When the average Baltimorean is asked what the first thing that comes to mind about his or her city is, we’re guessing quite a few will mention steamed crabs, the Inner Harbor waterfront and port, the TV show, “The Wire,” and drug-related crime, perhaps even Fort McHenry and “The Star-Spangled Banner” (or, more recently, the loss of the Francis Scott Key Bridge). But here’s an important part of Baltimore’s identity that deserves to make the list: college town.

This is the time of year for college rankings, and the most recent analysis from WalletHub recognized the top 10 colleges and universities in Maryland. The majority were located in the Baltimore area, and they are, in order: the Johns Hopkins University, Loyola University Maryland, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Goucher College and Towson University. Hopkins was, most notably, the top-ranked overall. And other than the University of Maryland, many of the other contenders are relatively small, including St. John’s College in Annapolis and St. Mary’s College in Southern Maryland.

That makes higher education a pretty important employer in this city, but the impact is even larger than that. Baltimore is home to thousands of students and hundreds of faculty and staff who bring their own life experiences, energy and curiosity here. Baltimore is famously quirky. Hey, the longtime tradition of the “Poe Toaster,” the mysterious stranger who leaves cognac and roses at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe each Jan. 19 on West Fayette Street surely earned us that title. Banging on crabs with a hammer (not a preferred technique for extracting meat from shell but still acceptable) reinforces it. But we are also a community that values learning and that should not be forgotten either.

True, most people think of college towns as smaller places like Ann Arbor, Michigan, or Berkeley, California, where there really isn’t all that much going on other than higher education. Not true. It’s something more subtle than that. As the University of Baltimore’s website enthuses, Baltimore is a “big city with a small town feel” where there’s lots to do, things are nearby, there’s an artistic sensibility and it’s got those birds, the Orioles and Ravens, a mere light rail ride away.

Stressing the importance of education, whether on campus or in K-12 public schools, never hurts either. There’s probably a pretty important life lesson in that.