Carbon Footprint: Compare and Contrast

For my Nature and Society class, I took a look at carbon footprints. First, I checked out my own...

-I live in the dorms at Western Michigan University, specifically in Draper. Which means, I technically live in an apartment. That also means that I can't control the type of lighting or appliances installed for the building, so I'm not efficient in that way.
-I don't own a car, but I might as well. I ride with people to their apartments, restaurants and stores at least 4 or 5 times a week. My approximate mileage a week is around 40. Not sure if I can really count this towards my carbon foot print, but this is what I'll be doing next year when I have a car anyways. I've only made one short flight within the past year.
-My diet is a little random at times. I am a college student living off of a meal plan, which consists of cafeteria food that is medium quality food about 75% of the time, but most of this food is processed in some way. I try to eat a salad once a day along with a few servings of fruit to balance out the several servings of meat and/or starch I receive daily.
-I am somewhat satisfied with the recycling bins that sit outside of each dorm at WMU, but I find it hard to sort everything I would like to due to certain restrictions for each bin.
Overall, I had a carbon footprint of 9.8 tons of CO2 per year, a considerable amount lower than the average 27 tons per year for a single person household. Once I start traveling more, my footprint is bound to go way up, but hopefully not too much.

Then I looked at my parents...

-They live in a single family home with 4 bedrooms. They are environmentally aware and installed more efficient lighting wherever possible, but have not been able to upgrade to energy saving appliances yet. Hot water is conserved most of the time.
-Due to my dad's job, he has to drive about 64 miles one way to work about 3 times a week, totaling up to about 400 miles of driving per week. My mom works in town and makes sure she only drives into town once per day if she can help it, totaling up to around 90 miles a week. They've only made one short flight this past year to Florida and usually never take long flights.
-Their diet consists of a healthy dose of meat throughout the week and sometimes even organic food, making their food related carbon footprint below average.
-They also are really active in recycling boxes, paper, plastic and glass containers.
Overall, they had an estimated carbon impact of 70 tons of CO2 per year, about 17 tons per year more than the average 2 person household in the United States. Those extra miles put on by my dad inflate their footprint a lot. 

After viewing the differences between Apartment carbon footprints and single family Household carbon footprints, I see a drastic increase in the amount of CO2 emitted from a home based on how many people live in that home. Once I live with someone else(2 other people starting next year) my carbon footprint will most likely be much higher and look a lot more like the average footprint per person in the United States. My hope for the future is that we can build a more efficient and environmentally friendly way of living so that our carbon footprint can look a little more like mine does now instead of what my parents have.