A Look at College Students and their DoorDash Cravings
We’ve always had a special place in our hearts for college students. Our founders met back in Stanford — so college students are in our blood.
As tribute to our founding story, we decided to take a look at what college students are up to these days and how DoorDash has helped them get through study sessions, tailgates, finals week and fun weekends. We compiled our findings into a “Dorm-Dash 2018 College Trend Report” — check it:
College students tip more than non-college students:
According to our data, the average college student tips 16.4%, whereas non-college students only tip 13.5% on average. Perhaps this is because they are still on their parents’ dime?
College students love to eat late night and sleep in the next day:
By hour, college students make up the largest share of all DoorDash orders between the hours of 2–4am. We are eagerly awaiting for an invitation to one of these late night feasts.
But they can’t do it all. We saw that college students also make up the lowest share of orders at 8am — they need their beauty rest, too.
College students try to enjoy mom’s cooking when they can:
College students place the most DoorDash orders while school is in session. From June to August (summer break), their ordering goes down — likely to take advantage of mom’s home-cooked meals (we can’t blame them!).
College students cure their hangovers with delivery:
According to our data, college students order more on Sundays than any other day of the week — hungover, anyone? We’re happy to get them through these those tough times. After all, a burrito is the best hangover cure.
New York is the city that never sleeps, especially for college students:
New York college students order dinner the latest, while Austin students go to bed the earliest. Austin students place the fewest orders at 11pm. Dear Austin students: Let loose a little won’t ya?
Students send other students delivery to help with studying! Here are some examples of instructions given to Dashers:
“Go up the stairs near the parked motorcycle in the driveway. It’s the first door on the right once you get upstairs. Sorry I don’t know the unit #, my boyfriend is studying hard and I don’t want to bother him while he’s working (sending him food so studying is less painful). If you have any questions, call him — his name is Will. I’ll be asleep so I won’t be able to answer any calls.”
“This is a surprise gift for Sarah from Andy. She is studying for a big test on Friday. Thank you!”
“This is a gift :-) a graduation celebration. Please do not ask for their signature or anything to show them the cost. Thank you!”
“Order for Spenser. It is a surprise to help her study for finals.”
“Say, “It’s for Kelly, to make studying easier!””
“Please leave the meal at reception. The order is for Matthew, a Pepperdine Grad taking the Bar Exam.”
And last but not least… the “Top 10s” (because we all know college students love lists):
Top 10 schools:
- Stanford (hey hey alma mater!)
- Arizona State
- Berkeley
- University of Colorado
- University of Minnesota
- University of California, Irvine
- University of Southern California
- New York University
- Michigan University
- Boston University
Top 10 items:
- Hot Sauce Packets (Hmmm fueling their study sessions with hot sauce packets?!)
- Burrito Bowl
- French Fries
- Beef Taco
- Burrito
- Chips
- Cheeseburger
- Soft Drink
- Pad Thai
- Garlic Naan
Top 10 restaurants:
- The Cheesecake Factory
- Chipotle
- Buffalo Wild Wings
- Taco Bell
- Wendy’s
- Jack in the Box
- Chick-fil-A
- McDonald’s
- P.F. Chang’s
- California Pizza Kitchen
Top 10 categories:
- American
- Burgers
- Mexican
- Pizza
- Dessert
- Chinese
- Sandwich
- Chicken
- Breakfast
- Thai
Dorm-Dash Trend Report was originally published in DoorDash on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.