<p>I'm an Architecture freshman in Syracuse University. Firstly, I want to say that I absolutely love the course even though it has only been two weeks. The teachers are witty but amazing, the course is challenging and the rigor excites me. The students are so intelligent, friendly and hardworking. </p>
<p>However, I am very disappointed by my dorm and the rest of the student body. I know Syracuse is the number one party school but I was not expecting this degree of partying. My first day here, someone on my floor offered me weed. The people on my floor shriek and giggle long past midnight. I woke up one day to hear my roommate talking to a guy on her side of the room without informing me a guy would be in our room. The whiteboards on people's doors are often filled with derogatory and downright rude comments about each other. </p>
<p>I don't party, drink or do drugs. I love a good intellectual conversation about politics, poverty, race, religion, whatever. I also love geeky shows and the occasional chick lit. I don't have a problem making friends but I'm having a problem finding like minded people here. I have seriously not found a single person who is outgoing and clicks with me but doesn't drink. My architecture friends party too and it gets lonely at night when everyone is partying and the next morning when everyone is talking about last night's party. </p>
<p>Now. To my point. I'm considering trying for a transfer to Cornell in hopes that a greater percentage of the population would be, for lack of a better word, geekier. What I'm wondering is if partying is something prevalent in all US colleges. Of course I'm giving Syracuse one year before I make this decision but I would like to keep my options open. I'd love some advice. </p>
<p>When I read the title of the question, I was going to say – “Of course not!” and then I read “Syracuse” and shut right up, lol. </p>
<p>Anyways; does Syracuse have any sort of Honors College or Honors Program that offers specific housing to those students? I know the University of Massachusetts Amherst (another notorious party school; affectionately called ZooMass) has the Commonwealth Honors College which in turn offers CHC dormitories to its students. I would look into that if available at Syracuse. </p>
<p>It’s still early in the year – try to get your roommate to agree to some sort of mutual contract about behavior in the dorm. If you do this now before the two of you form any sort of friendship, it won’t seem like you’re trying to offend her later on. Set up a reasonable quiet time curfew for the both of you; if she wants to talk to guys, make sure it in their dorms or outside. </p>
<p>Do you have an RA you can talk to? RAs should be able to handle issues like this. A lot of people don’t realize they’re being disruptive or loud; it’s just how they are. If they’re simply told they’re too noisy, they more often than not will probably keep it down.</p>
<p>A lot of people deal with noisy neighbors in college by investing in ear plugs. Not entirely sure of the logistics of that (how does one wake up to an alarm with ear plugs?) but there are tons of posts on CC and on Y!A about it.</p>
<p>Do you happen to live within reasonable distance of Syracuse? Commuting isn’t necessarily a blast, especially when public transportation is involved, but you might find that your family is a lot more accommodating to your school work and upcoming tests than the frat parties keeping you up at night. I’m a commuter myself and I get to enjoy a lot of luxuries I’d have to forego living in a dorm since my family is very respectful of my personal space and my schoolwork. </p>
<p>I can’t really speak to the culture of Cornell extensively; there’s no doubt in my mind that as a student body, they’re all very bright and hardworking. However, Cornell is in the middle of nowhere (essentially) and colleges that are so isolated tend to lend themselves to some serious partying. Cornell has some raging frat parties, according to the students. They might be Ivy Leaguers; but they’re still college kids nonetheless. Just don’t go into the whole transfer process with a certain stereotype or image, you may be disappointed.</p>
<p>If you find someone who is outgoing and clicks with you but does drink, what’s the problem? Don’t go out and party if you don’t want to; you’ll find other people like you in the long run. In the meantime, if you find someone who you click with but parties a fair amount, just hang out with them during the day and do other things at night. </p>
<p>Full disclosure: I’m a freshman who doesn’t party at a pretty big/party hard state school, and that’s what I’ve been doing. It sounds like what you’re looking for is easier to find at Swarthmore/Vassar than at Cornell. </p>
<p>Are there any clubs you can join? Maybe a philosophy club? </p>
<p>Another thing to keep in mind is that a lot of your fellow freshmen are in the initial throes of enjoying their new found freedom from parental oversight and will eventually get tired of constant partying, especially when they get a few quiz grades and start realizing that they actually need to spend time studying. At most schools things tend to calm down after a few weeks. But you chose a known party school, so the likelihood of finding your kind of people is lower than it would be at a school with a different reputation. After all, a lot of freshmen chose Syracuse BECAUSE it’s a party school. (What were their parents thinking? I haven’t a clue.) Give it some time. You don’t have to submit transfer applications for quite a while. But to answer your question, no, not all schools party hard, though all schools have some hard partiers. If you do decide to transfer, look for colleges that don’t have much Greek life, that don’t have a big sports culture, that are in interesting urban areas with lots of available entertainment other than getting drunk–in other words, not like Syracuse… </p>
<p>My son is a freshman Syracuse. He’s not a partier, isn’t interested in drinking or drugs. Frankly, he would much rather talk about the social issues that you described. He’s really impressed by almost all of his professors. His view so far is that the educational aspects of the university is high quality.</p>
<p>The first week before school started he went to one party. He realized immediately the scene wasn’t for him and walked out 15 minutes later. He wasn’t bothered to go to a party since and won’t in the near future either if ever.</p>
<p>He has adapted to the weekend dorm routine and stays up late on Friday and Saturday nights.</p>
<p>He’s reaching out to a few different organizations and clubs at SU. He’ll try them and decide later which he likes.</p>
<p>I would suggest you establish boundaries with your roommate. Do it quickly before any bad routines get entrenched. From my experience this is easily done and typically a straightforward conversation because nobody wants to be a jerk with their own roommate. You can also work with your RA if others on your dorm floor need help establishing healthy boundaries of behavior. From my experience, people who are being rude and inconsiderate aren’t trying to be jerks they just don’t realize they are until someone tells them. I worked with RAs to correct bad behavior when I was in college a couple times and it generally works well.</p>
<p>Many eons ago I was at a low-party school and transferred to a high-party school. I went to the parties during my first year after transferring but eventually settled down and stopped going to them. I simply had better things to do. I didn’t miss the parties.</p>
<p>From what I’ve read and heard, the new Chancellor at Syracuse is determined to refine the party aspects of the social scene and get it under better and safer control. I know some actions to establish clear rules of conduct were already taken before school started with certain returning students. The new Chancellor won’t change it overnight of course but it’s been done before. I understand much of the University of California system was once party central (UC Berkley, UCLA, US Santa Barbara). However the entire system is far more under control today. </p>
<p>You seem to be a bit… close-minded, I guess? I don’t drink or do drugs, and have plenty of friends who do who are still intellectual and geeky. Try talking to everyone, regardless of whether or not they party. Go to clubs on campus and make friends there. Even the “number one party school” is going to have plenty of people who don’t party. </p>
<p>Thank you for all the replies! I’m thinking of joining a club (the club fair is this coming Wednesday) and I’ll try to talk to my roommate when she returns…eventually. </p>
<p>As preamble1776 said, I didn’t want to have a stereotype of an Ivy school, go through the hassle of transferring and be disappointed, especially since I am still so amazed by Syracuse’s Architecture program. I’m going to wait and give the school a lot more time before I think about transferring.</p>
<p>I definitely agree that you should try to join clubs to find like-minded people. You should try talking to your roommate and developing an agreement for having other people/guys in the room. </p>
<p>As far as whether all schools are party schools, I’m attending Cornell right now and I can say it’s definitely much more of a party school than I imagined. I personally am not really into any of that, so it has been pretty hard to find like-minded people here as well. It is possible to find friends, though, even if they aren’t your friends at 1 am on weekends.</p>
wow! I can’t believe it that’s crazy (I’m a senior in HS, actually just got accepted to Cuse today!!) But yes, my friend told me her cousin attends and parties every other day. Personally, if I ever did that I would sacrifice my grades sooo much it’s both frightening and incredible that some students manage to party so much and still are happy with their grades. Also, my close friend also had this problem her first year at Cuse. Valedictorian, Honor Student, happy as can be she’s so positive, and never did drugs, never drank and didn’t hook up with boys because she had a boyfriend at home. Her roommate was her polar opposite, bringing guys back to the room and writing on her calendar things like “get drunk!!” What my friend did was 2nd semester, she joined clubs like Drama and REC sports. She found some great friends this way. not just the ones on her floor, or the ones in her classes. From what I hear, now she loves it. and she’s getting the most out of her education at SU by being fully involved with her studies, activities and sports. I was very happy for her when she told me how happy she became there. You’ll find your way, trust me. Best of luck to you!!