The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College, The Short List: Grad School and The Short List: Online Programs to find data that matter to you in your college or grad school search.
There’s definitely something convenient about rolling out of a dorm room bed, pulling on sweatpants, plugging in headphones and walking across campus to class.
But that convenience often comes with a price — the cost of student housing.
Room and board charges added an average $9,999 to students’ university bills in 2014-2015. For certain college students, that cost isn’t worth it. Some freshmen decide to live at home for their first year, saving money or putting it toward tuition or other uses.
[Discover the universities where the most students brought cars to campus.]
On average, about 19 percent of freshmen commuted or lived off campus in fall of 2013, according to data reported to U.S. News by 245 ranked National Universities.
But at some of these schools, which offer a full range of undergraduate, master’s and doctoral programs, commuting was the rule rather than the exception.
The University of Arkansas–Little Rock drew the most commuters in fall 2013, with 90 percent of its freshmen either commuting or living off campus.
At each of the 11 institutions with the most freshmen who live off campus or commute, 65 percent or more of the first-year students did so. Twenty-four schools — including Yale University and Columbia University — reported no freshmen living off campus or commuting.
[Find National Universities where students usually live on campus.]
Below is a list of the 11 National Universities that had the highest percentage of first-year students living off campus or commuting during fall 2013. Rank Not Published schools are ranked in the bottom one-fourth of their ranking category. U.S. News calculates a rank for those schools but has decided not to publish them. Schools that were designated by U.S. News as Unranked were not considered for this report. Unranked programs do not meet certain criteria that U.S. News requires to be numerically ranked.
| School (state) | Percentage of first-year students living off campus or commuting | Total estimated first-year commuters | U.S. News rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| University of Arkansas–Little Rock | 90% | 590 | RNP |
| University of Nevada–Las Vegas | 81% | 3,056 | RNP |
| Florida International University | 72% | 2,153 | RNP |
| University of Illinois–Chicago | 70% | 2,173 | 149 (tie) |
| University of Colorado–Denver | 69% | 793 | RNP |
| Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey–Newark | 68% | 672 | 126 (tie) |
| Wayne State University (MI) | 67% | 1,452 | RNP |
| Cleveland State University | 66% | 1,140 | RNP |
| Wichita State University (KS) | 66% | 931 | RNP |
| Louisiana Tech University | 65% | 1,009 | 201 (tie) |
| University of New Orleans | 65% | 559 | RNP |
Don’t see your school on the list? Access the U.S. News College Compass to find data on commuting, 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 commuting data above are correct as of July 7, 2015.
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Universities Where the Most Freshmen Commute originally appeared on usnews.com
