<p>I’ve been on the campus of a few SUNY schools and there’s always a huge smoking crowd.</p>
<p>Why does it matter if someone smokes cigarettes? I would never even consider crossing a college off my list because of hearing anecdotal evidence about smokers there. That’s insanely irrational. No one yet has provided concrete evidence that a college is jam-packed with cigarette smokers besides firsthand experience that greatly varies depending on a vast range of factors. </p>
<p>Plus, it’s college. Kids will smoke. Kids will drink. Kids will have premarital relations. Trying to dodge these realities will only harm your child’s exposure to the realism of society.</p>
<p>To cclotzftw: to those that have not been around smoking, excessive smoking on campuses can be a problem. Non-smokers are really sensitive to the stink and the eye, lung and skin irritations that second-hand smoke creates. To live in a dorm with smokers can be a pain because you still smell them even when they don’t have a cigarette in their hands and if they are surrounding the entrance of your dorm, you have to walk through the smokey stink that surrounds them and then it gets on your clothes. </p>
<p>Obviously I am not a smoker and I hope and pray neither one of my kids succumbs to this nasty habit as it is so addictive and costly in many more ways than just a pack of cigarettes. I know that either one of them would turn from a college if the campus was littered with butts or if they couldn’t enter a building without being exposed to the stink. </p>
<p>I don’t hate people who smoke, but I do feel sorry for them because once they start it is hard to stop and they have no idea how it affects them in both relationships and in their career until they finally quit. A nasty, nasty habit for both the smoker and any non-smoker around them.</p>
<p>I’m surprised that there haven’t been any surveys, or at least that no one has mentioned one so far. FWIW I thought I read once that Bard has the highest rate of smokers.</p>
<p>Any information about other ivies? I am quite desperate to know since I probably won’t be able to visit the campuses.</p>
<p>UNC is a very smoking unfriendly school. Every building is completely smoke free as is a large radius around each building. This leaves this small area around a flagpole in the middle of campus as the only place you’re allowed to smoke. Most people I know consider themselves non or only occasional smokers. I don’t think I know any regular smokers at UNC.</p>
<p>I used to be (and am again) a non-smoker but I never found second-hand smoke to irritate me. First-hand is much more irritating till your throat gets used to it. And it will always sting your eyes if you get too much in them.</p>
<p>I still maintain that you probably get exposed to just as much crap walking on a congested street in NYC as you do walking on a college campus with smokers.</p>
<p>And smoking definitely is a terrible habit, but I think in the short term alcohol is worse. I’ve never heard of “nicotined-driving”, I’ve never heard of families being torn apart over cigarette addiction. I don’t hear of men beating their wives after dragging a ■■■.</p>
<p>You’re right than secondhand smoke can be incredibly irritating. But it’s virtually unavoidable. Unless nicotine usage is completely banned, then there will always be the possibility that you will be exposed to cigarette smokers wherever you go, excluding, of course, locations at which the habit has been outlawed by local ordinances. </p>
<p>I’d love to know which colleges to avoid because of their smoker populations, but neither this thread nor any form of public input from simply students or applicants is going to provide you with a comprehensive glimpse at the cough-cough lifestyles about which you are inquiring.</p>
<p>“I still maintain that you probably get exposed to just as much crap walking on a congested street in NYC as you do walking on a college campus with smokers.”</p>
<p>This is so true; in my college (where there are plenty of smokers and lots of hipster types) the administration is trying to have smoking banned within 15 feet of all the buildings or something. It’s ridiculous. First of all, the sidewalk there is public property and you can’t stop pedestrians from smoking. there is no enclosed campus so the college has no right to stop people from simply smoking near the buildings - how would that be enforced anyway? Do they think they can create some kind of nicotine-free bubble? No, it’s in manhattan, the entire island smells like cigarettes and p!ss, so enforcing any no-smoke policy 15 ft within buildings is dumb. Not that I enjoy breathing congested air myself.</p>
<p>eh, having to smell secondhand smoke is one of the worst tortures I can think of. i’m kind of worried because i hold my breath around cigarette smoke and I’ve passed out before from waiting in a line with smokers next to me. It’s not the potential health effects but the smell that gets me… Some people can just tolerate it more than others. For me, it’s the worst smell imaginable. I can stand walking in a congested street in NYC because its mostly just co2 pollution and street smell and not cigarette smell</p>
<p>rymd: I totally agree with you… I am strictly anti-smoking so I am quite anxious about going into a university where smoking is like a token of the school. Any suggestions for non-smoking schools?</p>
<p>Just make the usual list of schools, then visit them when they’re actually in session not during the summer. Keep a lookout for tons of cigarette butts or smokers. Pretty simple.</p>
<p>Princeton Review has a ranking for schools with most smokers and schools with least smokers. I don’t have the list now but I remember there being a lot of liberal arts colleges ranked high in the most smokers and some huge conservative schools like Brigham Young (which should be obvious) at the top of the least smokers list</p>
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<p>LOL… can’t imagine having to be mildly annoyed!</p>
<p>The Princeton Guide’s write-up of St. John’s College in Annapolis states as a quote from a student, “Everyone smokes.”</p>
<p>I thought I was the only one that noticed that Harris Hall. They and the doctors/nurses (during the day) seem to smoke right outside the library area, where there is. ironically, a statue of Robert Woodruff with a cigar in his hand. That area might as well be cancer central. At first I thought Emory students primarily smoke weed only, but I think a lot also smoke cigarettes/cigars.</p>
<p>I hold my breath too. Especially walking into the library lol. And I’m used to second-hand (though about a year and a half ago, I became extremely sensitive to it). Most of my family members smoke. It’s more avoidable at school, than at home.</p>
<p>A lot of New York City based colleges have a very high number of smokers. I don’t know why. I think it’s part of the scene/culture or something.</p>
<p>Agreed about St. John’s–a good friend who is otherwise a very good fit for the school, socially, visited for several days and one of her major complaints was the constant smoking.</p>
<p>^ St. John’s is in NYC…to further prove my NYC point haha.</p>