<p>my daughter will only be 17 when she starts college (turns 18 in November). is this something I should try to find out about when evaluating schools? I read some discussions about schools where drinking seems to be the only past-time (the one post stated there was one basement floor of a dorm where all of the girls who did not drink were housed and then drew a very negative image of those girls). My daughter is one who follows rules, and would hate to either have to go against her own values or be left out of a huge part of social life.
are there some schools where younger students tend to enroll? or at least things I should be aware of?
If you are going to give me schools to check out, please know that she would really like a smaller school with a more 'defined' campus (vs. big urban university, for example), in a warm climate and has high academic standards. I think she is aiming to be in the top 50-75% of students with a 28 on ACT (may re-take) and 3.8 GPA, 4.2 weighted.<br>
thanks!</p>
<p>I don’t think being 17 will have anything to do with this–18-year-olds aren’t supposed to drink, either. You may have to sign a few extra forms because she is 17, but that’s about it. A lot of kids turn 18 in the first few months of college, so she isn’t even that much younger.</p>
<p>If you are looking for a college where drinking isn’t the main (or only) social activity, then you have to ask a lot of questions. Underage drinking is common at essentially all schools that don’t have a strong prohibition against it that is enforced, and I think there aren’t too many of those, except for schools with a strong religious affiliation. You need to look for schools where there are strong alternatives to drinking–and this is the case at lots of large schools.</p>
<p>My D’s birthday is in september. She is almost a year younger than most of her classmates. She is in her second year and it has not been a problem.</p>
<p>My D was 17 when she started college (also a fall birthday) and she goes to a large Southern university. The only practical issue we ran into was that the state of Alabama doesn’t consider you an “adult” until 19 and she couldn’t buy cold or allergy medicine. The issue of having values & following rules is the same whether she’s 17 or 18; my D is very much the same & found friends that didn’t want to “party” either. They do have parties but they generally involve baking & movies 
There’s no school that’s made up of 100% partiers; there’s also no school that has 0% (despite the reputation of BYU, Liberty & other religious based schools.) </p>
<p>Since she’s looking at smaller schools, I’d make sure you take a look at the overall percentage of Greek life on campus. One of D1’s friends went to a small school with an 80% Greek rate (that happens to make the lists for top party schools) and was stunned by how much partying went on; my comment to the mom was that it was common knowledge due to them being ranked in the top 10 party school list but they had no idea. So just do your homework.</p>
<p>Agree with other posters. DS started college across the country at 17, turned 18 in late November. Yup, he made the Kindergarten cut off by three days.<br>
I flew him out freshman year because I anticipated issues with his age but we found none. Back then (this does not happen now) he signed up for a credit card with BofA, no issues. That was one of the items on my list of things I thought I would have to help with. Opened a bank account, didn’t need my name on it.<br>
FERPA paperwork is the same regardless of age. If they don’t sign it you don’t get access to information.<br>
If your inclination is that DD would do better in a smaller school then go for that but age won’t make a difference. As far as mentioning it to the schools, honestly they aren’t going to care either way.</p>
<p>Your DD sounds like mine. My DD has a September b-day, so she turned 18 a couple of weeks after arriving at college. Now a sophomore.</p>
<p>Regardless of your age, you have to find your “group,” where you fit in. </p>
<p>My DD – who is at a mid-sized public university in another state – is hoping to get into a Greek co-ed honor fraternity this fall. A friend of mine who was in one at another college tells me it’s a lot like the the social Greek sororities/fraternities (social, fun, leadership) except there is more community service and less alcohol. This seems to appeal to DD (no complaints here).</p>
<p>Nothing special to do. I was 17 when I went to college (with a Nov birthday).</p>
<p>I was 17 as well with a late December birthday. It used to be much more common for schools to have Dec/Jan cutoffs vs Sep cutoffs. No big deal.</p>
<p>Our DD turned 18 in November of her freshman year; it posed no problems. She’s also a “rule follower” (well, we think so!) and is attending an intellectually-demanding university. Perhaps the studying required to maintain a high gpa as well as the “new requirement” (due to the economy) to graduate with work / internship experience has challenged her and precluded any time “to party”.</p>
<p>Initially, we were concerned about her young age combined with the rigor of the school, but she’s done admirably (cum. gpa of 3.6; five internships / jobs so far; she’s now a junior).</p>
<p>I can’t suggest any schools because our DD applied to only two: where she is now (large urban U in the northeast) and U of Chicago.</p>
<p>My wife and I were 17 our entire freshman year. It was a non-issue.</p>
<p>My D who is a Freshman turns 18 in October (one of her friends just turned 17 after college started). The only difference we found was that I had to have forms sent to me to authorise trips off campus for her.</p>
<p>As to the drinking at college I think you will find that there are those kids on any campus who will break the rules and find a way to get drink and go to clubs etc. Like others my daughter isn’t interested in that scene and has found a group of friends who are also not looking to party - at least not in that way. They have been known to play volleyball at midnight and then watch a movie in their dorm lobby.</p>
<p>D is at Rollins in Winter Park in Florida. It had a reputation as a party school but there are also lots of serious students there looking for a good education. It is a small campus, extremely nice architechture, on the edge of a lake and only 15 minutes from Disney etc.</p>
<p>There is a college near us that is religous and we have heard that it is a big party school - as others have suggested you need to do your homework, but at the end of the day you also need to trust that your daughter is sensible enough not to get involved in the drinking/party scene.</p>
<p>Agree with posters above - my older S was 17 when he started college, as was I. There are many freshmen who turn 18 sometime during freshman year. There was a thread recently on CC about this- I think in the context of obtaining medical care at some schools. If your daughter were to play a sport, you would need to sign NCAA forms for her; in some states you might need to sign other forms on her behalf but other than that there is no practical difference between a 17 yr or 18 yr old freshman.</p>
<p>There will be some things you and your daughter will need to investigate after she enrolls in college – like what paperwork needs to be filled out so that she can get medical care without your consent. If she is taking any classes or participating in any extracurricular activities that involve travel off-campus, there would be parental consent paperwork for that, too. </p>
<p>But that’s really the only difference. </p>
<p>I was 17 when I went to college, with a March birthday (I had skipped a grade). I had no problems. However, my sister, who was also 17 with a March birthday when she went to college (she had arranged to graduate from high school a year early) did find it uncomfortable. She felt that she was not really mature enough for college, and it took her a while to adjust. So individual situations vary.</p>
<p>It is quite possible to have a satisfactory social life at college without drinking. Both of my kids did it (one because he could not drink for medical reasons, the other because she simply does not like it). It takes some doing, though. You either have to accept the idea that you will often be the only sober person in the room, or you have to seek out people whose social lives do not revolve around alcohol and spend most of your time with them. One of my kids chose the first strategy; the other, the second. Both had plenty of friends. And they were not on unusual campuses. In fact, they were at large universities where plenty of drinking goes on.</p>
<p>One more hint (although neither of my kids used it): If your daughter belongs to an organized religion, she might enjoy getting involved in whatever group activities that religious faith sponsors on campus. Often, there’s a fairly large number of non-drinking students in religious organizations. So they can be a good place to find friends whose social lives do not revolve around alcohol.</p>
<p>I also started at 17. In my case, the kindergarten cutoff was Feb. How successful your daughter will be really depends on what you think of her personal maturity and readiness. </p>
<p>Plenty of kids, btw, go for substance-free floors or dorms and aren’t ostracized- or sent to a basement room. Both of mine are at work-hard/play-hard, but plenty of kids bring make their own fun, head for the library, hang out with quieter friends in quieter corners, etc.</p>
<p>I just had to sign a few forms for my 17 year old. Even though I signed for medical care without my consent, they still called me. A friend had to sign a release for her 17 year old to use the gym.</p>
<p>That was about it.</p>
<p>This would have been me, going to college at 17 with a November birthday. I don’t think I or anyone else paid any attention to this at all. I can’t imagine how it would have mattered except for the odd thing stated above. Individual maturity variations would be much more important than chronological age. As others have said, the drinking issue seems unrelated to the age issue.</p>
<p>Where we live, the age cut off for grade placement is the Dec/Jan cut off, (Jan to Dec of a given year start K together)…so when kids go to college, about 1/3 of them are 17 (babies born between Sept and Dec).</p>
<p>My D was 17 also. It’s no big deal at all and as you’ve probably gleaned by now from all of the other posters, quite common for students to start college at 17. There’ll be other 17 y/o students there.</p>
<p>The fact that she’s 17 when she enters college rather than 18 has no relevance to your concerns about drinking since I’m sure you’d have the same concerns if she were 18 or 19 or underage at all and likely concerns even if she wasn’t underage. Not ‘everyone’ drinks in college. If your D chooses not to drink then she won’t and she’ll be able to find things to do with others who also aren’t drinkers if she wants. She might actually find this easier to do at some larger campuses rather than smaller ones due to more variety and numbers of people.</p>
<p>My duaghter was 17 when she started college last year as she too has a fall birthday. She is now a sophomore. She is going to school in New England while we live in California. Mom was concerned about her being so far away, but that had nothing to do with her age.</p>
<p>Couldn’t get a credit card in her name before she left for school. I got an additional credit card account and added her as an authorized signature. I also had the bank set a lower credit limit. Debit cards are less secure if lost, so I didn’t want to send her off having to use her debit card for her normal purchases.</p>
<p>She was asked to sign some housing contracts when she checked into the dorm. Students were the ones handing these out and collecting them. I pointed out to the student my daughter was talking to that she was not yet 18 and therefore a minor (got the “stare” from my daughter) and shouldn’t I sign the contract. I was told that my daughter HAD to be the one to sign it. I just let it go. Being a minor, my daughter’s signature wasn’t a valid signature on any contract. No problems with the room at the end of theyear, so was never an issue.</p>
<p>I kind of doctored up a medical OK to treat form that our Boy Scout troop used and signed it. Told my daughter to carry a copy with her and keep one in her dorm room (while letting her roommate know where it was). Nothing came up, so it was never used.</p>
<p>I had emailed the school prior to her attending and making them aware of the age issue. Response from them was kind of generic and seemed to them to be no big deal.</p>
<p>So, it really should not be an issue.</p>
<p>I was 17 when I started college, and didn’t turn 18 until the end of Freshmen year. (I also skipped a grade in elementary school.)</p>
<p>Unfortunately, drinking was pretty common at my school and I was right in the middle of it. I don’t think it would have mattered whether I was 17 or 18. </p>
<p>If she has her mind set as to what she is looking for and can find activities and groups that aren’t into drinking, she will be fine.</p>
<p>The big thing is that she will need to lie about her age when seeking non emergency medical care in many states. Just make sure that she writes her birth date saying that she is 18. No one ever checks your license to make sure that the birth dates add up. The first couple of times i did this (you have to hand your drivers license with your insurance at many doctors) i was scared, however there was nothing to worry about.</p>