This is the time of the great annual American migration, when millions of restless young people range across the country, bearing great dreams for the future--and way too much stuff.
Students are going off to college, many for the first time. No one knows exactly how many are out there, but the United States has more than 4,000 colleges and universities, with 2 million students living in college dorms. Throw in the many returning students who live off-campus and there may be as many as 4 million (along with a few million parents) on the road from mid-August until mid-September.
Those millions of students generate many numbers. Here are a few of them:
17,200. That's the capacity of the nation's largest residence hall system, at Michigan State University in East Lansing. But that's not even the largest number on the MSU campus.
Try this: Last year, the university's students consumed, among other things, 2.7 tons of hummus, 157 tons of cheese, 5,933 pounds of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, 402 tons of chicken, 60 tons of beef, 43.4 tons of hamburgers, 2.5 million eggs and 57.8 tons of bananas, says Bruce Haskell, the university's food services coordinator. They drank 54,690 gallons of blue Mountain Blast Powerade, which edged out Coke Classic for the first time.
80 inches. That's the length of the dreaded extra-long twin bed that has become standard issue at many colleges. If that item somehow escapes your attention - hard to believe, given the frequency with which the colleges offer to sell you extra-long sheets - you will find yourself five inches short when you make their bed that first night. The reason? It's just easier. "You never know how many tall people you're going to have, and how many short people, and where they're going to be," says Hull. "There's too much changing around at the last minute."
80 square feet. That's the size of a two-person bedroom at a New School University dorm on Union Square in Manhattan, crammed with two loft beds, two desks and two wardrobes - the same size as a standard two-person federal cell, according to the Bureau of Prisons. The two students share a kitchen and sitting area with three others, but prisoners usually get an exercise yard. On less urban college campuses, double rooms average anywhere from 120 to 165 square feet.
1,650. Duke University has bought 1,650 iPods, giving one to each freshman this year. Most kids use iPods to download and listen to music; Duke loaded orientation information and the academic calendar into the 20GB devices and wants students and faculty to spend the year experimenting, maybe downloading or recording lectures or language lessons in addition to music. The project is costing $500,000.
1960. Most residence halls were built in the decade that followed that year, as the baby boomers entered college, says Alan Hargrave, director of housing for Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. In recent years, he says, colleges have been frenetically rewiring to accommodate microwaves, refrigerators, computers, printers, PlayStations, DVD players, televisions and cordless telephones, all plugged in at the same time.
"Universities across the country are experiencing the first major building boom since then," Hargrave says. "We're looking at more restroom and shower privacy. We're still looking at a mix of double and single rooms. We're looking at grand staircases where students can mix."
5/2005. The month the school year ends. The migration begins in reverse. Know this: There will be more stuff than ever.
