Compared to other cities its size, Providence isn't a great place for college students these days, according to a recent study released by the consulting firm Collegia.
Providence ranked 15th out of 20 in the ranking's "mid-size metros" category, below cities such as Cincinnati and Milwaukee, Wis. The study's top-ranked mid-size city was San Jose-Palo Alto, Calif.
Collegia's 2007-2008 ranking of the best metropolitan destinations for prospective college students included a total of 75 cities from around the country, measuring academic environment, quality of life and professional opportunities by looking at quantitative information such as research capacity, arts and leisure, cost of living, earning potential and "brain drain," or the ratio of college graduates to enrolled students living in the city.
Providence ranked second only behind Nashville, Tenn., in terms of arts and leisure, but its overall rank suffered in part because of its lack of research opportunities, said Todd Hoffman, president and founder of Collegia. Hoffman cited the relatively low percentage of Providence's population with a four-year college degree or higher - 27.3 percent, he said - the city's lack of employment opportunities and the number of students who leave Providence after graduating as other problems.
The ratio of college graduates to enrolled students in Providence is 0.66, according to the Collegia study.
Job opportunities have not always been abundant in Providence, but things are changing, said Paul Brooks, chief of protocol in the office of Mayor David Cicilline '83, citing $3 billion of investment in the city in the past five years.
"I don't know where (Collegia) got their information, but I haven't met anybody unhappy yet. This whole town is slanted for students," Brooks said. Acknowledging a "definite economic difference between students and the people who live here," Brooks said his office has had over 600 college student interns since he began 35 years ago, who have worked all over the city's nonprofit sector. "Students are reaching out and doing great things," Brooks said.
Noting that Providence is a "more and more vital place every year," Brooks called the city's arts and culture scene "comparable to (that of) any city in the world. It's all working and it's all working well."
Charlie Harding '09 agreed with Brooks to a certain extent, highlighting Providence's great opportunities in the arts despite its small size.
"On the other hand," Harding said, "we're completely a college on the Hill. There are a lot of missed opportunities, particularly in arts, community service and things that are downtown and in the greater Providence area. Those opportunities are only taken advantage of on an individual basis and rarely are presented as options (to students)."
"I do wish that Brown somehow presented us with ways of getting involved in Providence," Harding said.
Pete Fallon '09, a Herald editorial cartoonist, said he lived on the East Side this summer and felt removed from the rest of the city. "I feel really isolated at Brown," he said.
Fallon said he would live in Providence after college. "It wouldn't be my first choice, but if I got a good job opportunity I would. Not on the East Side, though," he said.
Stefan Smith '09, an at-large representative on the Undergraduate Council of Students, said he liked Providence.
"Providence is a fine city, and most Brown students are too lazy or too sheltered to get off the Hill for themselves," Smith said. He offered his hometown - Greenville, S.C. - as a comparison, "where you have to find shit to do."
Like Fallon, Smith said that he would like to live in Providence after college.
Not all students are fans of the city, though. Zack Leonard '10 said Providence does not have "much to do."
"I'm from Boston, and I compare it to Boston and I find it lacking a lot of the time," he said.
The consulting firm Collegia is based in Wellesley, Mass. - with no affiliation to the college in that town - and works to facilitate collaboration between universities and their communities on regional development and student yield and retention. The firm has led large-scale collaborations between the city of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania, as well as with universities in Boston, Pittsburgh and northeast Ohio.
The combined efforts of the University of Pennsylvania and the city of Philadelphia, which used Collegia to market the city as "one big campus," led to a surge in student interest in the city during and after college, said Colette McNulty, a Collegia employee.
Collegia has not worked with Providence and its universities.
"Providence is really ripe for a program like this, not only with the mix of schools there but also with the vibe of the city," McNulty said.
Hoffman, Collegia's president, called Providence an "opportunity waiting to happen," saying it would only need its universities to work in conjunction with the city "to make Providence truly one of the best places to go to college in the country," but that it largely depends on "what role Brown wants as a leader of the pack and how it wants to interact with its peers."
Hoffmann credited Penn president Amy Gutmann with most of the success of their marketing campaign, noting that "she played a key role in every major measure" to use her position at the school to advocate for Philadelphia.
