It's a brand new school year and a fresh opportunity to get good grades.  But will the best and brightest in Boise stick around after graduation?  

Washington D.C. is the top city in America that attracts high-achieving students, according to Forbes.  Denver cracked the Top 5, and Seattle came in at #7, where about a third of the population is made of millennials.

TIME Magazine says the students who get the best scores in class and on tests, end up moving away from Boise, to places like San Francisco and Seattle where there are higher numbers of college graduates.  Smart college grads want to live in areas with other smart college grads they say.

For those who move in their twenties and thirties, the average distance is 676 miles. So for us in the Treasure Valley, that's like packing our bags for Las Vegas.  Seattle and Portland are closer - only about 400-ish miles away.

What makes you stay?  Family?  It's too expensive to move out-of-state?  You've got a good job right here in Boise?  We hope it's that last one, because there are a lot of big companies here like Micron Technology, St. Luke's, Hewlett Packard, and the university system, that might be looking for high achievers like yourself once you're out of school.

In other words parents, don't encourage your kids to get bad grades just so they'll stick close to home!  There's plenty of opportunity here for the smart ones, and for the rest of us too.

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