Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the relation between college class and cigarette-smoking behavior in the USA. Design/methodology/approach: National College Health Risk Behavior Survey (NCHRBS) data were employed. Five binary and two cumulative logit equations are estimated to explore the impact of college class on: having ever tried smoking cigarettes; having smoked in the past 30 days; having ever smoked on a daily basis; whether the student currently smoked daily; whether the student had quit entirely, that is, had not smoked for the past 30 days; the number of days smoked per month; and the number of cigarettes smoked per day. Findings: The paper finds that second-year students were more likely than other undergraduates to be current cigarette smokers. Among current smokers, first- and second-year students smoked the most days per month and second-year students smoked the most cigarettes per day. Of students who had ever smoked on a daily basis, third-year students were least likely to have quit and fourth-year students were most likely. Research limitations/implications: The paper shows that since the NCHRBS was conducted only in 1995, there is no follow-up data to determine whether the patterns have continued. It is also more difficult to disentangle college class effects from cohort and period effects. Originality/value: This paper shows heterogeneity in college smoking and encourages efforts to better target anti-smoking activities for greater effectiveness. (Contains 6 tables.)