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University campuses vary widely in their car-friendliness. National Universities, schools that emphasize research and offer a full range of undergraduate majors, master’s and doctoral programs, occasionally have stricter car policies for undergraduates than graduate students, and some have rules restricting whether undergrads may have cars on campus.
Among the 214 National Universities that reported these data to U.S. News in an annual survey, the average percentage of students who brought cars to campus in the 2016-2017 academic year was 46.8 percent.
However, there are some colleges where it is extremely uncommon for students to have cars on campus. At each of the 11 National Universities, including ties, with the lowest percentage of students with cars on campus in the 2016-2017 academic year, less than 7 percent of students had vehicles at their schools.
Many of these schools are located in busy cities where parking spaces are scarce and parking fees are high.
Four universities reported that zero percent of students had cars on campus: Georgetown University in the District of Columbia; Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore; Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey; and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
[Explore 10 universities where most freshmen commute.]
At Georgetown and Princeton, undergraduates are not usually eligible for university parking permits unless they have extenuating circumstances.
The University of Wisconsin–Madison includes a warning on its website that parking on campus is “extremely limited and expensive, and for this reason, many students choose not to bring their car to campus.”
However, there are some universities where the vast majority of students bring cars to campus. Detroit’s Wayne State University, located in a city commonly known as the “Motor City” and a region famous for its auto industry, had the highest percentage of students with cars on campus: 98 percent.
Below is a list of the National Universities where the lowest percentage of students had cars on campus in the 2016-2017 academic year. The percentages do not include students who live off campus and may have cars. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.
| School (state) | Total enrollment | Percentage of all students with cars on campus | U.S. News rank |
| Georgetown University (DC) | 18,525 | 0 | 20 |
| Johns Hopkins University (MD) | 23,992 | 0 | 11 (tie) |
| Princeton University (NJ) | 8,181 | 0 | 1 |
| University of Wisconsin–Madison | 43,336 | 0 | 46 (tie) |
| Boston University | 32,695 | 2 | 37 (tie) |
| Lesley University (MA) | 4,826 | 2 | 181 (tie) |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 11,376 | 3 | 5 (tie) |
| University of Pennsylvania | 21,826 | 3 | 8 |
| University of Washington | 45,591 | 5 | 56 (tie) |
| Boston College | 13,851 | 6 | 32 (tie) |
| University of California–Santa Barbara | 24,346 | 6 | 37 (tie) |
Don’t see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News College Compass to find information about cars on campus, complete rankings and much more. Sign up for the U.S. News Extra Help: College Admissions free email newsletter to receive expert advice twice a month.
U.S. News surveyed more than 1,800 colleges and universities for our 2017 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 March 6, 2018.
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11 National Universities Where Students Rarely Bring Cars originally appeared on usnews.com
