<p>I'm looking for colleges where the social life doesn't revolve around drinking. After having experienced great difficulties in life due to parental alcohol abuse, the last thing I'm looking for is a college where all the social life revolves around getting drunk all the time. I'm aware that there are many places with "substance free" or "healthy" dorms, although it appears that some of those are substance free in name only, which concerns me. </p>
<p>Reading college reviews, it seems that most people consider a place with a good "social life" to be one where there are drunken parties all the time. I don't mind people around me drinking some of the time, but I want to be able to avoid that and still have fun.</p>
<p>The school has to be coed (I'm a guy), preferably in the northeast or midwest. My gpa is about 3.5 and my scores modestly above average (75% or so), so I'm not looking at super-competitive schools. I'm a Catholic, but politically very liberal so ultraconservative colleges are not for me. If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear about them. Thank you.</p>
<p>I’d be interested, too. Princeton Review always has religious or very conservative schools on their list. Personally, I’d just like to see a list of colleges where the social life doesn’t revolve around drinking. To start with, I’d look at colleges that don’t have Greek life. Of course there is still drinking at those places . . .</p>
<p>[Here</a> are most of the factors that affect binge drinking rates on college campuses.](<a href=“College Drinking, Changing the Culture”>http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/niaaacollegematerials/taskforce/Factors_00.aspx) You can guess, based on these criteria, how much binge drinking occurs at a school, and 85% of the time you’d be right. Also note that at non commuter state flagships or other similar, large schools, there’s almost always something going on, so even at Penn State a non drinker can always find a ton of things to do on weekends that don’t involve awkwardly standing around at a party, watching his peers make fools of themselves.</p>
<p>Probably the Catholic schools (Notre Dame, BC, Holy Cross, Georgetown, Villanova)
I don’t think any of those listed are really ultra conservative.</p>
<p>I would think that a school in a rural area might have more drinking simply because there isn’t much else to do. So you might look at urban universities. There will be drinking there, too, but perhaps not as much.</p>
<p>BYU, Military academies, CUNYs (especially Brooklyn), Grove City.</p>
<p>Whoever said that the Catholic schools don’t have big drinking cultures didn’t grow up in a Catholic family that went to mostly Catholic schools. ;)</p>
<p>My dad’s side is Catholic and my mom’s side is not. I don’t think I have ever visited anyone on my dad’s side that was not drunk. Stay way from the Catholic schools. My dad even said that at the Jesuit high school he went to, the only social activities that ever went on was getting drunk. He decided against my brother going to Jesuit or me going to the girls school version. Even when I have gone to a Catholic Baptism, in the morning, people were getting drunk at the brunch after! So, yeah, don’t go Catholic thinking it will get you away from the drinking.</p>
<p>There is drinking at every school. The trick is to be able to find a group of students who are like-minded. I would suggest that schools located in cities are good options because there are always things to do in a city other than go out and drink. You should also look into schools that have wellness housing for freshman.</p>
<p>My S did not drink at all when he started college (now in grad school and still is not a big drinker). As an undergrad he went to Fordham (which may fit into your academic criteria) and lived in Queens Court which is a freshman wellness dorm. Some kids in the dorm did drink, it was still less prevalent. He went on to live in wellness housing for his sophomore year as well. In his last two years he lived in suites with friends he met in his wellness dorms so none of them were big drinkers. He went into Manhattan at least 2-3 times a month for various things. My S loved Fordham, got a great education, made wonderful friends and is now in a top grad school in his field.</p>
<p>There are “dry” campuses that aren’t very religious or conservative. At the moment the only school I can think of is St Olaf College in MN.
Definitively stay away from big-sports, Greek schools or isolated/rural.
Liberal arts without greek in big city?
Look into the Quaker schools, too.</p>
<p>BTW whoever said Grove City college must have gotten confused, because kids there got drunk on a regular basis, but used anything they could find such as medical alcohol which seemingly “doesn’t count” since it’s not real alcohol. That, tome, would be encouraging a culture of alcoholism (shameful, secret drinking with justification pasted over it). Over the years I ended up twice with roommates who’d graduated from there and they both told the same type of stories as well. And its super conservative. :)</p>