If you want to be with people who like to have fun but don’t need alcohol to do that, how hard is that to find at Stanford? Does anyone have guesses (or actual knowledge) about the proportion of the undergraduate student body that doesn’t drink, or drinks only in moderation? Or do students who don’t drink just need to be prepared to deal with drunk classmates on the weekends?
No idea. But typically the number of kids who say they will never drink again goes up significantly Saturday and Sunday mornings. Usually lasts 2-3 days.
A decent number of students don’t drink at all or don’t drink often - however, like most universities, I would estimate the majority drink at least a few times a month. On any given weekend, maybe 50% of students are drinking on a Saturday night - although that’s just a guess. Other students are studying, going out, watching movies, etc. If you aren’t interested in drinking you will be able to find like-minded peers.
Greek Life is relatively small (~30% last I heard) and after freshman year if having drunk classmates bothers you a lot you can opt for substance-free on campus housing.
Cardinal Nights are non-alcohol activities/outings on weekend nights that the school puts on to offer non-drinking alternatives. These can be pretty fun events (laser tag, painting nights, movie premiers, bowling, trips to San Francisco) and are either free or heavily subsidized. Even people who would otherwise be at parties may opt to attend these instead because they can be such fun, which is good since it removes potential for a negative stigma.
You’ll find like-minded people, anywhere you go, and nobody will pressure you to drink at any rate. I was a nondrinker at Williams and it never mattered. Some of my friends did not drink and some did. If they were drinking at a big party like Homecoming and I was not, none of us cared about the others’ choices; we just accepted them. And I did not go to parties every weekend-- just once in a while, at least after the first month or two of freshman year. I hung out with friends in my dorm or at other campus events and just had fun.
My kid doesn’t drink alcohol at all and doesn’t plan to. I told him to drink fake alcohol to look cool though.
There are plenty of nondrinkers, though many students (but definitely not all) experiment in their freshman year. A lot of students, especially in engineering fields, are too busy to drink. There are certainly enough nondrinkers/rare drinkers to keep Cardinal Nights going strong. If you want exact data, try contacting them: https://alcohol.stanford.edu/cardinal-nights