The 10 best colleges to attend if you love the beach

Publish date: 2024-06-18

Finding a college that offers rigorous coursework at an affordable price which yields a competitive future earnings is hard enough. Add close proximity to the beach, and your options are limited.

Money.com did just that, and pegged the best US colleges for people who love the beach.

The ranking started out with the same analysis of colleges as the main list "The best colleges for your money," evaluating them on 27 factors within three broad categories: educational quality, affordability, and alumni success. Money.com analyzed data on student loans and median career earnings on students with business majors five years after graduation. See the full methodology here.

The site then whittled the list to just those with easy beach access, setting parameters that only five schools from one state (sorry, California) and one school per city could make the list.

Take a look below to see the best colleges if you love the beach.

10. University of North Carolina-Wilmington

Flickr / Sergey Galyonkin

Wilmington, North Carolina

Overall ranking: 426

Proximity to the closest beach: 7 miles

9. University of Miami

Shutterstock

Miami, Florida

Overall ranking: 399

Proximity to the closest beach: 10 miles

8. University of Hawaii at Manoa

Shutterstock

Honolulu, Hawaii

Overall ranking: 345

Proximity to the closest beach: 3 miles

7. California State University-Long Beach

Shutterstock/Jon Bilous

Long Beach, California

Overall ranking: 121

Proximity to the closest beach: 3 miles

6. University of California-Santa Cruz

Flickr / ih

Santa Cruz, California

Overall ranking: 114

Proximity to the closest beach: 4 miles

5. University of California-Santa Barbara

Youtube/MamaOT

Santa Barbara, California

Overall ranking: 93

Proximity to the closest beach: less than a mile

4. Citadel Military College of South Carolina

Flickr/jblaha

Charleston, South Carolina

Overall ranking: 67

Proximity to the closest beach: 10 miles

3. Fairfield University

Flickr / m01229

Fairfield, Connecticut

Overall ranking: 56

Proximity to the closest beach: 3 miles

2. University of California-San Diego

Shutterstock/Sebastien Burel

San Diego, California

Overall ranking: 32

Proximity to the closest beach: less than a mile

1. University of California-Irvine

Flickr/Vanessa Vancour

Irvine, California

Overall ranking: 13

Proximity to the closest beach: 7 miles

Abby Jackson Before joining Business Insider, Abby was at JPMorgan where she worked in the chief investment office and treasury. Previously, she worked in education policy in Washington, DC, dealing with standards-based reform and the Common Core. Read more Read less

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7o8HSoqWeq6Oeu7S1w56pZ5ufonyjsdKtZJynnKGyqLHSZpqlp6OaerW7jK2fnmWSmq6ktIxrZ2pvXWw%3D