<p>I did read it, and I stand by what I said. Over the past 50 years, several tens of thousands of graduates of your alma mater have died from complications related to alcohol abuse and alcoholism. Do you want me to name the diseases/conditions, and do the math for you? (you're a smart fellah, I think you can do that for yourself.)</p>
<p>(and, yes, the majority of college students DO stop excessive drinking after college. How does that contradict ANYTHING I wrote?)</p>
<p>As for current conditions at UWisc, you should ask TSDAD.</p>
<p>"Did you read it? I have read yours and they do not focus on only college students, but all people of college age--not the same thing.</p>
<p>Actually, I provided a link to the latest Monitoring the Future - that has it both ways. (Which tells me you didn't actually look, because the headers say so.) The same report notes that binge drinking is lower among 18-22 year olds not in college.</p>
<p>In the past year alone in this area - 1) the RIT rugby team was suspended after six students were hospitalized with alcohol poisoning in a hazing incident 2) a SUNY Brockport freshman was paralyzed after falling out of a window at a party with alcohol, and just this week 3) an underage University of Rochester lacrosse player was struck by a car crossing the street to catch a bus back to campus after a party where she had been drinking, she has life-threatening injuries. The underage soccer player who provided the alcohol has been arrested. The 20-year old that hit her was just driving home from work - he was unlicensed...</p>
<p>The local TV station tonight reported that, according to a study cited by collegedrinkingprevention.gov, 1,700 college students die each year in alcohol-related incidents. Another 599,000 are injured. Those are some shocking numbers...</p>
<p>I recently graduated college and this thread caught my interest.</p>
<p>It seems that what most people think of when they think of a "big drinking school" is the sort of place where there are keg parties every night of the week and parties with hundreds of people at them etc. The schools that don't come to mind as that sort of place are often smaller liberal arts colleges like where I went, Ithaca College. Ithaca isn't really a drinking school (but if there is drinking its usually getting wild with a bottle of liquor). What do kids do instead of drinking Bud Light at some huge kegger? Mostly, they do tons and tons of drugs. Instead of trying keg stands kids try drugs. I'm sure that Ithaca is not the only school where this anti-beer pro-drug phenomenon takes place. The students at these smaller schools where it seems like no one parties probably get more messed up and strung out than your average run of the mill big-party-school kid. </p>
<p>My advice is that its not about finding a school with "less" drinking or drugs or whatever. Teach your kid how to take care of themselves before they go to college; how to rely on themselves. Send them on a trip by themselves, or get them a credit card and force them to pay it off by working. Something to teach them the kind of responsibility so that they don't fall face first into a pile of drugs or a keg. Because honestly that has a lot more to do with how your kid will fare in college than the amount of drinking going on around them.</p>
<p>Bumping this thread up, because I think it is a really good discussion. I particularly like the remarks from Middlebury on the “work hard play hard” philosophy. </p>
<p>I knew my daughter was partying too much when we saw her grades and cell phone calls. We paid alot of money for her year of fun and now she is home. As for the grades they probably were similar to many freshman at her school, but either they had wealthier parents or they did not see their kids grades.</p>
<p>John, thanks for posting the remarks from Middlebury, this was a very good article.</p>
<p>I also totally agree with harrisonlkh, the poster above, who says that the answer is to teach your kids to take care of themselves before they get to college, how to rely on themselves. To me, that’s the key ultimately. Don’t stop talking to your kids (young adults) about it, even when they roll their eyes or ask you to stop. </p>
<p>I told my DD earlier this week that I almost feel like she doesn’t need me anymore…and that’s a good thing. She’s already accomplished more at a “party school” than anyone in my extended family has accomplished academically and community wise, even through ivies and private LACs. One thing she said recently surprised me though. She said that each incoming class of freshman seems to have started drinking earlier. Most incoming freshmen with the current class seem to have started drinking in 8th-9th grade whereas DD and many of her friends didn’t drink in high school at all.</p>
<p>Binge drinking and “hidden” parties are reasons why so many college presidents are recommending going back to an 18 year old drinking age. When it’s not hidden or illegal it allows frats and bars and clubs to have parties with dancing and “adult” supervision. Binge drinking was far less common when you could publicly drink while in college.</p>
<p>Yes, AMTC…you are so right. When I was in college, the drinking age was 18. We drank, sometimes we drank too much. Mostly though, we went out to a bar (much more civilized than a frat party), we had a few beers–all we could afford-- we went back to school. The binge drinking I read about now was unimaginable. I think the drinking age should go down to 18 again ASAP…before my daughter goes to college. That’s for her own safety!!!</p>
<p>The main difference I see with the kids drinking today is that they prefer alcohol (vodka,gin etc) to beer. They knock back three or four shots before it really kicks in and they are then on their way to a high blood alcohol level before they know it. The lucky ones throw up. It is frightening. With beer at least you get full first.</p>
<p>I talked to my kids constantly about this. It didn’t stop them.</p>
<p>I have one niece who went to Columbia and most of the drinking was done in bars. Another niece went to a small school, in a rural area and she said “there is nothing to do except look at cows and drink”.
A few years ago, I read Koren zailckas book Smashed, about her four drunk years at Syracuse University. It’s a scary book, and I hope her experience was a very unique one.</p>
<p>I had discussions about partying and or drinking until I was blue in the face and my daughter still attended parties at least three times a week. I dont even know how much the alcohol was the factor. I think she just could not stay away from the social scene. I think much of the drinking is liquid courage and freshman anxiety. Even now that she is home and under the rules of home so to speak she would still attend a social event over studying for an exam. </p>
<p>The problem with the drinking or the socializing is so individual even though it is a college wide problem. I knew it was a problem for our daughter when she could just not stay in and do what she needed to do. She still thinks she is going back to her school but after what we have seen since she is home there is no way.</p>
<p>Now that someone has revived this thread - add a death at SUNY Geneseo and a death of an athlete at Hobart William Smith to the college alcohol tragedies here.</p>
<p>In the case of the HWS student, it was a combination of alcohol and a prescription painkiller. That is the scarier situation - some students would think they they can handle a certain amount of alcohol, that game can change very quickly if they are also taking medication (prescribed to them or not). So many other things can enhance the effects of alcohol as well…</p>
<p>You are quite right, Interesteddad, about euphemisms. “Partying” sounds like a healthy release.</p>
<p>How heartbreaking about the student deaths. Another concerns with binge and frequent heavy drinking, not tragic but maybe with wider impact, are about quality of education and social life even for those students not “drinking 'til ya pass out.” Class discussions may not be very interesting with a large number of students frequently hung over, and who are unenthusiastically and barely prepared. For social life, how boring to be one of the few sober kids at a kegger.</p>
<p>Considering the number of students who fail to make it through one- let alone four years- because of “partying too hard” or disgust with it, I would think this would be an issue for colleges.</p>
<p>I’m not even a parent and I’m sick of it. In particular I don’t understand the need to pass out in the floor from drinking as a method of relieving stress. It’s really an immature way of dealing with one’s problems.</p>
<p>The Hobart athlete died Jan. 31, of an alcohol overdose. Two of his lacrosse teammates pled guilty to supplying him with alcohol (I guess he was underage).</p>
<p>I went to college/university in Europe where there was (and still is) a lot of drinking going on. When comparing notes with S who is a student in the US, I found a few differences. What is so tricky about drinking at US colleges is that it is very much focused on becoming drunk and on experimenting with drinks in a secretive way. I miss the social element in my S’s stories. I could go to a student pub when I was 18 where I could drink beer 7/24. Any student could become a member (membership fee was low, the beer was cheap, pub was run by its members). Usually you went about twice a week (some went everyday) and most members did not arrive until 10 pm. Sometimes it was crowded, sometimes it was not. Sometimes discussions were individual and deep, sometimes it was one big family singing together. Sometimes only a few were drunk, sometimes almost everyone was drunk. However, unlike what is happening at my son’s college, none of us got so drunk that they had to be hospitalized. The reason is simply that beer tends to upset your stomach before the alcohol poisoning goes too far. This is how it used to be, and this is how it still is. US colleges on the other hand do not have these pubs, but that does not stop students from drinking of course. Because alcohol is not allowed in dorms, students choose the stronger stuff. It is easier to smuggle. They mix it and drink it like lemonade, but reality is that what they are drinking contains a high % van alcohol. Because of all the secrecy, the ‘parties’ S is talking about are selective. You are only welcome if you are invited and you go because you want to get drunk. Where is the spontaneous, social element in his stories? Where is the fun?</p>