Nerd deflector

NerdWallet, which puts together statistics on metro areas, in a study today (July 7) ranks San Diego 20th in a list of cities that are best for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) graduates.

Twentieth? San Diego should be higher if you look at some key figures. Average San Diego pay in these fields is $85,686. That's topped by only seven of the 20 cities. In the San Diego metro area, STEM jobs as a percentage of all occupations is 8.51 — topped by only seven metro areas.

But it's San Diego's high cost of living that drags down the area's total score. As a proxy for cost of living, NerdWallet uses median gross rent. San Diego's $1,253 is topped by only three other metro areas, thus dragging the county down to 20th on the list.

The winner? San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara. Who else? STEM jobs are 17.31 percent of all jobs. Although median gross rent is $1500 there, the average STEM wage is $111,746.