The stereotype of the self-involved, culture-obsessed U.S. college student is wrong, according to a new study. American college students today are actually very engaged in politics to the point that they are much more likely to know the names of their U.S. senators or congressional representatives than the names of winners of ‘American Idol,’ says political scientist Kent E. Portnoy of Tufts University. His analysis of a national survey of 1,000 non-military men and women ages 18 to 24 included equal mixes of college students and non-college students and drew upbeat conclusions about the youngest cohort of potential voters. ‘Young people seem to know more about politics than they know about popular culture,’ he said in a prepared statement. ‘This level of political knowledge stands in stark contrast to the image of young people as uninterested in and ignorant about politics and government.’ Other findings in the study released today by Tufts include: · About 79 percent of the college students and more than 73 percent of the subjects not in college said they voted in the November 2006 elections. […]