Classrooms and dorm rooms are common places for incubation and transmission.
Forget about good grades and securing a date for homecoming, college students heading back to campus have a far bigger concern: swine flu.
With the school year just starting, swine is already spreading across college campuses nationwide.
At least 150 suspected cases of students contracting the swine flu have been reported at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, and nearly 200 cases at the University of Kansas. School officials at the University of Tennessee have estimated 100 cases and at the University of Alabama there are more than 50 cases on just the first day alone.
For more information about swine flu symptoms, treatment and prevention, check out the ABC News OnCall+ Swine Flu Center.
But with the combination of close living quarters, communal restrooms and large parties where cups and cans are swapped among friends, immunology experts say it's not a great surprise college kids are among the hardest hit by the flu.
"This virus is highly communicable and can spread very efficiently," said Dr. Philip Tierno, the director of clinical microbiology and immunology at NYU and the author of "The Secret Life of Germs."
"Swine flu is going to be a big issue at universities," said Tierno. Two factors – the sheer number of college-aged students on campuses as well as the time they spend interacting with one another – is likely to help the virus spread even faster.
For students trying to avoid contracting swine flu this semester, ABCNews.com identified five aspects of college life that are likely to attract and transmit the virus among students.
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