<p>Hi Jackiels - my older son is a second year student and absolutely loves Hampshire. He’s majoring in theater and has made friends who I believe will be lifelong friends there. So at least from his perspective, he’s not found it hard to make friends and really feels he’s found his place at Hampshire. we’ve visited several times and I can’t say that I’ve seen stoned students stumbling around. Everyone seems involved and Hampshire just exudes a vibrancy that’s hard to explain. One thing that helped my son make his decision was participating in an overnight visit where he attended a class and stayed in the dorm with a couple of students. It really gave him a good look at how it would be for him. If you have a chance to do that, I’d highly recommend it. Good luck with your decision! </p>
<p>Our son graduated from Hampshire in '10 and our daughter will graduate this May (!!!), so I’ve had the opportunity to have several frank conversations about substance use/abuse there. My impression is that, in comparison to other small liberal arts colleges, there is a higher frequency of drug use and a lower frequency of alcohol use. Having said that though, I do not think that you are going to find too many hung-over or strung-out students across campus; and I do not believe that you will find that everybody is just interested in getting high. Instead you are going to find a bunch of hard-working nerdy kids, some of whom participate in recreational drug/alcohol use after the day is done.</p>
<p>My kids found that it was quite easy to meet people and make friends. particularly in the dorms where virtually all 1st-year students reside. It may very well be that over the next couple of years, students tend to find like-minded friends to populate an on-campus apartment ‘mod’, at which point it might be harder to break into such groups.</p>
<p>In any event, I very much agree with BTMell, that the best thing to do is go on an overnight visit, preferably NOT during the fixed Accepted Students visitation days. That will be your best opportunity to experience Hampshire, warts and all.</p>
<p>I would also note that students have the option of selecting residences that are “sub-free”. Students living in these residences sign an agreement that they will not bring any ‘substances’ in, nor will they be ‘under the influence’ when present in the residence. There are other choices as well, including ‘study-intensive’, 'quiet, ‘vegetarian’, ‘LGBQT’, etc. Refer to Hampshire’s [Guide</a> to Housing](<a href=“http://www.hampshire.edu/housing/6267.htm]Guide”>Guide to Housing | Hampshire College) for more info on this.</p>