Universities Where the Most Students Brought Cars to Campus
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In addition to competing for the best grades, internships and academic advisers, students at these schools battle for something else -- parking spots.
At least 90 percent of students at these 14 car-centric universities have vehicles on campus, according to data reported to U.S. News.
Most of the schools are located in the Midwest and South, with universities in Michigan and Mississippi appearing twice on the list.
[Discover how to budget for college commuting costs.]
At Detroit's Wayne State University, appropriately located in Motor City, 98 percent of its 27,897 students bring cars to campus. That's the highest percentage of students with cars among the 185 ranked National Universities reporting data to U.S. News. Wayne State provides residence halls for undergraduate students but just 10 percent of them live on campus. More than one-quarter of the undergraduate student body is age 25 or older.
Mississippi State University, Spalding University and the University of Mississippi saw 95 percent of students motoring to campus.
[Consider these five questions before bringing a car to campus.]
Below is a list of the 14 National Universities where the largest percentage of students have cars on campus. Due to ties, there are more than 10 schools on the list. RNP denotes an institution that is ranked in the bottom one-fourth of its rankings category. U.S. News calculates a rank for the school but has decided not to publish it. Schools designated by U.S. News as Unranked were excluded from this list. U.S. News did not calculate a numerical ranking for those programs because the y did not meet certain criteria that U.S. News requires to be numerically ranked.
National University (state) | Total enrollment | Percentage of all students who had cars on campus | U.S. News rank |
|---|---|---|---|
27,897 | 98 | RNP | |
20,161 | 95 | 156 (tie) | |
N/A | 95 | 181 (tie) | |
19,431 | 95 | 149 (tie) | |
15,746 | 94 | 189 (tie) | |
10,235 | 94 | 168 (tie) | |
41,428 | 92 | 161 (tie) | |
21,478 | 91 | RNP | |
3,675 | 90 | 181 (tie) | |
11,015 | 90 | 201 (tie) | |
20,169 | 90 | RNP | |
12,377 | 90 | RNP | |
27,858 | 90 | RNP | |
31,964 | 90 | 113 (tie) |
Don't see your school on the list? Access the U.S. News College Compass to find data on cars, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.
U.S. News surveyed nearly 1,800 colleges and universities for our 2014 survey of undergraduate programs. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News' data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Colleges rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data come from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News' rankings of Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools or Best Online Programs. The car data above are correct as of April 21, 2015.
Susannah Snider is an education reporter at U.S. News, covering paying for college and graduate school. You can follow her on Twitter or email her at ssnider@usnews.com.
