The social acceptance of alcohol consumption promotes a culture of drinking among college students. In most countries, university life also coincides with the legal age for drinking. Since scoring for hazardous drinking is derived from the general adult population, it might not adequately reflect the cutoff point for college students. This study focuses on the use of AUDIT-C as screening for harmful use among this population. Cross-sectional data of health surveys from 5,401 respondents from the Netherlands were used, 20% of whom were identified as hazardous and harmful drinkers. At an AUDIT-C cutoff score of ≥7, sensitivity and specificity were both >80%, while other cutoffs showed less balanced results. A cutoff of ≥8 performed better among males, but for other subgroups ≥7 was most suitable. AUDIT-C seems valid in identifying hazardous and harmful drinking students, with suggested optimal cutoffs of 7 (females) or 8 (males). However, considerations regarding avoiding false positives versus false negatives, in relation to the type of intervention following the screening, could lead to selecting different cutoffs.