America's 20 Smartest Small Towns

Where brains and high property values meet
By Victoria Floethe,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 10, 2009 6:59 PM CST
America's 20 Smartest Small Towns
Bethesda, Md. attracts brainy folk from state capital Georgetown.   (Flickr)

America's brainiest small towns boast high property values and high culture. Forbes lists the nation's smartest:

  1. Bethesda, Md.: Nearby Georgetown and the National Institutes of Health draw brainy folk to Bethesda, which has a rate of advanced degrees five times higher than the nation's.
  2. Wellesley, Mass.: Home to two private colleges and some of the state's top high schools, Wellesley is just 13 miles from brainy Boston.

  1. Palo Alto, Calif.: Palo Alto's scholarly folk, drawn by Stanford University, maintain a median income of $119,000.
  2. McLean, Va.: Many officials and politicians are drawn here from nearby Washington, DC.
  3. Los Altos, Calif.: Pulls in some of Stanford's tenure-track faculty and probably has even higher property values than Palo Alto.
For more enlightened corners, click here.
(More college stories.)

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