Pitt students dig deep for generous tips

If you want your fellow diners to like you, here’s a tip: leave a tip. 

Spoon University, a cooking and dining website for college students, recently ranked Pitt seventh in having the highest tip percentage when compared to other universities such as Virginia Tech, the University of Delaware and the University of Colorado. GrubHub, a website that allows students to browse menus from various nearby eateries and order food online, conducted the study using observations in student order trends, according to spokesperson Allie Mack. 

For the study, GrubHub analysts went through almost one million college orders placed from Sep. 1, 2013 to Dec. 15, 2013 and from Jan. 15, 2014 to May 1, 2014. They only looked at orders placed with a .edu account that corresponded to a university in the surrounding zip code. 

Mack could not release specific tipping percentages from the GrubHub analysis. But in a survey of 100 Pitt students conducted by the Pitt News, 71 percent of the students tip between 15 and 20 percent, which is considered the standard tip rate. Ten percent of students tip over twenty percent, while the remaining 19 percent of the responses fell below 15 percent.

So, what makes Pitt students such generous tippers? According to Dr. Kevin Binning, assistant professor of psychology at Pitt, leaving a tip is something we do out of need to conform to social norms. 

“It’s also about fairness,” Binning said. “Once we know the norm is 18 percent, we feel like we’re obligated that in order to be a fair person, we should leave that amount. We do it to avoid social disapproval of the ones we’re with or for fear of running into our that person [the server] later.”

Alcohol also plays a role in hefty tips. Customers under the influence are more likely to leave a higher tip. Purchasing alcoholic beverages throughout the meal raises the bill as well, which leads to a higher tip.

Because Pitt students pay a high amount for tuition, Binning said they’re used to paying for quality service. There could also be a sense of camaraderie between student and server. Many students work as waiters or waitresses and understand what it’s like to work for tips. Given that many students work in the restaurants around Oakland, a sense of collegiate community could provide an explanation for higher tipping rates, Binning added.

This is true for Sierra Smith, a sophomore at Pitt studying fiction writing. 

“I try to tip at least 20 percent because since I’m a server, I know how much they’re making an hour.” Smith said.

For some students, tipping is simply a matter of convenience. 

Freshmen engineering major Matthew Montedoro said he tips whatever makes his bill an even number, though he generally tries to round up the total. 

Whatever a student’s reason for higher tips is, it adds up to equal a happier server. 

 Jordan Harris, a waiter in his twenties at Pamela’s restaurant on Forbes Avenue, said college students are generally good tippers.

Harris also said students these days are more aware of how to tip. They understand how percentages work when tipping on the bill, and that it’s not just leaving someone a few bucks because they were friendly or attractive.

“They appreciate what we do here. They appreciate the place [Pamela’s] has in the community — both in Oakland and for Pitt. College kids appreciate us more,” Harris said.