Why San Francisco Is No. 1

San Francisco is this year’s best city for young professionals because of its ability to attract and retain talent. It does this by offering long-term job opportunities, plenty of singles and impressive starting salaries.

The City by the Bay outshined the rest of the field in attracting alumni from the nation’s top schools. More of the class of 1998 from Harvard, Stanford, Rice, Princeton, Duke and Northwestern picked San Francisco as home, 10 years out of school, compared with any other metro. These are graduates with the skills to work virtually wherever they want, and this measure is an indicator of where high-caliber professionals have decided to settle, based on a combination of job and lifestyle factors.