<p>My DD goes to an urban school, where drinking is not a very big part of the culture in comparison to my rural school 30 years ago, where drinking was embroidered into the weekends of nearly everyone. As we hear from others who are also freshman, it seems to hold true that the rural campuses have more alcohol. We have a theory - the more urban an environment, the more things there are to do without drinking and the less it is a given weekend activity. Would CC people agree based on their family experiences?</p>
<p>I’m not sure I quite agree. I attended NYU for a year before transferring to a small Catholic college with nearly nothing to do in the surrounding area. I’ve found that it really depends upon the crowd you’re hanging around with. My friends at NYU drank and partied heavily. Bars and clubs were the weekend activities. Other friends at NYU simply drank small amounts socially and would enjoy going to museums and music events with me sober. At my current college I have found my friends to be much more serious about school work than my group was at NYU. We still drink, but not to the extreme despite the serious lack of activities near by.</p>
<p>Generalizations are just that, generalizations. Campus culture varies across the country even at small rural colleges.</p>
<p>You are right Mom of 3, but I am curious if others would agree with this one. Perhaps not - after all there are 6000 colleges, and our sample is pretty small! 
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<p>anyone else agree/disagree based on their sample?</p>
<p>When my S was a freshman at Georg Washington, a thoroughly urban campus, ambulances lined up at the freshman dorm every Friday night for kids who had drunk themselves senseless. (I can’t say if the same applied to upper classmen, since S fled the place after freshman year.)</p>
<p>I go to school at a very urban campus, and it seems to me like there’s a lot of drinking here compared to rural schools my friends attend. But their schools are also in the south so there’s a lot bigger Christian/youth group “scene” I think.</p>
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Harvard Public Health did a study on college drinking a while back and found that, all other factors controlled for, rural colleges routinely had a higher drinking rate than urban colleges, but the difference was not statistically significant.</p>
<p>On the other hand, most of the factors that noticeably boosted drinking rates - small enrollment, strong Greek presence, lots of athletes, mostly white student body - are often more associated with rural colleges.</p>
<p>Majoring in business, studying in the Northeast (followed by the Midwest), being under 24, having below a B-average, being less involved in religion, and having college-educated parents were also linked with higher drinking rates.</p>
<p>Anecdotally, yes, I agree with you. Not only is there more to do in urban areas, but the nature of drinking is different. Students in urban areas are more likely to go out to bars or clubs, many of whom are wise to the underage kids who attempt to sneak in. In rural areas, parties on campus are the central focus, and alcohol is much more readily available to everyone.</p>
<p>I have never formally researched the issue but in my personal experience, there is drinking on every campus and at similar rates. The kids that drink on urban campuses would drink the same if they went to a rural school and vice versa. Also, I find that schools in more rural areas tend to have more to do on campus for students if they have a good population of kids from outside of the immediate area (so most kids stay on campus on weekends). If those schools don’t have kids on campus over the weekends, there isn’t much drinking that goes on because no one is there to drink. There have been more problems as a result of kids drinking on the urban campuses in our general area though, more fights that end up with injuries, property damage, kids drinking themselves to death, etc.</p>
<p>I think if you choose not to drink, there are more alternatives on an Urban campus. It doesn’t mean people don’t drink there too, it is just easier to be social and entertained without drinking if that is your preference. Even if people do drink, it might not be as often because they have more other options.</p>
<p>parentofpeople-I think that by the time a kid is in college that the social pressures to drink are far less then they are in high school. I know plenty of kids that attended parties in college that never drank. There were always options for those kids (water, soda, etc.) and they certainly were never looked down upon. Just looking at the various colleges in our state, the large, urban schools have a lot more bars around campus but that doesn’t mean that there are more options for kids that don’t drink. The schools that are in smaller towns, more rural areas actually have more under 21 clubs, etc. I can think of one under 21 club near the large, urban college near us but down the road a bit at the smaller state school, there are 4 under 21 clubs within a couple blocks of campus. I think the communities that surround the smaller schools have stepped up to offer these places–great business for someone–more so than you will see in a major metro area because they don’t have to.</p>
<p>I think there’s real variation among colleges in the urban and non-urban sets, and therefore a lot of overlap between them. There are certainly specific urban colleges with more drinking than specific nonurban colleges.</p>
<p>But, yes, I believe on average urban colleges have less drinking, because more things to do that are incompatible with drinking. (Or, from another angle, more competition with alcohol for a student’s marginal dollar.)</p>
<p>To some extent, the urban/nonurban split may not be refined enough. For example, Yale is certainly urban, but I don’t know whether it’s comparable to, say, Harvard or Columbia in terms of what’s available to do easily off campus. I suspect you would see a lot more drinking at Yale than at Harvard or Columbia; at least that was the case way back when.</p>
<p>I am just saying I think that there are more options that are not alcohol-centric at a city school, assuming you pick an actual entertaining city. There are many other entertainment options competing for the students time than just a frat party. And even though kids don’t have to drink at those parties, they still are around kids who are drinking for entertainment. Kids who don’t drink can get tired of being around drunks, tired of being the caretaker, tired of making sure everyone else is ok. So, yes they can go to those parties but I think it would be more fun to be at an event that alcohol is not part of if you are not interested in drinking. </p>
<p>I think there are more opportunities for those type of events at a city school. Not just a lame movie night in the student center showing some old classics for a few hours. I just think that an isolated school tends to rely on parties for their social scene and that leads to either drinking or being around drinking. If someone is not interested in that, I think they would have a better shot at a school that is in a city. </p>
<p>Again, I am not saying there is not drinking at city schools, I just think if you don’t want to drink or at least not every time you socialize, choose a school with other options.</p>
<p>This has recently popped up on my radar. My son who is a Jr. in HS has had several friends come home ( flunked out) or switch schools due to excessive partying. How do you find out the school culture before you send your kid there? I know kids can always find a party… just dont want my kid to fell left out if they choose NOT to party. Have heard this is an issue at 2 smaller ( 15k enrollment) Ohio schools.</p>
<p>Nowadays…restaurants with bars and plain ole bars set up business within walking distances of campuses…drinking is everywhere.</p>
<p>Again, this is anecdotal evidence, but my D at a very urban college chose not to drink for several years. She said there was always of plenty of non-drinking-related stuff to do in the city, and she appreciated the variety of non-alcoholic social options open to her. She told me several times that she just didn’t want her entertainment choices narrowed down to dorm parties, frat parties, or “lame” parties (maybe that movie night that parent mentioned?)</p>
<p>Again, this is just an N of one. DD also visited her friends at more rural colleges and sometimes commented, “mom, all they do for fun is drink.” YMMV.</p>
<p>Rural, residential location is one of the nine known, studied, and documented risk factors for higher than average rates of binge/heavy drinking on college campuses. It’s not “anecdotal”; there is strong evidence backed up by a raft of research over the past 17 years.</p>
<p>Other known risk factors for heavy/excessive drinking: predominantly white student body, coeducational, presence of Greek system on campus/participation in Greek life/living in Greek house, prominence of athletics/participation in athletics (more athletic = more heavy drinking), small school, location in the Northeast.</p>
<p>ldavis #13 asked “How do you find out the school culture before you send your kid there?” There’s a whole thread here on this somewhat cryptically named thread:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1279537-finding-college-where-drinking-culture-acceptable.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1279537-finding-college-where-drinking-culture-acceptable.html</a></p>
<p>To paraphrase one of my comments, EVERY college will say something like “Yes, some of our students choose to drink, but if you don’t you will be able to find a group of likewise students who share your values.” This is flat out untrue in many cases. I suggest trying to talk to current students–not involved in leading tour groups etc. Talk to parents of current or recent students. Don’t trust the official spokespeople.</p>
<p>My daughter and I toured one rural LAC which has a reputation for frequent alcohol related ER admissions and has a yearly tradition called “case day” in which students drink a case of beer in 24 hours. I asked the students on a panel-- who were the typical good looking, super-articulate students one finds in those positions, “What is the alcohol culture like on this campus? Specifically, what is Case Day?” The panelists who had been super slick and prepared anxiously looked at each other and then looked at the college staffer who was managing the event and eventually gave the stock answer.</p>
<p>I think that parents should ask questions like this of colleges, and ask them publicly. Maybe colleges will someday see that having a safer alcohol related culture on their campuses will be a draw.</p>
<p>As long as it’s not “old reputation” if you hear about it it’s probably true. If tour guides and info speakers hedge there’s probably an issue. If there is editorial in the newspaper about alcohol there’s probably alot of it. Yup, Greeks drink, they have parties for every possible event they can conceive of…It’s really not that difficult to suss out the culture of a college campus if you keep your ears and eyes open and listen. Ask the kids what they do for fun. Find the data for your college on alcohol and drugs. Ask what happens if S or D gets an MIP or gets popped by the RA for having alcohol in the room. If they don’t have a formal system for reprimanding or dismissing kids who break rules…rules will get broken. S1 went to a rural college…the kids drank but not crazily, they were too busy getting up early in the morning on the weekend to go fly fishing, hiking, rock climbing, skiing, mountain biking the sorts of things that aren’t real fun with a hangover. I think they smoked alot of pot there but that’s another issue for another day. Money is another one…the more money that flows typically the more the alcohol can flow. If kids don’t have any money they can’t afford to pay older kids to buy them booze. Look at the requirements for staying in a major, if kids can limp through college with Cs and Ds…well there is less pressure to actually study. We were touring one campus in the NE where a kid quipped to my #2 son “Cs and Ds get you degrees.” Having to actually maintain a B to stay in your major indicates a college that might not have the party-hearty culture of another college. There are many indicators and signals…not that hard to figure out.</p>
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<p>Where does one obtain this information?</p>