Southern Miss named best college location in Mississippi

The University of Southern Mississippi is the gold standard for college location in Mississippi, according to a list from an academic-review website.

Niche.com ranked 1,298 traditional four-year colleges and universities in the United States based on key factors such as local crime rates, access to bars and restaurants, median rent, local weather, a percentage of residents age 18-24 and student reviews in an attempt to measure the impact of the local area on the college experience.

USM ranked 1st in Mississippi and 591st nationally with a "B+" Overall Niche Grade.

The Niche scoring system gave USM above-average scores for the categories: access to bars, access to coffee shops, access to restaurants, local weather and outdoor activities.

To see where other schools ranked visit https://colleges.niche.com/rankings/best-college-locations/

This story was originally published November 5, 2015 at 2:09 PM with the headline "Southern Miss named best college location in Mississippi ."