Failing to count college students because of Spring Break
Most colleges give their students a week off in March for Spring Break. This coincides with the exact time that the Census Bureau will be making its final push to collect data before Census Day (April 1, 2010). Will college students, who are meant to be counted as residents of wherever they go to school, forgo trips to Cancun and Jamaica to fill out census paperwork? Probably not. Can we say that this is an “accident waiting to happen?” Absolutely….
April 1st, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Do parents know that their out-of-state college kids are counted as residents of the state of their college? Potential for way too many double-counts, no?
May 5th, 2009 at 7:43 am
No. They will not be “double counted”. Dormitories are listed differently and a special group will be visiting group living situations, such as dormitories. They will not be double counted, never have been.
December 17th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
This doc says there are 3 phases when college students at dorms are counted. In Septermber 09, the dorms, called Group Quarters, are checked and the max amount of people that can live there is recorded so they can send that many forms. The second phase is a check-in in Feb/ March where the census taker asks for a good time in April to send the forms. Thus, they can avoid the Spring Break hiatus for the third phase, which is when they are given forms.
http://2010.census.gov/campus/pdf/GroupQuarters_CensusOnCampus.pdf
March 24th, 2010 at 9:56 pm
What about college students that do not live in college housing but apartments and homes in the area?
April 14th, 2010 at 7:32 pm
The census has specific plans for “off campus” student living areas. (Or where many of my friends lived back in the day,the “student ghetto” as it was called.) These areas will be canvased early on in the 3rd phase.
September 2nd, 2010 at 7:59 am
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