25 colleges where students love life

When choosing where to go to college, academics isn't the only factor to consider.

College years are formative for young adults, so the extracurricular, recreational, and social opportunities offered by schools play an important role in the overall collegiate experience.

Business Insider included student-life rankings in its recent list of the 50 best colleges in America, drawing data from Niche, a company that compiles research on schools.

Niche assessed the social and community life of universities and provided letter grades based on factors like campus quality, diversity, party scene, student retention, safety, and athletics. (Read the full methodology here.)

To highlight the schools that students love attending, here are the 25 colleges with the highest student-life scores on Niche. Big state schools dominated the list, with the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and the University of Wisconsin at Madison earning the top three spots.

Read on to check out the full list.