Saw this article in the LA Times. The article has nothing really to do about video games, but there is one particularly interesting tidbit. Another thing, I can't believe what luxury these students have. My god, when I went to college my dorm room was like Motel 6. http://www.latimes.com/features/home/la-hm-dorm23aug23,0,5994811.story?coll=la-home-middleright That is, if you haven't brought your own. Even when the buildings aren't anything special, students are making them so, hauling in their own comforts and conveniences. "The newest trend is the bigger-screen TV, the plasma -- I've seen some big ones, 40- and 50-inchers," says Dana R. Pysz, who as resident director of Rieber Hall at UCLA will oversee the move-in of 1,068 students this fall. Last year he saw a lot of Nintendo Wii video game systems come through the doors. One former UCLA student, he says, tried (and failed) to move his water bed into a residence hall.

In before someone says" This year, he saw a lot of Nintendo Wii video game systems being thrown out the door due to lack of games"

That is kind of a random place to put that quote, IMO.

It was just talking about what college kids bring into their dorms - TVs, Wiis, Waterbeds

Depends what kinda crowd your in I guess. If your the kinda person who is antisocial, stays in your room except for class, and screams team commands on BattleFront over live then sure the Wii is popular x_x. Seriously tho. All you ever see college kids play are sports games. And those that play other games... Well usually don't go out a whole lot. And thats not what the college experience is about. Your supposed to get out there and meet people.

 So you haven't gone through college yet have you?  Just about every guys dorm room had at least one gaming system (usually XBox and PS2 while I was there-- there were Gamecube's but not many) and while there were a good number of NCAA games (because, you know, school spirit and all, even SMU had it), you didn't see as many sports games as you think.

 Also, I'm not surprised that Wii's and PS2's are the most common systems since most people living in dorms don't always have $500-600 to waste on a console; they have more important things to buy like books and beer.

Hell, I would leave any expensive console at home. Having known several people who had their PS2 stolen out of their dorm (usually by friends of a friend), the last thing I'd want to do is leave a $500-$600 piece of equipment lying around. One of my friends even kept his brand new PS2 at our place because he didn't trust his suite mates (and he did practically spend all his free time at our place so it was fairly logical). One of my friends was actually mostly mad about his memory card because he lost the many many hours he had in FFX.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute, a tech college in Massachusetts, is in love with the Wii.

Doing mattress deliveries in a college city for 3 years I've seen a lot of college dorms and student apartments.  After the 360 came out I saw very few PS2's in them, it was primarily 360's.  I had to stop doing deliveries right before the Wii came out (oh yeah life lesson there, be careful with boxcutters and don't slice all the tendons, nerves, and blood vessels in two fingers) so I don't know how it's changed. 

I wonder with the Wii though how many of the students bringing them are girls.  Again from my experience the only Gamecubes I saw was when doing campus area deliverries was when the mattress was for a girl.  It wasn't common but I wonder if the greater number of Wiis is due to its inroads into the female demographic.  Also, it's entirely possible that the only system the Resident Director (who I am assuming is middle aged) is familiar with is the Wii.  Sort of like how for the last 10 years no matter what system someone had it would be called a Playstation by an average Joe and for the 10 years before that average Joe would have called it a Nintendo.

As a side note, this article also supports my experience that college students have the second highest HDTV ownership which I mentioned in the recent HDTV ownership thread.  They were also about the only people with video game consoles hooked up to their HDTV.  

Im 24 and own a Wii

I haven't been in the dorm for the past year and a half but back then everyone either had a xbox or ps2 then 360 came out and acouple those were scattered across the halls. Now living in an apartment that is for college students there are acouple of wiis that i know of and acouple of 360s, new people moved in but i don't know about them yet =/.