As a landlord, the lease term is up to you. My experience in college was that leases went from August - August.
I was in a college town where the demand for rental housing for upperclassmen was through the roof. A lot of that had to do with the city and the fact that there is limited housing and laws against building buildings over 5 stories.
Do the research into the relative income of the town and the income of the parent base. I went to school in a rich town with wealthy parents on average and I knew zero students who paid their own rent. Landlords had full pricing power because of limited housing stock and knowing that parents are going to stroke a check no matter the rent.
I'd say the opposite and claim that getting into a good investment home in a college town is one of the most lucrative ways to be in this game. The hard part is, the markets with high income parents and residents usually have high investor competition for deals when they hit the market and expensive property values. Lastly, the property management companies in these college towns usually have a monopoly and manage a majority of student houses. There is definitely some agism there in their aggressive fines, although, the strict fine structure surely incentivizes students to respect the house and not be morons.
For reference, my college town was Boulder, CO. If you're a student landlord there, you do very well.