Should credit card companies target college students?

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Yes, credit card companies should be targeting college students. Why? Simply put, the demand is there, and the credit card companies are trying to make money. It may not be "right" for credit card companies to target these students when, in some cases, they might now know any better, but as they try to make money, they'd actually prefer it that way.

On the other side of the coin, credit cards can be very beneficial to students. Obviously they can cause you a lot of problems, but that is not a problem exclusive (by any stretch of the imagination) to college students. On the positive side, having credit cards allows students to learn some responsibily, discipline, and build up a credit history. If credit card companies did not target college students, they might not have a chance to build up a credit history, which would be a bad thing in the long run.

Having a good credit history allows you to get things like home or car loans at a better interest rate, because you probably won't be able to pay for these types of things entirely in cash. If you have no credit or bad credit, chances are you'll be paying a lot more than you otherwise would be on interest on long-term loans.

So at first it seems evil that credit card companies would target college students who might not know any better... but delving into it, this can actually be very valuable for college students, who learn important financial lessons as well as build up a credit history, which can be very valuable later in life.