people who took the survey identified restaurants as the most crucial leisure amenity, with voters in every age group (from millennials to retirees) ranking it right up there with parks in terms of importance. As a result, places like Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, performed very well on the list of Most Fun Places to Live. The city’s blossoming food scene — composed of modern Southern cuisine, casual barbecue joints, award-winning farm-to-table experiences and everything in between — is partly to thank for its placement at number 11 on the list.

The theater trumps the bar. Bars and nightlife venues received the lowest percentage of the votes on our survey, with every age group except 25 to 34 ranking it at the bottom in terms of importance (and even then, less than 9 percent of participants ages 25 to 34 cited bars and nightlife as the most desirable amenity). Theaters and live music venues, on the other hand, received 9 percent of the total vote. As a result, places like Santa Rosa, California; Springfield, Massachusetts; and Madison, Wisconsin — which all have a high number of venues compared to the size of their population — performed well in this category.

We don’t take shopping for granted. Residents often joke about never visiting their metro area’s greatest landmarks, but the same doesn’t go for its shopping malls. Of the 2,000 people who responded to our survey, 12.5 percent named shopping as the leisure amenity that is most important to them, while less than 11 percent said the same about museums and attractions. Although the numbers are close, Portland, Maine, may have its boutiques and galleries to thank more than its museums for its number nine placement in the rankings.

Continue reading for a more in-depth look at how we calculated the rankings:

How we ranked the Most Fun Places to Live

In order to identify the Most Fun Places to Live, we evaluated the 100 most popular metro areas in the U.S. using data from a number of different sources, including the United States Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics, The Trust for Public Land and TripAdvisor.com. This data was grouped into nine indexes and weighted according to the responses we received from the public survey, to which 2,000 people from around the country responded. Below is the Most Fun Places to Live methodology:

— Best Places to Live Score — 10 percent

Each of the 100 metro areas evaluated for this ranking was also evaluated for the 2016 Best Places to Live ranking, which takes into account factors like the cost of living, quality of life and job prospects in each place. This helped lay the groundwork for the Most Fun Places ranking because how much fun residents have is contingent on a place’s livability. For example, having access to the country’s best live music won’t matter if you can’t afford to buy a concert ticket.

— Visitation Score — 10 percent

Visitation rates are a good indicator of how fun a place is; New York City doesn’t welcome thousands of visitors each year because it’s boring. To get a sense of how many people visit each of the 100 most popular places every year, we looked at the total number of airline arrivals in every commercial airport located in each metro area in 2015, as reported by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ Airline Origin and Destination Survey.

— Parks and Outdoors Score — 23 percent

Because the majority of our survey respondents said green space was the most desirable leisure amenity, the U.S. News Parks and Outdoors Index is the most heavily weighted data point in the Most Fun Places methodology. We looked at the total number of entries identified as parks on TripAdvisor.com and the average user rating they received. We also took into account the percentage of land area devoted to parkland and the average dollar amount per person spent on park maintenance and improvement, as reported by The Trust for Public Land.

— Restaurants Score — 19 percent

To evaluate the quantity and quality of restaurants in each metro area, we used TripAdvisor.com to determine how many restaurants there are per 1,000 people, and the average user rating they received. As an additional indicator of quality, we totaled the number of restaurants in each metro area that received a AAA Four or Five Diamond Award.

— Shopping Score — 10 percent

To measure the availability of shopping in each metro area, we used TripAdvisor.com to calculate the total number of shopping venues per 1,000 residents, and compared the average user rating for shopping venues across all 100 places.

— Attractions Score — 9 percent

To determine the accessibility and merit of attractions — such as museums, theme parks and historic sites — in each metro area, we determined the total number of attractions per 1,000 residents and the average attraction rating using TripAdvisor.com.

— Theaters and Live Music Score — 7 percent

To assess the quantity and quality of theater and live music venues in each metro area, we used TripAdvisor.com to total the number of venues and determine how many there are per 1,000 residents, and then calculated the average user rating.

— Sports Score — 7 percent

We used a number of different data points to measure the accessibility of professional sports in each metro area. First, we identified how many of the five most popular professional sports (NFL football, major- and minor-league baseball, NBA basketball, NHL and AHL hockey and MLS soccer) were represented by teams in each metro area. We then collected the seating capacities for each professional sports venue in order to calculate the number of available seats per capita, which represents how easily residents can attend games. Lastly, we looked at attendance rates (as published on ESPN.com) and total followers on Facebook and Twitter as an indicator of how popular the teams are.

— Bars and Nightlife Score — 5 percent

To gauge the accessibility of quality nightlife options in each metro area, we analyzed the total number of venues per 1,000 residents and the average user rating across all bars and nightlife venues using TripAdvisor.com.

More from U.S. News

10 Best Places to Live for Foodies

10 Most Fun Places to Live if You Love the Outdoors

The 30 Most Fun Places to Live in the U.S.

Methodology: What Makes a Place Fun to Live In? originally appeared on usnews.com

Don’t Settle for Student Loans to Pay for Online Education

By WTOP Staff
Online college programs are becoming a more popular choice for prospective students, with one study finding that more than 6 million students enrolled in at least one online course in fall 2015. The popularity of these courses can be attributed in part to their flexibility with working adults' schedules, students' ability to progress more quickly through online programs and, oftentimes, cheaper tuition. [See 10 low-cost online bachelor's programs for out-of-state students.]Online degrees can be beneficial to many college students, but some studies have shown online learners complete their programs at lower rates than students at traditional brick-and-mortar campuses. Individuals with student loans but no degree comprise two-thirds of defaulted borrowers. Though these numbers are not encouraging, just like for traditional programs, there are ways to reduce how much you'll need to borrow for an online program to ensure you won't become one of these statistics. Don't just settle on borrowing student loans to cover the whole cost of your program and living expenses. Instead, start thinking about how to cut costs and cover your balance in different ways, such as the following. -- Grants and scholarships: Even though you are taking an online course, you can still apply and receive grants and scholarships. But your first step should be to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, commonly referred to as the FAFSA, which will allow you to receive a Pell Grant if your expected family contribution is low enough. The EFC criteria and award amounts are adjusted annually, but the 2017-2018 academic year awards range from $606 to $5,920, which could significantly lower the amount you borrow annually. Your next step is to apply for scholarships. You can start by checking online scholarship search engines, such as the Salt Scholarship Search, College Board's BigFuture and Peterson's. But don't forget to take advantage of local organizations and your school's financial aid office. Both may offer scholarships that you can't find with a national scholarship search. [Review these 10 sites to kick off your scholarship search.]For instance, organizations like the Elks Club, Knights of Columbus or the Rotary Club typically offer scholarships annually to local students. Just because you're going to school online doesn't mean you're ineligible. Visit your local library for scholarship listings, and ask around town. You might be surprised how many local organizations offer scholarships. While these scholarships typically aren't large, every little bit counts. Each dollar you receive in a scholarship is a dollar you don't have to borrow and pay interest on. -- Work-study: Another option for online students may be work-study awards. Not all students enrolled in online programs are eligible, but students at some schools -- including, for example, SUNY Empire State College and Liberty University -- are. Work-study awards are not given upfront like scholarships and grants. In most cases, they are an offer to earn up to the awarded amount if you secure an eligible work-study job. While there is a misconception that all work-study jobs must be on campus, students can work for off-campus, nonprofit or public employers as long as the work is in the public's interest. You may be able to work for a for-profit employer if the job is relevant to your course of study. No matter who the outside employer is, it will need to have an established agreement with your college for you to receive work-study funds. Remember, to be eligible for federal financial aid, you must be enrolled and pursuing a degree or certificate. If you're not working toward a credential, Pell Grants and work-study won't be option, but you may still be able to take advantage of private scholarships -- just be sure to read the eligibility criteria carefully. [Explore what to know about financial aid in online programs.]-- Pay as you go: One of the great benefits to enrolling online is the flexible schedule, which can allow you to complete your college coursework around your responsibilities. But prospective students often overlook using their part- or full-time job earnings as an option for paying for college. Almost 80 percent of college students in 2015 worked at least part time while attending classes, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. By budgeting and thinking strategically about your college costs, you can likely reduce your dependence on student loans by paying a portion out of pocket. Many -- but not all -- online programs are less expensive than traditional programs and often have shorter payment periods. Six, eight or 10 weeks are common course durations. Because of the frequency of payments in an online setting, you may be well-placed to pay as you go and possibly avoid borrowing altogether. Attending college online and avoiding student loans may be challenging, but if you are willing to put in the effort, you can limit the amount you need to borrow. More from U.S. News Q&A: Understanding Student Loan Discharge Eligibility Student Loan Refinancing Isn't Right for All Borrowers
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