<p>Since substance-free housing areas usually cover an entire floor, I was just wondering how different the people/lifestyle are in substance-free vs. normal dorms. Obviously, I know what substance-free means, but I'm wondering about how social people tend to be.</p>
<p>I'm asking because I would prefer not to have a constantly drunk/drugged-up roommate, but at the same time I don't have a problem with drinking socially/on occasion. I don't want substance-free selection to mean that the entire floor will be super conservative in this aspect or entirely focused on being "studious," as the WashU website describes the community.</p>
<p>Wow, you’re such a n00b.
Don’t have a huge stick up your ass.</p>
<p>Sunny i love you toooooooooooooooooooo.</p>
<p>I think you’re going to be okay with signing up for a regular dorm. Because majority of the students care about academics at WashU, I doubt that there is a huge amount of students that drink or do drugs excessively.</p>
<p>I know plenty of people in substance-free housing who are all very social. You can probably find some antisocial people in sub-free, but you’ll be able to find those kinds of people in regular dorms as well.</p>
<p>In general, people who choose sub-free are perfectly normal. They just have no interest in drinking because they feel it’s not necessary in order to have a good time, which is respectable.</p>
<p>Thanks for your answer! I’m just wondering–what are people’s general views about attending events where they may be alcohol? Personally, I won’t be drinking, but I have no problems with attending parties where there is alcohol. I just don’t want to feel like, if I live in substance-free, that I’ll be offending anyone/looked down upon by doing so.</p>
<p>Lighten up.</p>
<p>People who don’t know you obviously won’t know you’re sub-free, and your friends wouldn’t be your friends unless they accepted your decision not to drink.</p>
<p>I don’t drink. I have friends who don’t drink and friends who do drink. They don’t treat me differently. It’s a choice that many people make and there’s nothing wrong with that.</p>
<p>This is real life. It’s not a movie and it’s not a public service announcement for DARE. If someone offers you a beer, say no and they’ll be fine with that.</p>
<p>Well I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t violating the substance-free contract by attending events with alcohol…thanks…</p>
<p>From the way that you’re approaching the issue of alcohol, I feel like you’d be the kind of person to prefer a regular floor instead of substance free. While you can always find social people on a substance free floor and antisocial people floor on a “regular” floor, it’s pretty obvious which type of people tend to gravitate toward which type of floor. As a general rule (again, there’s always exceptions), you’ll probably find that people on a substance-free floor tend to avoid events with alcohol.</p>
<p>The contract says you can’t possess alcohol on a sub-free floor, but that’s it.</p>
<p>If you wanted to, e.g. your parents made you sign up for sub-free against your will, you could go up/down a single flight of stairs and get absolutely hammered.</p>
<p>Yeah, I think the regular floors are probably going to be fine, my main issue was just avoiding someone who was going to get hammered/high every single night haha. Thanks!</p>
<p>My impression has been that drugs aren’t too easy to come by. I mean, I’m sure they are if you’re interested in that kind of thing, but otherwise you’re probably pretty safe. RAs don’t care about alcohol, but drug offenses are a serious issue and I think they have to be reported.</p>
<p>Anyone smart enough to get in to Wash U will try to get decent grades, which means they won’t get drunk on weekdays. So I don’t think you have much to worry about. But you may find yourself having to repeatedly babysit a drunk roommate.</p>
<p>I know people on sub-free floors that drink as much, if not more, than any one else does. They’re just not <em>supposed</em> to have alcohol on the floor; they of course can drink off the floor, if that’s their decision, as long as they don’t come back causing a racket: the practical point of sub-free floors is to create a more quiet and study-conducive environment to come home to, but which can be just as social, though generally not as rowdy. Note that a lot of people in sub-free are there not out of choice. The chances that you’ll get a frequently drunk roommate, is probably only slightly less for sub-free: the vast majority of people know how to balance their social, academic, and extracurricular lives (it’s WashU afterall). That being said, people do get pretty drunk sometimes, but IMO taking care of drunk people can be a good floor bonding experience/pretty funny, depending on how close your floor is.</p>
<p>There are plenty of people on regular floors that decide not to drink, and are perfectly social creatures, and well respected and liked. People at Wash U respect other people’s choices well. There are plenty of social things to do that don’t involved drinking.</p>
<p>
Everything else you said was very insightful, but I’m sorry. That is just not true at all. Even people on sub-free floors who drink tend to do it quite infrequently since it’s such an inconvenience.</p>
<p>regular vs sub-free floors ≠ social vs anti social
regular vs sub-free floors ≠ fun vs studious
regular vs sub-free floors ≠ drunk vs sober</p>
<p>regular vs sub-free floors does = less strict requirements about alcohol in dorm rooms vs. students may not have alcohol in dorm rooms at any time</p>