<p>I had been hearing the drinking issue even before my S visited Dartmouth. I have been worry since he turned down all other good colleges and decided to go to the greatest college-Dartmouth. I even had to train him how to drink according to another parent whose D is at Dartmouth. Now, I am released since my son emailed me yesterday. </p>
<p>"I think I'm tired of the fraternity scene at Dartmouth. I've been fratting a few
times, had one beer/wine/champagne maximum, and I don't get the excitement really.
Some people drink over 10 (!) beers and get really drunk and it affects their
studies. I've even seen one person drink 20 standard drinks in one night (in
liquor). Instead, I think I'm going to participate in the DOC, through hiking,
canoeing, mountain climbing, or mountain biking."</p>
<p>Drinking issue is not unique to Dartmouth. It happens everywhere in colleges. It is up to the student to make a decision. Parent definitely can play a role. Communication often will help! It might be very helpful if parents let students to explore them selves. As my S, he figured out himself. As his decision just came out in less than two months. The DOC, the oldest club in a college across the country, offers a great exciting and beneficial activities. Hope that your D or S makes a right decision and has a wonderful college life!</p>
<p>A real concern at Dartmouth is the source of the beer. The frats have monopoly power on beer; the sororities are dry and the school functions are dry, so women are in a tough spot.</p>
<p>the whole "there’s not much else to do on weekends at Dartmouth if you’re not into drinking/frats " is the reason DS decided against going to D.
It it weren’t SO isolated,[ and he didnt discover just how isolated it was until we visited during Dimensions] it would have been a different matter.</p>
<p>Just curious, how did you “train” your son to drink? </p>
<p>My son is one of the few in his friend group who have not experimented with alcohol. I am concerned about him going away to college without having tried drinking, but the thought of drinking with him at home seems kind of strange…</p>
<p>Littleacorns, I am not the OP but I can tell you how I approached alcohol with my D. During senior HS year, I occasionally let her have a glass of wine or wine cooler, a glass of champagne at Christmas, 1 cosmo at a very special event. NEVER when she would be driving. NEVER did I offer a drink to someone else’s kid. We had an agreement that she would drink NOT ONE DROP if driving and would not be in the car with someone else who was drinking. I assured her that if she needed me to come get her at any point I would not get mad. She learned that good-tasting wine is far superior to beer. When she went to college in a large metro last year, drunk driving was no longer an issue (they walk or take the subway), but we did talk a lot about alcohol being the #1 date rape drug. She drinks on occasion and we have talked about it, but she has not gone wild. I took the mystery out of drinking and it seems to have worked.</p>
<p>I work in a small private college and you can MOST certainly know the kids that have had “some” freedom with drinking and those that never tried it. Those that are new to the whole thing don’t know, yet, where their limit is and while being away from their parents and home for the first time, sometimes this is not a good mix. The first few weeks of school, it is not unusual for children to be taken to the hospital or very sick from drinking.
Those that have experimented, either with/without parents consent, at least know that point where they “should” stop (although we also know that doesn’t always happen).
Remember when we were kids, some had keg parties and others drank beers from cans and bottles. Not true with kids today. Vodka mixed with high energy drinks are usually the drink of choice.</p>
<p>While drinking finds its way on any campus, I can tell you that you should PLEASE also be talking to your children about drugs, over the counter, prescription, etc. Getting ADHD pills to focus and pain killers are also becoming common. </p>
<p>Please talk to your children and never, ever think “not my child”. I see many poor parents thinking the same thing.</p>
<p>■■■■■ alert. I’m getting so tired of these things. What’s the point? To let everyone know how “great” Dartmouth is? To promote the DOC (whatever that is?). Honestly, do you even realize that people in my part of the country don’t even know where Dartmouth is, or care?</p>
<p>Thank you for your thoughts writestuff and lovestotravel…</p>
<p>My son is openly disappointed with his friends he has seen “drunk” … he acts like they have let him down, but I suspect he is really a bit nervous about trying alcohol himself and this is how he is expressing it…</p>
<p>We talk about it often, and I try to point out the risks of hard liquor vs. wine vs. beer… Drugs are a major source of concern, and we talk about that whenever there is a tragic event in the news…I want to make sure he knows the different levels of risk that are involved.</p>
<p>Having gone to a small isolated college myself, I prefer that he not do the same (although I don’t pretend to think the problems don’t exist at larger schools regardless of the location).</p>
<p>It was simple. Just let him to drink under my supervision to find out what is his limit. I met another parent in a meeting who told me that. She let her D to drink at two situations, one without food and another with food. I think she was right. If S or D knows how much he or she can drink, the real situation will be under their control. I think that it is better to let kids to try out at home first than they do in Dartmouth by themselves.</p>
<p>I really wish you hadn’t tied this thread to one college, and also question the motive. Is it that you want everyone to know how sensible your son is, despite his allegedly debauched environment? Please!</p>
<p>Dartmouth is a wonderful school and by no means has the monopoly on drinking. Also, a rural location does not necessarily mean there will be more drinking, though I suppose it can. I live near our state flagship, which is in a small city where theoretically there are other options on top of the campus-based social alternatives, and I can assure you there is a ton of heavy drinking going on and less studying than at Dartmouth.</p>
<p>To each his own, but I personally wouldn’t “teach” my underaged child how to drink.</p>
<p>Well, considering that the U.S. stands virtually alone with its 21 drinking age (along with a few Muslim countries), it would be a good idea that your kids learn how to drink - especially if they are ever going to study abroad, let alone go to weekend visits to Montreal, Toronto or Cancun. </p>
<p>There are substantial variations in the drinking laws by state. While the purchase age is 21 in all states (but not PR or the VI where it is 18), several states (OH, TX, WI to name a few) specifically allow parents to buy for their kids in restaurants and bars. Its just an extension of “under parental supervision” exemption which is common in most states. On the other hand, several states have not specifically made an exception for religious ceremonies - so theoretically, a priest or minister could be arrested for giving Holy Communion to someone under 21. (Though I have never heard of this, undoubtedly due to the constitutional implications such an arrest would cause.)</p>
<p>“Remember when we were kids, some had keg parties and others drank beers from cans and bottles. Not true with kids today. Vodka mixed with high energy drinks are usually the drink of choice.”</p>
<p>I had a D go to Dartmouth. She was an athlete and a non-drinker when she left. While she eventually did start drinking there, she never felt that it was an issue either way. She played pong with water until she was comfortable. In fact, she and her friends often said that while there might be more drinking at Dartmouth than other Ivies, it did not come close to the level their friends saw at state schools. </p>
<p>Bottom line, there will be drinking everywhere. You just have to hope you have taught them enough self-assurance to do what is comfortable for them.</p>
<p>glido, it scares the heck out of me too! But, unfortunately, it is what it is and I hope and pray that my child listens to what we say. But did you listen to everything your parents said? Not I! I have to pray my dd doesn’t do half the things I did with her having LOADS more access to it in school than I ever did. I just have to hope important things seep through and she understands what we try to teach her.</p>
<p>How many girls did you know that drank vodka growing up? We drank beer. It was cheep and easy to get, back in the day LOL. The girls drink vodka now since it isn’t “fattening” with all the calories and can be easily hidden in drinks and smell.
They (of course not all) always seems to want more and there comes with combining with the high energy drinks.</p>
<p>Drugs too are everywhere, whether you want to believe it or not and quite often, the more expensive the school, the more expensive the drugs. It’s everywhere, unfortunately, not just any one school.</p>
<p>As parents we just have to lead our children in the right direction and hope all the stories, talks and frustrations we have expressed over the years, keep them on the right path. Good luck to us all!</p>
<p>My D went on overnight visits at 4 of the Ivies (HYPC). Saw significant partying at 2 of the 4, light drinking at the other 2. Doesn’t mean anything more than that is what she observed, based on where her hosts took her. Son visited friends at P, and says the drinking seemed comparable to Dartmouth’s.</p>
<p>My step daughter is a senior at Dartmouth and has faced the same drinking issues as my sons at their LACs, our many friends’ kids at UCs, and well…pretty much every kid we know. College, drink, college, drink, what was the question again?</p>
<p>What I will say is we haven’t seen any fall out from the drinking at Dartmouth, the high achieving kids who got in are all graduating with lots of internships and other achievements. They are notably serious about getting jobs and do score impressive ones. Not so much the case at the LAC (top25) and UCs.</p>
<p>All the girls that I recall back in my parties days of the 80s. I think it must be a regional thing. None of the girls i knew were into beer. </p>
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<p>I don’t question drugs exist, but this is one big ol’ myth (usually assigned to highschools) about the expensive school = expensive drugs. Which are the expensive drugs btw? The myth is not borne out by the research evidence.</p>
<p>The most expensive drug out there is the old, unreformulated OxyContin, with a street value of $80 per 80 mg pill. In our state, as unreformulated OxyContin gets scarcer, we are seeing both high school and college students turn to heroin (black tar heroin in our state is very cheap, about $10 per). Our treatment admissions for those under age 18 for heroin are at an all-time high; and our publicly funded treatment programs for heroin/opiate treatment are totally full. The largest group receiving such treatment are now ages 18-24; and probably double that number are receiving buprenorphine treatment through private docs and agencies. </p>
<p>This is my professional field of expertise. Roughly 50% (actually a little more) of Dartmouth’s student body binge drank in the past two weeks. If Dartmouth is like other schools, first-years actually drank a little less than upperclassmen. Binge drinking is 5 or more drinks in one “episode” - the reality from what we know from the experimental data is that the average is likely closer to 8 or 9.</p>
<p>Of that 50%, roughly 6 out of 10 (or 30% of the student body) are heavy drinkers - either three or more binge episodes in the past two weeks, or more than two drinks a day near daily. Of those, roughly two-thirds (16-18%) of the student body will end up with either a significant problem at some time in their life with alcohol, or alcoholism. This will include MANY currently high achieving students, with good internships and excellent job opportunities. (Alcoholics aren’t stupid: they are alcoholic.) (It should be noted that there is not a direct relationship between alcoholism and binge drinking; there IS a direct relationship with heavy drinking.)</p>
<p>And NO, not all schools are the same - in fact they aren’t even close. When anyone suggests that, it’s a copout. The rates at schools that might on the surface seem very similar can be quite different.</p>