The researchers also found that Hispanic students trailed their white peers no matter how selective the colleges’ admissions processes.

For example, at what the researchers considered the nation’s most competitive colleges — as a yardstick, they aggregated institutions using the same six categories as a popular guidebook, Barron’s Profiles of American Colleges — the institute calculated that nearly 83 percent of Hispanic students graduated, compared with 89 percent of white students. Among colleges identified as “less competitive,” the graduation rate for Hispanic students was 33.5 percent, compared with 40.5 percent for whites.

Tying the users to a specific identity will in theory make them more accountable, although it’s unclear whether RandomDorm’s limited pool will increase the chances of seeing someone chugging beers online or performing more extreme college antics.

“The good thing about Chatroulette is that it has a low barrier to entry. Anyone can hop on and be instantly connected to someone in the world,” said Josh Weinstein, creator of RandomDorm. “We hope to emulate that simplicity and ensure a degree of community and security.”

The latest Sodexo University Lifestyle Survey confirms the establishment of a generation of debt-ridden and anxiety-stricken undergraduates struggling to cope with their academic work. Even the traditional “student experience” appears to be on the wane as growing numbers choose to live at home and shun a busy social life because of work and financial pressures.

But the 2010 survey, published by caterers Sodexo in association withTimes Higher Education, also suggests students are adjusting to the scale of their debts. The proportion who said they were concerned about how much they owed has dropped from 42% in 2008, when the research was last done, to 37%. At the same time the proportion who think the debt is a worthwhile investment in their future has crept up from 64% in 2008 to 67%.

Money worries are also impacting on students’ eating habits. More than four in 10 (42%) have changed their diet in order to save money. Worryingly, it seems that students think eating healthily costs more money – more than three in five (63%) who have changed their diet say this means they are eating less nutritious food as a result.

According to a study cited by the San Francisco Gate, ‘California community college students are leaving up to $500 million in federal financial aid on the table‘ because they haven’t applied for it. ‘[The] money that could help cover books, transportation, fees, food and housing at a time when the cost of education is going up dramatically’.

Given the increased costs placed on California college students because of state budget cuts and a corresponding drop in funding for financial aid, it’s frustrating that there’s a big pile of untapped cash, said officials from the nonprofit .

“These are grants that enable students to take more classes, to become full-time students,” said the [Institute for College Access and Success in Berkeley's] program director, Debbie Cochrane. “We’re talking about students who … don’t really understand the ins and outs of entering the college bureaucracy.”

About 500,000 of the 2.9 million community college students in California could be eligible for a federal Pell Grant, which ranges from $400 to $5,350, depending on financial need, researchers said.