The big shots in the tech world may don a uniform of blue shirts and chinos or hoodies and sneakers, but don't be fooled by their modest appearances: These millionaires and billionaires live large—and they have the homes to prove it.

The tech industry is booming and these entrepreneurs are buying up homes left and right.

In the past 18 months, Zynga CEO and cofounder Mark Pincus purchased a mansion in San Francisco for $16 million; Netscape cofounder Jim Clark purchased a sprawling estate in Southampton for an estimated $49 million; Russian tech investor Yuri Milner purchased a chateau-style mansion in Silicon Valley for a record $100 million; and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison purchased the entire Hawaiian island of Lanai for an estimated $600 million.

We've tracked down the most expensive homes in tech. To estimate value, we looked at recent sale records and local tax records and assessment values, and we spoke to local realtors and experts at Zillow and Blockshopper.

#25 Marissa Mayer's Palo Alto home

Estimated home value: $5.2 million

Title: CEO of Yahoo

The new CEO of Yahoo lives in a modest-looking 5,203-sq. ft., 5-bedroom, 6.5-bathroom home in Palo Alto's much-desired University South neighborhood.

In 2010, Mayer hosted a $30,000-a-plate dinner in the home to raise funds for President Barack Obama.

According to the Santa Clara County assessor's office, Mayer's home is worth about $5.2 million.

To evaluate the homes, we looked at recent sale records and local tax records and assessment values, and we spoke to local realtors and experts at Zillow and Blockshopper.

#24 Mark Zuckerberg's Silicon Valley home

Estimated home value: $7.6 million

Title: Founder and CEO of Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg lives in a relatively modest home right near the new Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California. He purchased the five-bedroom, five-bath house for $7 million in May 2011.

Since then, home values in Menlo Park have increased about 8.5 percent, and today Zuckerberg's Menlo Park home is worth about $7.6 million.

To evaluate the homes, we looked at recent sale records and local tax records and assessment values, and we spoke to local realtors and experts at Zillow and Blockshopper.

#23 Mark Hurd's Atherton home

Estimated home value: $7.8 million

Title: Copresident, Oracle Corporation

The former CEO of Hewlett-Packard owns a beautiful, 6,410-sq. ft. home in Atherton, Calif., with 5 bedrooms and 6.5 bathrooms.

According to city records, Hurd and his wife Paula purchased the home in 2005 for $7.1 million.

Today, the home is worth about $7.8 million, based on records from the San Mateo County assessor's office for the 2011 tax year. 

To evaluate the homes, we looked at recent sale records and local tax records and assessment values, and we spoke to local realtors and experts at Zillow and Blockshopper.

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On mobile devices alone, you have close to hundreds of thousands of apps to choose from. 

Throw in apps for desktops and the web, and you're looking at millions of options.

How do you make sense of it all?

We put together the ultimate guide to the 100 apps everyone should be using on all platforms. That means iPhones, iPads, Android devices, Windows Phones, PCs, Macs ... you name it.

Click here to jump to the list of the 100 best apps >

How did we come up with this list? 

Aside from picking our favorite apps that we use every day, we conducted a survey of our readers asking for suggestions. In the end, we had close to 200 apps that we narrowed down to this exclusive list of 100.

The apps listed here aren't ranked. Instead, we broke everything up by categories and sorted alphabetically. You can click the big link below to view our full list, or jump to one of the following categories: 

Productivity

News/Reading

Finance/Business

Social Media

Photography/Video

Music

Weather

Games

Entertainment

Sports

Travel

Miscellaneous

Productivity

Paper by Fifty Three, for doodling on your iPad

Paper by Fifty Three is a drawing app that won Apple's Design Award in 2012. Think of the app as your own digital sketchbook. It comes packed with a variety of brushes and pens for your doodles. We suggest buying a stylus if you really want to get the most out of the app.

Price: Free, but you have to pay extra for more brushes and tools.

Available on: iPad

Box, for storing documents online

If you work in a corporate environment, you need to be using Box.

Box is one of the hottest tech startups at the moment. The company touts itself as a cloud service for the enterprise, giving you an easy way to back up and share all your documents online and view them on any device.

We love Box's commitment to developing apps for all platforms, not just the most popular ones. You get 5 GB of storage for free with Box, but there are several paid plans if you need more.

Price: Free

Available on: Android, iOS, BlackBerry PlayBook, and Windows Phone.

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It's the start of a new school year, and for parents of private school students, that means a new round of tuition bills.

Price tags at most schools jumped substantially from last year. The most expensive school on the list costs over $43,000, almost matching the average tuition of a private college, at $43,500, according to CNN Money.

These are the 50 most expensive private high schools in the U.S. based on day-student tuition plus mandatory fees. We excluded schools that were boarding-only and schools for students with special needs.

If we've missed a school, tell us in the comments and we'll look into it.

Click here to check out the schools >

Or click here to view the list on a single page.

#50 The Taft School, Watertown, Conn.

Day student tuition: $35,775

Enrollment: 586

Endowment: $192 million

Fact: The school has only had five headmasters in all of its 112-year history.

Source: The Taft School

Methodology: Rankings are based on tuition and fees for daytime-only students in grades 9 through 12 for the 2012-2013 school year. Boarding-only schools and special-needs high schools were not included.

#49 The Masters School, Dobbs Ferry, New York

Day student tuition: $35,820

Enrollment: 603

Endowment: $27 million

Perks: The school's proximity to New York City makes it ideal for field trips to museums, parks, plays and musicals.

Source: The Masters School

Methodology: Rankings are based on tuition and fees for daytime-only students in grades 9 through 12 for the 2012-2013 school year. Boarding-only schools and special-needs high schools were not included.

#48 Greenwich Academy, Greenwich, Conn.

Day student tuition: $36,050

Enrollment: 802

Endowment: $68.2 million

Perks: GA has two full courts for basketball or volleyball and five international squash courts with stadium seating.

Source: Greenwich Academy

Methodology: Rankings are based on tuition and fees for daytime-only students in grades 9 through 12 for the 2012-2013 school year. Boarding-only schools and special-needs high schools were not included.

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Yes, CEOs are chosen for their grit, determination, vision, smarts, competence, and professionalism.

But it doesn't hurt when they're also endowed with a certain, well, je ne sais quoi.

So who has the most of that?

We've scoured the world to find the CEOs who are tops in this special attribute.

And of course, as anyone who has ever been attracted to anyone knows, it ain't just about looks. So we've also factored in power, fashion sense and presentation, altruism, and ambition.

Click here to see the 50 sexiest CEOs >

View as one page >

Get to know Tory Burch (#2) >

Meet Jack Dorsey (#3) >

See more related features on sexy CEOs >

#50 Mindy Grossman

Company: Home Shopping Network (HSN)

Age: 55

Grossman has been leading the multi-billion dollar company since 2006, and made the company public in 2008. During her tenure as CEO, she's also added an online video game channel, HSN Arcade, to "tap in" to the growing community of female gamers, according to Forbes.

#49 Gregg Steinhafel

Company: Target Corp.

Age: 56

Steinhafel has been with the company for 33 years, though he has been the CEO for four. He has worked in retail since he was in grade school. His grandfather was an Austrian immigrant who opened Steinhafel's Furniture in Milwaukee in 1934. Steinhafel helped his grandfather in the store as a young child mopping floors and doing other chores. The Milwaukee native is a graduate of Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

#48 Karl-Johan Persson

Company: H&M

Age: 37

Swedish-born Karl-Johan Persson was named one of CNN Money's 40 under 40 in 2010. Persson became the CEO of H&M in 2009, but he had been with the family business, which was started by his grandfather, since 2005.

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Welcome to the DIGITAL 100: The World's Most Valuable Private Tech Companies!

In the past two months, we have evaluated hundreds of private tech companies and ranked the top 100 by value.

Our rankings are based on several metrics, including revenue, users, market opportunities, growth rates, and the perception of investors and tech gurus.

A lot has changed since we published last year's list. Since then, three of the top private tech companies—Facebook, Zynga, and Groupon—have gone public. And all of their stocks have crashed.

So we've taken that into account in the valuations on this year's list. In many cases, we've disregarded valuations stamped on recent funding rounds and instead valued companies based on their public comparables.

(And note that we're valuing common stock, not the preferred stock that private investors get when they invest in the private market. Preferred stock comes with downside protection, which makes it much more valuable than common stock.)

Click here to scroll through the Digital 100 →

The Digital 100 Top Ten:

1. Alibaba

2. Bloomberg

3. Twitter

4. 360Buy

5. Palantir

6. Dropbox

7. Square

8. MLB.com

9. SoftLayer

10. Vente-Privee

See all in order →

Complete Coverage

In A-Z Order

The Complete List 1-100

Acknowledgments

We want to thank the hundreds of readers, companies, investors, and executives who have taken time over the past few months to submit nominations and share information with us. We also thank our colleagues Marcus Moretti and Megan Dickey for performing much of the background research. The valuations were estimated by Henry Blodget, Alyson Shontell, and Nicholas Carlson. VCExperts was also helpful.

1. Alibaba Group, $40 billion

Estimated Value: $40 billion

Last Year's Rank / Valuation: N/A

Business: Alibaba is a B2B marketplace for international and domestic China trade.

Location: Hangzhou, China

More Info: About Alibaba

CEO: Jack Ma

Investors: Softbank Corp, Granite Global Ventures, Venture TDF Technology Group, Silver Lake Partners, DST Global, and others

Analysis: Yahoo recently sold half its stake in Alibaba, valuing the Chinese e-commerce giant at $40 billion. It's the largest private non-LBO financing ever for a technology company globally. In the past 12 months, Alibaba has handled $12 billion in transactions.

2. Bloomberg, $35 billion

Estimated Value: $35 billion

Last Year's Rank / Valuation: N/A

Business: Business and financial market media outlet

Location:  New York, New York

More Info: About Bloomberg

CEO: Daniel Doctoroff

Investors: Unavailable

Analysis: In 2008, the company was worth an estimated $25 billion. Bloomberg's 2011 revenue was $7.6 billion, up 10.5% from 2010.

Although Bloomberg is comprised of many different businesses, at its core it is a media company. We give it a healthy 5X multiple on 2011 revenue for a valuation for $35 billion.

3. Twitter, $5.25 billion

Estimated Value: $5.25 billion

Last Year's Rank / Valuation: #5 / $8 billion

Business: Messaging, microblogging and social networking service

Location: San Francisco, CA

More Info: About Twitter

CEO: Dick Costolo

Investors: Last summer, Twitter raised $800 million in two rounds: one from existing Twitter shareholders and one led by DST, both at an estimated $400 million valuation. Other investors include Charles River Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Marc Andreessen, Dick Costolo, Naval Ravikant, Ron Conway, Chris Sacca, Bezos Expeditions, Spark Capital, Digital Garage, Kevin Rose, Tim Ferriss, Benchmark Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, Insight Venture Partners, T. Rowe Price, and Morgan Stanley (nice IPO leverage).

Analysis: Twitter has been growing very quickly both in terms of users and revenue. Its revenue for 2011 was $139.5 million and it's expected to generate about $350 million this year. Twitter has said it expects its revenue to jump to $1 billion in 2014.

While its valuation has been as high as $10 billion, we're living in a post-Facebook world. We give it a 15X multiple on revenue for a $5.25 billion valuation.

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AMERICA'S BEST LAW SCHOOLS In an oversaturated market where countless lawyers are unemployed or underemployed, choosing the right law school makes all the difference. The right school puts you on track to a competitive corporate or public sector job. The wrong school may be a waste of three years and $250,000. So what law schools are really worth it? Over the past month, we conducted a survey to find out the true ranking of the top 50 law schools in America. We asked real professionals, 60 percent of whom had JDs and 69  percent of whom had hiring experience, to evaluate the top law schools in the country. We also asked respondents if law school is even worth attending if you don't get into a top-tier school. A full 40 percent responded that law school is NOT worth attending if you don't get into a top-tier school. So without further ado ... See which schools topped our list >

The 10 Most Expensive Law Schools In America 10 Great And Affordable Law Schools Behind the Law School Underemployment Crisis The 10 Best Paying Career Alternatives For Law Grads 8 Law Schools You Shouldn't Waste Your Money On Recruiters Reveal What They Really Think About Law School

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Join the conversation about this story »

This is part of our comprehensive ranking of The Best Law Schools in America.

Law school costs a lot of money. Period.

But when you're factoring in the cost of law school, it's not the tuition alone—which costs an average of $40,585 per year—that you have to consider.

You also have to think about everything from the cost of health insurance to books, a computer, and other supplies. Then there are the hidden fees that you probably don't factor in, like loan fees, transportation, business attire, and networking costs (taking people out to lunch, attending conferences, and more).

Add in the cost of living (which can be quite high in a city like New York), and you've got yourself a lot of debt.

We looked at each school's total cost estimate for one year of law school—most of which assume that students are living a very modest lifestyle—and then added in some extra costs that the schools seem to have forgotten to include, like loan fees, computers, and more.

#10 New York Law School

Tuition: $47,600

Living, Transportation & Personal Expenses: $22,086

Health Insurance: $2,000

Books, Supplies & Computer: $3,300

Miscellaneous Fees (including program fees, administrative fees, and loan fees): $1,830

Total: $74,986

#9 USC Gould School of Law

Tuition: $50,638

Living, Transportation & Personal Expenses: $20,204

Health Insurance: $1,288

Books, Supplies & Computer: $3,990

Miscellaneous Fees (including program fees, administrative fees, and loan fees): $3,080

Total: $76,120

#8 Stanford Law School

Tuition: $48,870

Living, Transportation & Personal Expenses: $20,187

Health Insurance: $3,384

Books, Supplies & Computer: $3,950

Miscellaneous Fees (including program fees, administrative fees, and loan fees): $1,600

Total: $76,391

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Why Attractive People Are More Successful

The Most Eligible CEO Bachelors

Tony Hsieh's Amazing Las Vegas Apartment

The Impressive Career of Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer

Meet Jack Dorsey, The Visionary Behind Twitter and Square

Tory Burch Created A $2 Billion Fashion Empire In Less Than A Decade

How Frédéric Oudéa Came To Oversee One Of France's Largest Banks

THE GREAT DEBATE: Why Aren't There More Women In Positions Of Power?

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Join the conversation about this story »

In the past few years, New York City has become a tech hotspot. And while it hasn't had any LinkedIn or Facebook-size exits, it has produced a few IPOs and near-billion-dollar acquisitions.

It's become the home to some of tech's most promising new companies, from Etsy to Makerbot to Kickstarter. Early stage investors like David Tisch, Joshua Kushner, First Round Capital, and Lerer Ventures are playing a large part in helping fuel the fire.

All in, it's been a great year for New York Tech. So we created the Silicon Alley 100 to celebrate people who did the coolest things in 2012. And this year, the list is ranked.

So what constitutes someone who's done something cool?

We prioritized entrepreneurs over investors, because it's much harder to start a company than to fund one. In particular, we prioritized startups with amazing exits and people who had big, game-changing roles at the tech companies.

Next, we valued companies that really exploded over the last year (the Kickstarters, Etsys and 10gens), followed by entrepreneurs who launched interesting new companies. Then we dove deeper into the ecosystem and recognized the money behind the startups — the angel and early-stage investors, as well as the creators of incubators and accelerators.

Thanks to everyone for all the hard work they've done to make New York the coolest place in the world to launch a tech company.

Click here to scroll through this year's Silicon Alley 100 →

Complete Coverage

In A-Z Order

The Complete List 1-100

The 2011 List

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the many readers who took the time to send us nominations. We would also like to thank intern Megan Rose Dickey for her extensive work on this list. Also involved in the selection or creation of the Silicon Alley 100: Nicholas Carlson and Henry Blodget.

100. Kirk McDonald

President, PubMatic

McDonald, who has two decades worth of media experience at companies like Time and CNET, has been instrumental in driving the next stage of PubMatic's growth.

In particular, he's made the company look like a great acquisition prospect for big tech companies like Yahoo. And as Marissa Mayer eyes new talent to bring into her company, Pubmatic's exit may not be far away.

99. Dave Morgan

CEO, Simulmedia

Morgan is the founder of a data-driven ad network for TV, Simulmedia. He made it big when he sold his advertising company, Tacoda, to AOL for $275 million in 2007.

Morgan is also an independent investor who has backed companies like Ex.fm, Fab, and Shelby.tv.

98. Peter Flint

General Partner, Polaris Venture Partners

Flint is the driving force behind DogPatch Labs in NYC, which houses many early stage entrepreneurs. He's also Polaris Ventures' New York presence.

He's helped Polaris make more than 20 investments this year all over the world, from TopFloor in Santa Monica and BalconyTV in Ireland, to Fancy Hands in New York.

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When it comes to assessing the value of a college, only one thing matters: how much that school will help you succeed in life.  And with college tuition at record highs and staggering unemployment rates, it's more important than ever to select a school wisely.

For our fourth annual list of the Best Colleges in America, we asked real professionals in a variety of industries—most of whom have hiring experience—what they consider to be the best colleges in America.

And for the third year in a row, our readers have determined that the number one school in America is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

Almost 1,500 of our readers responded, of which 90.7 percent had bachelor's degrees and 64.8 percent had hiring experience. Almost 30 percent of the respondents work in finance, 22 percent work in technology, 9.9 percent work in education, 9.9 are current students, 9.2 percent work in media and marketing, and 8 percent work in law.

Despite the high cost of tuition and large amounts of student debt, 52.2 percent of respondents said that college is still worth it. However, other people said that the value of college depends on factors such as the caliber of the school, major and coursework, the quality of the education, the cost of tuition and financial aid packages, potential return on investment, and social opportunities.

"Certain majors are worth it - finance, engineering, comp sci. Other majors are not worth paying 40k a year in order to still earn only 30k after graduation," one respondent wrote.

Other respondents stressed the quality of the education and the opportunities to learn as the most important part of a college education. One respondent wrote that "There's a huge intellectual growth you experience in college."

Click here to see the 50 best colleges >

Click here to view on one page >

Go to our Best Colleges home page to read about the student loan crisis, college towns, college majors, and more >

#50 Davidson College

Location: Davidson, North Carolina

Enrollment: 1,756

Rating: 2.71 out of 5

Davidson fell four spots from last year's ranking. The school ranked higher at #30 in Forbes and #12 on US News' list of liberal arts college.

Reader comment: "Davidson provides the same quality of education as Harvard at much lower cost."

Business Insider's rating is based on a simple and pragmatic survey that asked how much each college will help students succeed in life. Our ranking tends to favor more famous schools, perhaps rightly so. We also reference Forbes' US college ranking and US News' rankings of US universities and liberal arts colleges.

#49 University of California — Davis

Location: Davis, Calif.

Enrollment: 25,096

Rating: 2.75 out of 5

This is the first year that U.C. Davis made our list. The California school ranked much lower at #156 on Forbes' college list and came in at #38 on US News' universities list.

Business Insider's rating is based on a simple and pragmatic survey that asked how much each college will help students succeed in life. Our ranking tends to favor more famous schools, perhaps rightly so. We also reference Forbes' US college ranking and US News' rankings of US universities and liberal arts colleges.

#48 Wake Forest University

Location: Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Enrollment: 4,775

Rating: 2.76 out of 5

Wake Forest returned to our list after dropping off last year. The school ranked #53 in Forbes' college list and #27 in US News' universities list.

Business Insider's rating is based on a simple and pragmatic survey that asked how much each college will help students succeed in life. Our ranking tends to favor more famous schools, perhaps rightly so. We also reference Forbes' US college ranking and US News' rankings of US universities and liberal arts colleges.

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It's inevitable to have a bad day at work every once in a while, but how you choose to handle that stress can greatly affect the future of your career. 

We rounded up the most horrifying tales of bad behavior in the workplace and found the most egregious, appalling employee acts that were reported in the past 12 months.

From retail to government to corporate executives, the employees on this list lied, cheated, urinated on doors, contaminated other people's food, hired prostitutes while on the job, and much worse. 

The Secret Service agents who hired a bunch of Colombian prostitutes.

The night before President Obama's visit to Colombia last April, 10 U.S. Secret Service agents and at least eight members of the U.S. military allegedly hosted a sex party with 20 Colombian prostitutes. 

After the scandal broke, several government officials, including two senior supervisors, resigned.

The Burger King worker who stepped into a tub of lettuce.

A Burger King employee posted a photo on 4Chan of feet stepping on a tub of lettuce with the caption "this is the lettuce you eat at Burger King."

4Chan users who saw the photo used the photo's data to track down the culprit to the Mayfield Heights, Ohio, franchise. Cleveland Scene magazine spoke to a shift manager at the location about the incident, who reportedly said, "Whoever this is is getting fired. And whoever the manager was at the time will be fired, too."

Three employees were fired over the incident, though no names were  given.

The TSA agent who stole an iPad—and then blamed it on his wife.

After hearing reports of TSA agents stealing travelers' belongings at the airport, ABC News launched an investigation to see how extensive the problem is; they planted ten iPads at ten different airports to find out what would happen.

After two weeks, nine of the ten iPads were returned. The tenth was tracked back to the Orlando-area home of TSA agent Andy Ramirez, who first blamed his wife when he was confronted by ABC reporters and a camera crew before returning the iPad.

"I'm so embarrassed," he told ABC reporters. "My wife says she got the iPad and brought it home."

The TSA removed Ramirez from his position, and released a statement saying that they have "a zero-tolerance policy for theft and terminates any employee who is determined to have stolen from a passenger."

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Philadelphia is not just a historical stopover anymore. It's a growing hub for startups, an emerging culinary center, and a great place to open a business.

Click here to go straight to the businesses >

We recently spent some time trekking around Philadelphia to find the coolest additions to the city that have opened or expanded in the last year (one of us is a Philly native).

Within the last year, the city has seen the opening of several new gastropubs, artisanal cocktail bars, and gourmet food trucks—all at very affordable prices. More startups are calling Philadelphia home too, attracted by the low cost of living and the city's low-key vibe.

The top 25 businesses that blew us away are listed here in alphabetical order.

Alla Spina

1410 Mt. Vernon Street

What it is: Italian gastropub

Why it's cool: Alla Spina is the latest restaurant from Mark Vetri, one of Philadelphia's most successful restaurateurs and arguably one of the best Italian chefs in the country. 

The North Broad gastropub has a selection of Italian beer on tap, including Negroni. It serves dishes like fried pig tails with fennel agrodolce and poutine with guinea hen leg bolognese and mozzarella curd. 

American Sardine Bar

1800 Federal Street

What it is: Neighborhood gastropub

Why it's cool: This Point Breeze gastropub, which has been open for about a year, features an authoritative list of beers and a constantly changing menu of casual, affordable food. Creative dishes, like the Pittsburgh cheesesteak sandwich, the local apples and ricotta sandwich, and the $2 sardine sandwich, take advantage of local produce.

Brideside

Online only

What it is: An online wedding catalog that exclusively features bridesmaid dresses and accessories.

Why it's cool: A product of the fall 2012 Philadelphia DreamIt Ventures accelerator program, Brideside allows brides and wedding parties to peruse through wedding photos for inspiration, connect with other brides on forums, and shop for styles that they like. 

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Join the conversation about this story »

College is expensive, but if you choose carefully, it really pays off.

PayScale surveyed full-time U.S. employees with bachelors degrees to find out which colleges have the best returns on investment.

This year, Harvey Mudd College took the top spot, edging out Ivies such as Stanford, Harvard, and M.I.T.

And Colorado School of Mines made its first appearance on the list.

For the list, PayScale projected the average future income of each school's graduates. Then it compared the future income to the cost of the college's tuition.

Not surprisingly, technical schools and Ivies ranked pretty high. But small state school and small religious schools didn't fare so well.

This is part of our series on The Best Colleges In America.

#15 Columbia University

30-year net ROI: $845,100

Annual ROI: 9.4%

Total tuition cost: $217,100

Source: Payscale

#14 Colorado School of Mines

30-year net ROI: $851,700

Annual ROI: 11.9%

Total tuition cost: $99,460

Source: Payscale

#13 Cornell University

30-year net ROI: $857,500

Annual ROI: 9.6%

Total tuition cost:$209,600

Source: Payscale

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America's best college towns have huge student populations, loads of cultural opportunities, and a relatively low cost of living.

Thanks in part to the economic recession, towns with 250,000 people or fewer beat out mid-size cities and major metro areas as the best places to go to school on the American Institute for Economic Research's latest index of college destinations.

According to the AIER, college towns are relatively recession-proof since they are home to a high proportion of students who consistently spend money. As a result, their economies tend to be more stable than those of larger cities.

These 10 are the best of the best.

This is part of our series on The Best Colleges In America.

#10 Columbia, Missouri

Population: 172,319

Student concentration: 212.1 (per 1,000 people)

2-bedroom apartment: $666/month

Earning Potential: $36,241

Colleges: University of Missouri, Columbia College, Stephens College

Source: The American Institute for Economic Research

#9 Morgantown, West Virginia

Population: 130,288

Student concentration: 205.7 (per 1,000 people)

2-bedroom apartment: $586/month

Earning Potential: $34,412

Colleges: West Virginia University

Source: The American Institute for Economic Research

#8 Lawrence, Kansas

Population: 111,130

Student concentration: 255.5 (per 1,000 people)

2-bedroom apartment: $536/month

Earning Potential: $31,250

Colleges: University of Kansas

Source: The American Institute for Economic Research

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Year after year, cities across America continue to surprise us with new, innovative, and downright awesome businesses.

This year we've already brought you the coolest new businesses in Philadelphia, Chicago, and San Francisco, and now we've gone nationwide, finding the hottest restaurants, boutiques, startups, and everything in between across the U.S. 

There's a corner store with a bike-through window, a mobile shop that sells vintage clothing from a 1960s trailer, America's first pizza museum, and a Chinese restaurant that serves dumplings that look like Pac-Man characters.

Some of the businesses are based in brick and mortar stores, while others—like food trucks and mobile shops—sell their wares on wheels. We've also included several online-only businesses.

From San Francisco to New York (and everywhere in between), we've found the coolest new businesses in America that opened or expanded within the last year and a half. Email MNisen@businessinsider.com if we left off your favorite.

Baco Mercat

408 S. Main Street, Los Angeles, Calif.

What it is: An inventive new restaurant from former Lazy Ox chef Josef Centeno.

Why it's cool: The restaurant is named for, but is definitely not limited to, one of the chef's wildly popular and signature creations, the baco, described as a "hybrid taco-gyro thing" with fillings like pork belly, beef carnitas, and oxtail hash. Other dishes include Caesar-style Brussels sprouts, sauteed peaches, and coffee-charred rib eye.  

Bacon Bacon

205 Frederick St., San Francisco, Calif.

What it is: Bacon-centric food truck.

Why it's cool: Bacon Bacon comes in the form of a food truck and a brick-and-mortar restaurant. And both serve, yep—you guessed it—all things bacon. 

The Bacon Bacon Truck rolls around San Francisco distributing six bacon-friendly sandwiches, including a pork meatball banh mi and grilled cheese, as well as french fries and root beer. Bacon Bacon also sells a bacon bouquet and chocolate-covered bacon.

Bearded Bastard

Based in Austin, Tex., found on Etsy

What it is: A new brand of mustache wax.

Why it's cool: The man known as Jeremiah Newton, who also sports an impressive face full of hair, started Bearded Bastard to help soften the burliest of beards and tame the unruliest of mustaches. Products so far include the Woodsman mustache wax and Woodsman beard oil, but the new Austin-based company is developing many new man-inspired oils and tonics, which will be available soon.

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A lot changed in the auto industry this year. Cadillac suddenly became a relevant brand again, and now Ford is trying to do the same with Lincoln.

Fuel efficiency continued to be the big theme. Prius sales skyrocketed, and Chevy's Volt became the most loved and hated car of the year.

Even Ferrari and Land Rover looked to boost their cars' mile per gallon figures.

From the Porsche that can drive more than 700 miles on a single tank to the electric Tesla that can compete with any vehicle on the market, these 17 innovative cars may not be the best on the road, but they are the ones that are changing the game.

17. Toyota wooed city dwellers with the Prius c and its terrific city mileage

Even compared to other Prii (the official pluralization of Prius), the Prius c is small and fuel-efficient.

In city driving, it gets 53 mpg. It's good on the highway, too, with 46 mpg.

The result is a car that dealers can't keep in the lot: In April, the average 2012 c spent just eight days at the dealership before being bought. The average for all cars is 53 days.

16. Jaguar returned to the sports car market with a splash

In 1961, Jaguar changed the sports car forever with the iconic E-Type (and we almost died of happiness when we got to drive one).

At this year's Paris Motor Show, Jaguar finally unveiled its successor, the F-Type.

Starting at $69,000, it's not as absurdly sexy as the E-Type, but it is a solid 21st century update.

The most powerful model can hit 186 mph. It's hard not to look good at that speed.

15. Lincoln returned to the spotlight with the new MKZ

Earlier this month, Ford officially relaunched its luxury brand as Lincoln Motor Company, bringing Emmit Smith and the 2013 MKZ to Lincoln Center.

The plan to get Lincoln out of eighth place in the luxury market includes a Super Bowl spot with Jimmy Fallon, but the MKZ will have to do the heavy lifting.

Despite a small but serious flaw in the design, it is a good-looking car packed with features, most notably a retracting panoramic roof that covers 15 square feet.

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We're almost at the end of the year 2012, and what a year it's been.

Facebook finally went public, private spacecraft entered outer space, and humans broke the sound barrier without the aid of machines or vessels.

We've rounded up the best of everything that happened this year in education, technology, people, companies, and places.

Click here to see the best of everything >

The best technology >

The best people >

The best companies >

The best places >

The best schools >

THE BEST TECHNOLOGY

Best Phone: iPhone 5

The iPhone5 is one of the most innovative gadgets of 2012.

Apple subtlety redesigned the iPhone 4S and made the iPhone 5 taller and thinner. 

Despite a huge Apple Maps debacle, easily scratched cases, and other hiccups, the iPhone 5 sold 5 million units in the first three days of release. Even today, the phone is so popular that it's tough to find one in stores.

Price: Starts at $199

Best Tablet: iPad Mini

The iPad Mini received a lot less hype than other Apple products that came out this year, but it's still one of the most innovative gadgets of 2012.

After Apple announced the Mini's existence in late October, everyone fell in love. In fact, Apple bloggers are calling the Mini "the real iPad." 

The miniature size made the tablet much portable, and the fact that all of the regular iPad apps ran on the smaller device made people love it even more.

Price: Starts at $329

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A new college semester is about to begin and that means that students are preparing to head back to school for the spring semester.

But some students have to juggle a bit more than just classes and schoolwork.

We've found the 16 most famous kids in college this semester. These celebrities are pursuing their college degrees, juggling class and exams with the responsibilities of public life.

They're musicians, actors, models and athletes who somehow find a way to balance their college careers with their professional ones—an impressive feat for such young people.

They go to school all over America, from New York City's School of Visual Arts to California's University of Southern California.

We've listed them here in alphabetical order. Let us know who we missed!

Elizabeth Beisel

Miranda Cosgrove

College: University of Southern California

Year: Freshman

This actress and singer-songwriter is best known for her role on Nickelodeon TV's iCarly, but she's also starred in several films, including most notably School of Rock.

Cosgrove said that she took a drawing class last semester, which she really enjoyed.

Justin Combs

College: University of California Los Angeles

Year: Freshman

The son of Sean "P. Diddy" or "Puff Daddy" Combs, Justin Combs graduated with a 3.75 GPA from New Rochelle Iona Prep, a top private school, and is attending UCLA —on a $54,000 football scholarship.

The son of a multi-millionaire, Combs faced a lot of criticism for accepting the scholarship, but the 5-foot-9, 170-pound defensive back defended his decision to accept the scholarship, tweeting that he "put that work in"and earned the scholarship.

Combs made his debut as a UCLA Bruin last semester.

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