When my history professor began today's class by asking "so who voted?" I didn't expect the overwhelming answer to be "for what?" Even BBC News, over 3000 miles away, seemed to have more interest in America's midterm elections than my college.
Much of the coverage surrounding this month's vote in the US has focused upon the fact that the turnout is much higher among Republicans at midterms compared to their Democrat counterparts.
Perhaps the apparent disinterest among college voters is simply part of this wider trend; younger people tend to vote Democrat and it is the blue vote that has suffered at these elections. Midterms are widely considered a reflection on the incumbent President, and Barack Obama's approval ratings are threatening to fall below 40% for the first time.
Even Democrats themselves are reluctant to associate themselves with the Obama administration: earlier this week, Kentucky's Senate hopeful Alison Lundergan Grimes remarkably refused to admit she even voted for him in either the 2008 or 2012 Presidential elections.
Maybe it has more to do with the fact that this year's elections were not particularly exciting locally. New York had no seats up in the Senate, Governor Andrew Cuomo won re-election with relative ease, and its status as a Democratic stronghold was never under threat. Thus, perhaps the lack of interest was down to a lack of necessity rather than any kind of cynicism.
Of course, it could be that a certain British comic's recent soiree Stateside has resulted in the country's youth becoming increasingly disillusioned with politics, to the point where I'm surrounded by a bunch of American Russell Brands. A grim thought, that.
That said, it's easy to confuse apathy with ignorance and it genuinely wouldn't surprise me if a lot of young voters in America literally had no idea there were votes to be cast this week - or at least the significance of them. After all, the look of disbelief on a lot of faces when they hear we have 'free' healthcare in the UK says something about the information they have access to.
I realise we're not talking about some kind of North Korea media blackout here, but maybe in Britain we underestimate how relatively well-informed our young electorate is kept.
Nevertheless, there's more than a grumble among students out here about the way their country is run. Granted, they might feel like it's an impossible task to fix what many see as a broken system of government, but surely voting is a decent place to start.
I did try to ensure Bruce Forsyth's Strictly message of "you can't moan if you don't phone" was relayed but, despite my best Brucie impersonation, I'm not sure they understood the reference.
