Cornell's campus overlooking Lake Cayuga, in Ithaca, NY Mary Robnett/Business Insider [Editor's note: Due to a statistical error, Crestview, Fla. was incorrectly ranked #4 on this list. The list has been updated and corrected as of 12/6/2013]

When picking a college, a school's location can sometimes be just as important as its academics.

The American Institute of Economic Research has released its latest College Destination Index, which compared college towns around the country based on their academic environment, quality of life, and professional opportunity.

The index separated the destinations by population size. Here we've rounded up the best of the small college towns, all with a population under 250,000. We've included select statistics about each town; click here to see the full report.