most dangerous college campuses in the US?

[LateNightFlash]

So I fell into a weird internet hole last night and found these lists of most dangerous college campuses in us. Some of the schools that showed up really surprised me - UC Berkeley? Georgia State? Wasn't expecting those names.

Anyone here actually attend a school that shows up on those lists? Does campus feel as sketchy as the stats suggest? Or is this just media fearmongering? Trying to figure out how much weight to give these rankings vs. actual student experiences.

 

[HoopsNNotes]

The rankings miss important context though. Urban campuses naturally have higher incident rates compared to rural schools, but that doesn't always mean you're in constant danger. And some schools with lower reported numbers might just have less transparent reporting systems.

For example, here is the list of the top 5 most dangerous college campuses I recently found online you might want to check out:
1. Marquette University - Located in downtown Milwaukee with high property crime rates. Their urban integration means students frequently encounter off-campus risks when traveling between university buildings.
2. University of Cincinnati - The campus has significant safety disparities between different areas. Their recent security investments haven't fully addressed the persistent vehicle break-ins and late-night incidents around student housing.
3. Wayne State University - Detroit location presents challenges with surrounding neighborhood crime bleeding onto campus. Their emergency notification system is comprehensive but frequently activated, particularly for robbery attempts.
4. University of Houston - Despite security improvements, the sprawling campus design creates isolated areas with poor visibility, especially after dark. Evening class students report concerning safety incidents at significantly higher rates.
5. Temple University - Philadelphia's urban environment contributes to high theft rates and occasional violent crime. The campus borders several high-crime neighborhoods, and students often venture into these areas for off-campus housing.

 

[SpideyMidterms]

I’d say that there’s a whole world of difference between feeling unsafe on-campus and actually being at risk. I mean, you might be going to one of the most dangerous college campuses and still not feel threatened because you yourself and your friends haven’t had any run-ins with rapists/robbers/murderers/etc. And you might even finish your studies without experiencing any crimes yourself.
And, on the flip side, you might be going to a college that’s not on the list and still end up getting robbed. Crime is part of life and can be pretty random, right?
My point is, I don’t think it’s even worth wondering what the crime stats are on your campus, let alone take into account if you’re choosing between several schools.

 

[ComicCactus]

Hmm, I’d say knowing whether you go to one of the most unsafe college campuses is still pretty important IMO. Sure, virtually every top 20 most dangerous college campuses list ends up being somewhat different (because of different data sources or methodology or whatever). But you should still know whether you should keep your eyes open and stay vigilant on campus.

 

[williammoore]

agreed with the reply above, but up to a point – besides looking at stats, you should also listen to your campus staff. they’ll warn you about a wave of crime like car thefts or smth.
like, for example, a year or so ago a lot of bikes started getting stolen on my campus, and the administration warned us about it. they even gave us some pointers on selecting a proper lock and even somehow negotiated a discount at a local shop to help us get those.
would I see smth about bike theft in one those crime stat reports for my campus? really unlikely. that was a trend that started pretty abruptly, for one. then, those reports also usually don’t really go into specifics on what gets stolen (apart from cars). so, just listen to your campus staff!

 

[madisonhall]

not to infodump here but I actually wrote an opinion piece on campus safety for my college’s newspaper a couple of weeks ago and here’s what I learned:

- most schools have at least some form of crime happen on-campus within the year (only 6% of campuses have no crime at all)
- Prairie View A&M University is the most dangerous college campus in America. it has the highest crime rate per a thousand students in the US (15.3), although Stanford University and the University of New Mexico are close behind it
- according to the U.S. Department of Education college campus safety rankings, St. Petersburg College and Santa Monica College tie for the title of the safest campus with a crime rate of 0.04
you have to take these rankings with a grain of salt, though, since the crime rate takes into account both gruesome things like murder and rape alongside burglary. not that it’s fun to have your things stolen, but it’s really not as serious as, you know, getting murdered

 

[Niki_22]

I agree with the point made above – crime on college campuses statistics can be helpful but they tend to account for a bunch of different offenses at once. So, that got me thinking: What's the number one crime on college campuses?

Basically, the NCES says that forcible sex offenses account for 44% of reported on-campus crimes (source), ahead of burglaries and motor vehicle thefts. The thing is, the data is for 2021, and, apparently, the NCES doesn’t have fresher data. (At least not that I could find.) Does anyone know where to find more up-to-date info?

 

[Juniper Wells]

I used data from the Campus Safety and Security Data Analysis Cutting Tool by the U.S. Department of Education (you can find it here) for a paper about crimes on college campuses. It shows data for 2023. Based on that data, the most common crime is actually motor vehicle theft (10,898 reported cases). Then comes burglary (6,991 cases) and rape (5,697 cases).
Although, do take into account that it’s not data per thousand or ten thousand students. On top of that, the most common type of crime on your campus can be drastically different, too.

 

[Mia Thomas]

to the person who shared the crime rate stats for the most dangerous college campuses in America above: I don’t know where you got the stats but CollegeRanker combined the Clery Act data with the FBI UCR stats and based on their assessment, University of Michigan – Ann Arbor (Michigan) came out on top as the most dangerous

 

[EmmaM]

I googled the CollegeRanker article, and come on – they took into account the number of medical centers in calculating their score? LOL!
I get that “contextual assessment” can be pretty important, but that still made me laugh. Plus, they say they used some sort of “independent rankings and analyses” but they don’t even say how those impacted their calculated crime score!
I don’t know, it just seems a bit shady that they don’t outright say how much weight is attributed to each factor. (I’m a sociology major, so I know how easy it can be to toy with stats or just get them plain wrong.)

 

[Nick_Sk]

I’m actually attending one of those frequently named most dangerous campuses in US, and I gotta say there’s some truth to the whole thing. Yes, statistics don’t always translate into an actually unsafe environment for everyone, but cars are getting stolen left and right on my campus. (I’m putting off getting a car myself because of that, even.)

We also see police patrols a lot more often than students from other campuses. (At least we can sometimes just watch them arrest someone, it can be pretty entertaining if the person is drunk out of their mind heh).