I moved to Wisconsin instead of New York City or San Francisco. I can afford to live in a big place with my boyfriend and our cats while still enjoying great sports and music.

• Alex Akmal moved to Madison, Wisconsin, from Missoula, Montana, after graduating from college.
• What sold her on the city was a great job offer, its college town flair, and its affordability.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Alex Akmal, 23, a project manager at healthcare software company Epic, who moved from Missoula, Montana, where she went to college, to Madison, Wisconsin, after graduating last year. The conversation was edited for length and clarity.

I grew up in rural eastern Washington in a town called Pullman. It's a college town, and it's an awesome place. For college, I went to University of Montana in Missoula, which is also an incredibly awesome place.

It's an outdoorsy school but I went there because I just really liked the people I talked to, and for the program that I was initially going for — political science — it had a pretty good department.

I ended up in sociology with a minor in women's gender and sexuality studies. I went into college with the attitude of "Oh, I want a career, I want to have a dream job, blah, blah, blah," and then I ended up saying "I'm just going to do the stuff that I enjoy and that I'm passionate about. Then I'll figure out the career piece later."

When I was finishing college, I decided wherever I end up, it needs to be a college town or have a major college in it. My partner, also named Alex, our two cats, and I moved to Madison after graduating.

When I looked at schools back in the day, the University of Wisconsin-Madison had been on my list. I never applied, but wanted to consider Madison when I was about to graduate. I was like, 'Well, it's in the Midwest, it's in Wisconsin, and I've never been to Wisconsin but have heard good things'."

Then, when I got an offer from Epic, they flew me out there. When I got there, I thought I can make this work.

The 'Midwestern nice' thing is so real: we got into a taxi from the airport and the driver was talking about the Green Bay Packers, where we should go for beers in Madison, and how much he loved it. He was so incredibly friendly.

We were staying in downtown Madison, and it felt very similar to my college town, which was very hip, youthful, and very fun. Similar to Missoula, Madison itself is also a pretty outdoorsy community. There are multiple rock climbing gyms and hikes nearby.

It had the vibe of the college town: the main street, the campus, and the old buildings — I was like, "this feels comfortable, I can work with this," and that really was a big influence on my decision to move here. On our first day, we checked out the campus and State Street — and all I was thinking was "this does feel very familiar in a lot of ways." The downtown is super walkable.

Also, a huge reason I moved here is because I was looking at housing before I had even gotten my offer — just for funsies. I was like, "let's see what the cost of living there is." The prices for all of these apartments are intuitively what they should be.

An apartment downtown, that's brand new, is $1500 per month. If you go further out and you get a studio, that's only $800. It makes sense.

We live right outside of Madison, kind of in the suburbs. Our home is technically an apartment, but it's like a townhouse — there are no upstairs or downstairs neighbors, just neighbors on the sides. It's really nice. It's a two-bedroom, one-and-a-half bathroom apartment — it's a really big space.

It was built in 2001 or 2002, but they redid the floors and all the appliances right before we moved in. So the kitchen is very nice. The floors are brand new and it has a fireplace, which I love.

We pay about $1,800 per month, so about $900 each. If I had the same house in Missoula, it would probably be like almost $3,000 per month, no doubt.

When I was in college, I was sharing an apartment with four roommates, and I was paying almost $750 a month with three roommates.

For me, the thing I like most about Madison is having more city amenities than I've had in the past. I've never had multiple malls, or the opportunity to see cool concerts every night. We just went to a concert in March, and we went to see Carly Rae Jepsen — one of my favorite artists — in the fall. I've gone to some of the University of Wisconsin Badger sporting events, which are super fun. I got to see my hometown football team beat their football team. It was absolutely incredible.

But it's still a college town. Me and a lot of my friends are very much lifelong learners. You have cool speakers that come to college towns, you get cool performers, and lots of sporting events.

Also, when you're in a college town, you tend to have a really fun nightlife, and it feels like an easier continuation from college when you're around people of your age. That's meaningful, especially if you're in your early 20s — I don't want to go to a club in Miami filled with 30 year olds. I don't have any interest in that, and also because I'm a little old lady at heart who likes to just sit at home and do embroidery. But I also like to go out and get my Espresso Martini.

There are still tons of masters degree students, Ph.D students, and later undergrads who are probably at a similar place in life as you, so it's a lot easier to make friends.

There's just a youthful feeling that you don't have when you're not in college town, in my opinion.