<p>Metallika, if you want to have an overnight anywhere off campus (it’s the same for Boston as it is for day students’ houses) you have to fill out an overnight request by Thursday night and turn it in to your house counselor. It asks for the phone number of the person you will be staying with, and they have to provide written permission (a signature) consenting to host you and to be sure you conform to all school rules. It’s a bit of a hassle but it’s a standardized process that everyone who wants to go off campus for the night needs to go through.</p>
<p>It’s not unheard of at all for school to phone the number of your host that you provided on your permission, just to make sure you’re there. I know a few people who’ve been caught out like that… Make sure your permissions are legitimate!</p>
<p>andover is the **** friends. Forget all the other places and come here. woot.</p>
<p>benevolent4them do you go to Andover ?</p>
<p>Yeah, he does, but funnily enough I don’t think we’ve met… Interesting since we talked so much last year on CC. We should fix this, but after finals week…</p>
<p>Hey Tom, what colleges are you thinking of applying to ?</p>
<p>heh. The process sounds the same as 40 years ago, from memories of visiting a friend at Harvard… Thankfully, I was smart enough <em>not</em> to emulate his drinking of 5 quarts of beer. Boy did he regret it the next morning…</p>
<p>Yeah, to what I hear the process is much the same from a while back …</p>
<p>Which?</p>
<p>The getting permission part, or the getting completely plastered part? :-).</p>
<p>Fortunately, I’ve never in my life gotten close to as drunk as my friend did that weekend. I think his example showed just how bad an idea drinking could be. For that, I’ll always be thankful.</p>
<p>I think both parts lol xD</p>
<p>Yeah binge drinking is a bad thing, I may only be 14 but never will I drink “to get drunk”, and one day If I do decide to drink alchool (when I have surpassed the age limit of course ), I will drink for the pleasure not just to get drunk.:D</p>
<p>The whole American drinking age of 21 is ridiculous to me… You can die for your country, be married, fly a plane, vote for president and do all the things an adult can do bar drink? Totally weird.</p>
<p>Local news story from about a year ago. A 20 year old US soldier was home on leave from Iraq. He goes to his 21 y/o cousin’s house and they drink beer together and watch the game on TV. They go to someone else’s house and run their car into a ditch. The cousin is charged with DUI (as he should have been) and ENDANGERING THE WELFARE OF A CHILD.</p>
<p>So, the cousin who gives him beer is endangering his welfare, but not the US government who gives him an AK47 and sends him into a warzone. Go figure.</p>
<p>I realised my post could be figured as anti american or something which it totally isn’t-I love living in the US.</p>
<p>and wow that’s sad and stupid too</p>
<p>Yes I agree the drinking age here is horrendous, back in Switzerland where I used to live, it was 16 so my brother who is 17 was able to drink and most of my friends drank on a regular basis. It does not make sense why they would put the drinking age so high up.</p>
<ul>
<li>Yes neato the article is truly unfair and dumb, someone should try to change the drinking age maybe until 18 which would make more sense.</li>
</ul>
<p>Actually I believe 21 is a quite proper age.</p>
<p>If you come from a country where the drinking age is 16, 21 seems quite along way a way …</p>
<p>Drinking age in the US was 18 before 1984; my friend’s drinking at Harvard was legal when I visited Harvard and subsequently attended MIT; I was probably a year under age by the law that night.</p>
<p>There is research that shows alcohol is hard on brains before full maturity; 21 may be in fact something grounded in some science (lord knows many such decisions are not). And 5 quarts of beer is way too much for anyone, even with watered down U.S. beer. Age has little to do with that. He had the worst hangover you can imagine the next morning…</p>
<p>Me and my friends were just talking about this the other day, how u can do all those things by 18 but u can’t drink. We have a new kid from england who is 17 and has been drinking for a while, and we were talking about how the law is so stupid since nowadays kids start drinking at 15 or 16 anyways.</p>
<p>Exactly Hoping 21 is way to high because nobody respects it, 18 would be more respected .</p>
<p>I respect the drinking law…I don’t do illegal activities such as drinking at 15 or 16.
The reason they have the age higher then in other countries is because in the U.S. the teens would just go and get drunk, but in most other countries they have self-control and will not drink so much.</p>
<p>I neither do not drink underage or anything like that but saying that in othet countries they have more self control is wrong ,(not to sound mean). I have lived in lots of european countries and I have visited a lot of them to and most kids start drinking at 13 to 14 and in some areas at 11-12 , the fact is that in europe alcohol is accessible and kids drink alot. Maybe in Asia they respect this, I do not know but I know for a fact that goverment officials should do something about teenage drinking.</p>