There is no such thing as pointless demographic trivia

But seeing the actual lists of districts you're referencing would be even more pointful :).

25, Dem, Dude seeing a dude, CT-04(originally), PA-02/NY-12(now)

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by: Xenocrypt @ Wed Mar 23, 2011 at 05:22:32 AM UTC

It's available here

http://fastfacts.census.gov/ho...

But you can only look at one district at a time. I have all the data on a spreadsheet; is there an easy way for me to upload it? I have no idea how this works.

Students for a New American Politics: the largest student-run PAC in the country. Check us out at snappac.org/blog

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by: Angel Eyes @ Wed Mar 23, 2011 at 15:40:19 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Could you upload the spreadsheet to Google docs and post the link?

30, male, MI-11 (previously VA-08). Evangelical, postconservative, green.

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by: borodino21 @ Wed Mar 23, 2011 at 16:51:02 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Done

https://spreadsheets.google.co...

The columns are: district, % of the population aged 15-24, % of the population currently in high school, % of the population currently in college or graduate school, population, number of residents currently in high school, number of residents currently in college or graduate school.

Students for a New American Politics: the largest student-run PAC in the country. Check us out at snappac.org/blog

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by: Angel Eyes @ Wed Mar 23, 2011 at 17:48:15 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Ah, my beloved CA-53

Coming in just below my also-beloved-but-I've-spent-less-time-there MA-08.  I also belove my PA-02, at #2, but I don't think the rest of PA-02 beloves its college students.  

Side note: I am a bit annoyed when people write about how connecting UCSD and La Jolla to downtown San Diego instead of out into the suburbs is prima facie evidence of gerrymandering.  It seems just as likely to be a case of noncompact communities of interest to me.  After all, partisan affiliation is not an afterthought or an accident, and areas with similar partisanship might well be similar in other "community of interest" ways as well.  The world doesn't run on rectangles and circles alone.  But what do I know, I just lived there a few months.

25, Dem, Dude seeing a dude, CT-04(originally), PA-02/NY-12(now)

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by: Xenocrypt @ Wed Mar 23, 2011 at 18:30:48 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

*#7 (nt)

25, Dem, Dude seeing a dude, CT-04(originally), PA-02/NY-12(now)

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by: Xenocrypt @ Wed Mar 23, 2011 at 18:32:05 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Thanks!

Awesome work, and good on your PAC for letting you share it with us.

One suggestion, though. So far as I can tell, Columns B, C, and D are expressing the same sort of percentages, but they're formatted differently. Column B has two digits before the decimal, while C and D have a leading zero. Formatting them consistently would make the sheet easier to understand, especially if you formatted them as percentages. (IE, used the % punctuation mark.)

30, male, MI-11 (previously VA-08). Evangelical, postconservative, green.

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by: borodino21 @ Wed Mar 23, 2011 at 18:45:24 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Interesting to look at.

I think with OSU, since it's such a huge school and Columbus is split between two districts many of the students may be living in other districts.

Small correction: Chaffetz's district doesn't include Utah State.  Logan is in UT-01.

Are these Census numbers or voter registration numbers?  Many students are registered to vote in their hometown, not where they go to school.  (I never changed my voter registration when I went to college.)

26, white male, TX-24, liberal-leaning independent

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by: TDDVandy @ Wed Mar 23, 2011 at 05:31:32 AM UTC

My mistake

I meant Utah Valley University, which has 32,000+ undergrads and is in Orem.

The numbers are all from the American Communities Survey, so these are all numbers of residents, not registered voters. It'd be interesting to see how the numbers change if I looked at registered voters. Some of these districts (like Capuano's) have lots of elite private schools, which have high-SES students but also (I assume) more foreign-born students. So it's not clear whether districts like MA-08 would move up or down in the rankings.

I also wonder if college students in battleground states are more likely to be registered voters than students in safe districts like MA-08 once you control for things like SES and nationality.

Students for a New American Politics: the largest student-run PAC in the country. Check us out at snappac.org/blog

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by: Angel Eyes @ Wed Mar 23, 2011 at 15:38:36 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Even in Ivy Leagues, internationals are only

10-15% of the entire student population. Assuming you're looking at registered voters in general as opposed to registered voters in that district (since many students vote absentee), it might go up.

21, dude, RI-01 (registered) IL-01 (college)
please help Japan. click "donate funds" in upper right and then "Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami." http://www.redcross.org/

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by: sapelcovits @ Mon Mar 28, 2011 at 16:32:50 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Yes, OSU is absolutely split

High Street (the campus "main drag") is the dividing line between the 15th and the 12th, and much of the off-campus student housing is in the 12th.

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by: txuriurdin @ Wed Mar 23, 2011 at 21:34:19 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Interesting

That must make campus activism tougher. My school is solidly in one congressional district...but the state representative district lines are drawn right through the middle of campus, such that I changed districts when I moved off-campus this year, even though I only moved across the street.

Students for a New American Politics: the largest student-run PAC in the country. Check us out at snappac.org/blog

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by: Angel Eyes @ Wed Mar 23, 2011 at 22:04:06 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Wasn't Ohio gerrymandered in 2000?

That sounds like the kind of thing that would be done intentionally... splitting up all those students.

26, white male, TX-24, liberal-leaning independent

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by: TDDVandy @ Wed Mar 23, 2011 at 22:22:36 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

And similar to Austin, actually

Though I think most of the area around the UT campus is in the 25th, there are also probably some students who live in other districts.  Not like TX-17, which includes all of College Station (and also includes Baylor, FWIW.)

26, white male, TX-24, liberal-leaning independent

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by: TDDVandy @ Wed Mar 23, 2011 at 22:29:48 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Another Big Ten school

My alma mater, The University of Minnesota is also split into two districts. This is mostly because the campus is so large that it actually has 3 complete campuses (same university, and students have classes at all 3), East Bank (Minneapolis), West Bank (Minneapolis too), and St. Paul campuses. This splits the University of Minnesota between MN-4 and MN-5, not that it makes much difference, as they are both Safe-DFL seats.

26 White Male. Born and raised in MN-8, currently living in MN-5.

"A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything."

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by: OGGoldy @ Wed Mar 23, 2011 at 22:59:38 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Oregon State is also split

The campus is in Schrader's district but I think at least some of the off campus student housing is in DeFazio's district.

27, Dem, CA-39 (home), OR-04 (school)

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by: Artesian @ Thu Mar 24, 2011 at 03:54:17 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I think Tufts University

is split between MA-07 and MA-08.

21, dude, RI-01 (registered) IL-01 (college)
please help Japan. click "donate funds" in upper right and then "Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami." http://www.redcross.org/

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by: sapelcovits @ Mon Mar 28, 2011 at 16:33:37 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

and my very own UChicago

is overwhelmingly in the 1st but some students live in IL-02.

21, dude, RI-01 (registered) IL-01 (college)
please help Japan. click "donate funds" in upper right and then "Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami." http://www.redcross.org/

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by: sapelcovits @ Mon Mar 28, 2011 at 16:34:30 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Hrm, my district (NY-22) appears to have roughly 8%

We've got Marist, Ithaca, SUNY Binghamton and SUNY New Paltz here.

For daily political commentary, visit me at http://polibeast.blogspot.com/ and http://twitter.com/polibeast

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by: andyroo312 @ Wed Mar 23, 2011 at 17:39:24 PM UTC

Surprised how low MA-03 is (#160)

Worcester has 10 colleges, although most are of the small variety. I guess this is numerical confirmation that Worcester will never be a college town.

20, CD MA-03/NH-01/MA-08

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by: MassGOP @ Wed Mar 23, 2011 at 18:54:40 PM UTC

Also Surprised

That's my home town, although I guess I have the numbers on why a reason people who don't live next to one of the schools (although you're never really far from at least one of them) don't tend to think of it as a college town.

You could probably never say that to anyone who lives down in South Worcester. Every month there seems to be a new article in either the Telegram or Worcester Magazine about various town vs. gown drama around Holy Cross.

Also, I had never thought of San Diego as a place with a lot of college students.  

36, M, Democrat, MD-03

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by: Answer Guy @ Thu Mar 24, 2011 at 14:24:04 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Yeah, Holy Cross does not get along with its neighbors

The social scene there has shifted to the off-campus housing, which is mostly in the three-deckers on College Hill. This has led to an ugly combination of old townies in the houses that have been in their families since their grandparents came to America in 1890, and loud, out of control parties every weekend night. Not good.  

20, CD MA-03/NH-01/MA-08

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by: MassGOP @ Thu Mar 24, 2011 at 18:46:45 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

CA-53 contains

The University of California San Diego, San Diego State University, the University of San Diego, San Diego Community College and Point Loma Nazarene University.  The latter of which I found by accident walking along the beach.  Perhaps the most enviable location of any college I have ever been to.  The University of San Diego was apparently on some list of the most beautiful campuses, and indeed:

http://www.sandiego.edu/admiss...

Anyway, maybe other urban areas have their universities split up, and they're all crammed into CA-53.  

25, Dem, Dude seeing a dude, CT-04(originally), PA-02/NY-12(now)

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by: Xenocrypt @ Fri Mar 25, 2011 at 03:23:52 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

You can see the map here

http://www.govtrack.us/congres...

Such a shame if they split up such a beautiful if tentacled district for the sake of philistine compactness.

25, Dem, Dude seeing a dude, CT-04(originally), PA-02/NY-12(now)

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by: Xenocrypt @ Fri Mar 25, 2011 at 03:26:43 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

VA-05

The University of Virginia is the only sizable school in the current VA-05 so it doesn't surprise me that it's way down at 136th. However, there are a number of universities/colleges in the district such as Longwood, which is small but growing (around 5k overall), is in Farmville, VA, and in the district. I assume its the 2nd biggest after UVA, though it has 1/3 of UVA's undergrads and 1/4 of its total students. UVA is not that big of a school, though, with just 13k undergrads and 6k graduate students. Obviously, that's not small but it's not anywhere near Ohio State or University of Texas territory in terms of total enrollment (50k+).

24, male, Democrat, VA-06 (currently in Italy), went to school in VA-05

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by: GeoffreyVS @ Wed Mar 23, 2011 at 19:17:51 PM UTC