<p>In the US the accepted norm is to study Sunday through Wednesday, get hammered on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and perhaps stumble into the library on Sunday afternoon. </p>
<p>Do our neighbors to the north follow this same program (programme?)?</p>
<p>Is there something about the US college experience that requires it to be so drowning in booze?</p>
<p>[For CCers who like to object to the premise, I’ve listed the likely options below, and you can just indicate by number]:</p>
<li><p>“Not all college kids drink three nights a week, my kid (Choose one: registered voters for Obama, worked on curing cancer, delivered Meals on Wheels)”</p></li>
<li><p>“I think it’s terrible that you generalize …” </p></li>
<li><p>"_____ College isn’t a party school" (yes, it is)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Wow. Stereotyping are we? Have you talked with many college students lately? You do know that if a college has 10,000 kids and half are partying then the other half are not?
College Freshman, generally, take with them the habits they had in high school. If their parents allowed them to party every weekend then they will find the parties in college.
While some colleges have more of a "party atmosphere" than others there are still plenty of kids who choose not to partake.
Yours could be one of them. Mine was. I know this because 3 years after college she tells me. And her younger sisters. My oldest went to a small school but clearly a party school. She made a choice not to indulge and had a wonderful college experience.</p>
<p>Do you not believe that the kids that your kids go to high school with do not drink and party on the weekends?</p>
<p>All of that said, I have heard that some colleges do not have class on Fridays - the profs can't get the kids to come. Yuk.</p>
<p>I am a consumer of college students and recent grads, most from selective and most selective schools. My post is an outgrowth of dissatisfaction with their preparation (with some humor attempted).</p>
<p>I think MSUDad has missed the mark. I think a lot of the students have set up their schedules so that the Thursday classes are in the afternoon, so "Wednesday is the new Thursday." i.e. drinking FOUR nights a week! (and I wish I were kidding....) They are still able to feed the homeless as part of their community service requirements for their drunk and disorderly or fake ID probations/arrests! Curing cancer might have to wait awhile.</p>
<p>barrons - of course the profs love it. I would like to have a 4 day week as well.</p>
<p>MSUDad - perhaps you are looking at the wrong group of college students and recent grads. Being from a "selective" or "Most selective" college is not and never has been a guarantee of common sense or good decision making.</p>
<p>I, personally, do not understand the culture of binge drinking that exists today on some/many/most campuses. Despite the good intentions of the campus administrations there is not much they have been able to accomplish - collectively.</p>
<p>I'll have to get back to you. My son has classes from 9am to 5pm on Friday (NU) so does not--he says--party on Thursday night. He did call us close to midnight on Sunday night as he was walking to the library to do some work. He sounded completely sober.</p>
<p>I do recall that when I was in college, we had Wednesdays off for labs or the like, so partying was Tuesday, Friday and Saturday, and this was in a dry county in Kentucky. (Now, just the smell of bourbon makes me want to, well, I won't say.) I have a feeling there couldn't possibly be more partying today than there was back in the day.</p>
<p>"I think a lot of the students have set up their schedules so that the Thursday classes are in the afternoon, so "Wednesday is the new Thursday." i.e. drinking FOUR nights a week! (and I wish I were kidding....)" </p>
<p>Ouch! You really think a lot of students do this?</p>
<p>
[quote]
I, personally, do not understand the culture of binge drinking that exists today on some/many/most campuses.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Sad to report that the culture of binge drinking has existed long before "today." </p>
<p>Going back one generation, it was ever-present at my college and those where I visited friends. Going back two generations, I don't think "Animal House" was entirely fiction.</p>
<p>Careful, JustAMomOf4, that's a little slanderous. Professors like to have at least one day free from teaching, but teaching is only part of their job. They also need time for their research, as well as for the endless committee work and numerous other "service" obligations they have to make their institutions run---not to mention travel to academic conferences, symposia, and the like, which are typically scheduled on Fridays and Saturdays because that's when the fewest faculty teach. I don't know any college or university faculty who think of it as a 4-day-a-week job. Most work 6 days a week, some 7; all put in more than a 40 hour workweek. You just won't see them in the classroom anywhere near that many hours, nor necessarily in their offices or labs because many obligations require them to be elsewhere. Many also get some of their best work done at home, away from the many distractions of campus.</p>
<p>Personally, I don't mind teaching on Fridays, but if you want students in your classes you're better off scheduling them on other days. A four-day week for classes has become the norm and the expectation for a lot of students.</p>