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 graduate school search.
Some college campuses are more walkable than others, so the convenience of having a car on campus varies.
Among the 215 ranked National Universities that submitted these data to U.S. News in an annual survey, Wayne State University in Michigan topped the list of schools where the most students had cars on campus for the 2015-2016 school year at 98 percent.
[Discover five things to consider before bringing a car to college.]
At Wayne State, which also had the largest percentage in the previous version of this list, 88 percent of students lived off campus. The school is once again followed by Mississippi State University and Spalding University in Kentucky, where 95 percent of students brought cars. The University of West Georgia — also at 95 percent for 2015-2016 — didn’t appear on last year’s list.
Falling on the opposite end of the spectrum were schools such as Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., which reported zero percent of students had cars on campus in 2015-2016, U.S. News data show. The school doesn’t provide any on-campus parking for undergrads, according to its website.
Meanwhile, the average proportion of students with cars on campus among the 14 schools on the list was almost 93 percent, significantly higher than the average among all the National Universities that submitted these data, which was around 48 percent.
No school on the list ranked higher than a tie at No. 152 in U.S. News’ 2017 Best National Universities rankings. Among the universities on the list, Immaculata University in Pennsylvania had both the highest rank and lowest total enrollment. Enrollment data for Spalding University were not available.
[Explore the benefits and drawbacks of living at home during college.]
Half of the schools where the most students brought cars are designated as Rank Not Published, or RNP, which means they fell in the bottom one-fourth of the ranking category. U.S. News calculates rank s for these schools but has decided not to publish them.
Below are the 14 schools where the largest percentage of students had cars on campus during the 2015-2016 school year. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.
| National University (state) | Total enrollment | Percentage of all students who had cars on campus | U.S. News rank |
| Wayne State University (MI) | 27,222 | 98 | RNP |
| Mississippi State University | 20,873 | 95 | 176 (tie) |
| Spalding University (KY) | N/A | 95 | RNP |
| University of West Georgia | 12,834 | 95 | RNP |
| California State University–Fullerton | 38,948 | 94 | 202 (tie) |
| University of Missouri–Kansas City | 16,699 | 94 | 210 (tie) |
| University of South Dakota | 9,971 | 94 | 202 (tie) |
| University of Memphis (TN) | 20,585 | 91 | RNP |
| Boise State University (ID) | 22,113 | 90 | RNP |
| Dallas Baptist University | 5,319 | 90 | 214 (tie) |
| Immaculata University (PA) | 2,961 | 90 | 152 (tie) |
| Oakland University (MI) | 20,261 | 90 | RNP |
| University of Arkansas–Little Rock | 11,891 | 90 | RNP |
| University of Massachusetts–Dartmouth | 8,916 | 90 | 220 (tie) |
Don’t see your school on this 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 more than 1,800 colleges and universities for our 2016 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 Oct. 11, 2016.
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Universities Where the Most Students Bring Cars to Campus originally appeared on usnews.com
