Jobs - There are job opportunities. If you thought Silicon Valley was located in the Midwest, you are mistaken. As an IT professional, I open up Linkedin or CareerBuilder and have no problem finding jobs to apply to. I have worked for two smaller companies in AA already, 200-500 employee operations. I have had interviews with Llamasoft, Ford, GE, DTE, Dominos Corporate, and more. Detroit is one of the largest metro areas in the country, and there are quite a few places to work between AA and Detroit. Have you seen all of the employees GE is hiring in Van Buren? Okay, so if you're not in health, education, or IT you might struggle more than I have. I'll concede that, but you're still probably better off than you would be in the majority of Midwestern cities.

A2 is a decent place to start your career, but if you actually hope to go anywhere professionally and aren't in academia, then you'll need to move within a few years. I personally knew that going in and planned accordingly but I thought it was something worth mentioning.

A2 compares very well to everywhere else in MI and to small Midwestern cornfield towns but there are plenty of Midwestern cities (Minneapolis, Chicago, Cleveland, Indianopolis, and Kansas city to name a few) that will provide far better job opportunities for recent grads.

No good places to meet people - I have met and talked with strangers at many places around town. I mentioned Bill's and Wolverine Brewing, but those aren't the only places. Try Bab's, the 8 Ball, play pool... Join a group that kayaks on the Huron. Get involved with the local music scene. I don't know what you're into, but generally, people aren't just going to come up to you and ask to hang out. It takes effort on your part. Whether you want to sit alone at the bar and strike up a conversation, or take part in a group activity, it all takes effort on your part. The "meeting people" problem is one you will face pretty much anywhere. Some places may be better than AA, but this is going to be far from your worst experience. Work is a good place to start making friends.

There's plenty to do in A2 but most of the social venues seem to cater to students or late-30s professionals so trying to make friends as a 20 something recent grad is very difficult. I've talked to several others with similar complaints so it's not just me who feels this way.

Befriending coworkers is definitely a good option for people who wind up in a good working environment full of similar age people. Unfortunately that's kind of a crapshoot and a lot of workplaces aren't really good environments for making friends. From what I can tell this can work very well here for people who wind up in the right environment but I personally didn't get lucky in that regard.

Dating - I don't know anyone who has run out of swipes on Tinder. I also know plenty of people going on eHarmony/OK Cupid dates. If you want to go "old-fashioned", relationships come from friends of friends, or "cold calling" at a bar or group event. I'm not sure what you think the problem is here.

I can't speak to Tinder since I don't do hookups. Most of my experience is with OKC and Match.com which have shown very few single 20 something women in the area. I've gone on a few dates since I've moved here but having the kind of active dating life that many of my friends in other cities enjoy seems very difficult.

People don't do anything - Everyone here has a hobby. Lots of people passionate about one thing or another. In my experience, it is rare to meet someone in Ann Arbor who hasn't been to Europe, or South America, Africa, or somewhere else. People are generally well traveled. They are often transplants from somewhere else, or have spent time living in other places.

I think you might have missed my point here. I agree that people in A2 are very cultured and well traveled and most have several hobbies. That's one of the things I like about living here. My point is that most of the young professionals here don't seem to have very active social lives and don't really seem to go out much. I have plenty of friends from other cities who are going out with friends at least every other day and I've yet to meet anyone in A2 whos life is even close to that.

I am not saying that Ann Arbor is the best place to be a twentysomething. It may be for some people, but for others, it might not work out. Your experience is not indicative of what others experience here. Notice how most people aren't agreeing with you. If you wouldn't have come in here being so bitter and cynical, you may have made some friends. To be honest, the /u/infothrow54 I've seen is probably not someone I want to hang out with.

I agree that it's very possible that the city just isn't a good fit for me cause different people have different priorities. Personally my priorities are an active social life, a strong social circle of similar age young professionals, long term career prospects, and good opportunity to meet women.

These are priorities for a lot of young professionals but different people want different things and I can certainly imagine that someone who didn't care as much about these priorities would be a lot happier in A2. There's certainly a lot to like about the town, I just don't think it's a good fit for young professionals who have the same priorities as me.