College Cafeterias Help Boost GPAs

If you and your teen are doing college tours this year, make sure to visit the campus dining centers.

Freshmen who eat meals with others may receive better grades and feel more socially connected, suggests a recent study at Kansas State University, Manhattan. Students who ate at least 11 times a week in the dining center earned an average GPA of 3.4; those who ate fewer than seven times a week earned an average GPA of 3.0, according to Abigail Bauer, who polled 300 freshmen using online or in-person surveys.

In addition to a higher GPA, students reported having better social support when they ate with other students, according to Bauer, who recently earned her master’s degree in public health from Kansas State.