American students living off-campus prefer driving their own vehicles to colleges instead of travelling by public transport. These students have difficulty searching for a parking space within the college premises.

Parking crisis on campuses has become a major problem for many college authorities, forcing them to take stern measures to solve the issue. For example, the University of New England offers free bikes to students who leave their cars at home; Massachusetts Institute of Technology encourages car pooling and other colleges charge heavy prices for parking permits or restrict student parking altogether.

However, in colleges with minimal public transport facilities and residential housing, students are forced to use their own vehicles. In such campuses, the competition for parking spaces is very fierce and intense.

According to a data collected by U.S. News, in the spring of 2012 about 99 percent of Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis students used their personal vehicles, making it the top university with most cars on campus. Although the university has sufficient student housing, most of its student community comprises of working adults.

Wayne State University is ranked second in the list as 90 percent of undergraduate students live off campus, followed by Mississippi State University with 75 percent and Spalding University, with about 92 percent undergraduate students living off campus.

Overall, out of the 178 universities that participated in the survey, an average of 48 percent featured student cars on campus. The universities with no student cars on campus include Georgetown University, Polytechnic Institute of New York University and University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Here is the list of top 10 universities with most student cars on campus: