<p>Ok, so a lot of which colleges I heavily pursue/which I stay away from hangs on one question.</p>
<p>Among HYPS-MC, UC Berkeley, UCLA, and Georgetown, which has the least alcohol and drugs? Or at which school can I most easily insulate myself from them?</p>
<p>I have a moral aversion to both and refuse to participate in a social culture that revolves around either. Not only do I not like them, I don't even like being near them. So I guess what I'm asking which school has the worst party scene.</p>
<p>And no. I'm not Mormon and I won't go to Brigham Young.</p>
<p>Uh, as a resident of the UAE, I can tell you that you’d be surprised at how “conservative” most college students are here. College students are college students wherever they go. Fail.</p>
<p>To the OP: Wherever you go, there’s going to be a party scene. That doesn’t mean you can’t go to the college. I know plenty of people who didn’t drink/smoke for various reasons, went to “party” schools, but were still fine. They just found a group of people who weren’t into that stuff either.</p>
<p>christiansoldier - If you are going to live up to your username, you’ll need to live in the same world with others who have differing values, and you’ll need to be able to maintain your values among them. I’d suggest that you evaluate colleges on their other merits and find a niche among them - there are people who share your values on every campus.</p>
<p>But if for fun you want an answer to your question that’s based on student surveys, go to PrincetonReview.com and look at the profiles of schools it’s got what its survey says are the most and least partying schools ranked.</p>
<p>Generally speaking, the research shows that higher rates of binge/heavy drinking on campuses is associated with the following characteristics: rural (non-urban); private; higher percentages of white students (fewer Asian, Hispanic, and African-American minorities); coed; non-religious affiliated; student body wealthier than average; fraternities/sororities; heavy in spectator sports; few older students.</p>
<p>If you find a school with 8-9 of these characteristics, it is virtually a certainty (in my professional experience) that the school will have higher than average alcohol/drug use (and, yes, they go to together); it is possible, but much less likely, that schools with fewer of these characteristics will be above the average. Binge drinking on the average U.S. campus is 44% in the past two weeks. But a 10% variation in either direction can make a real difference in the way a campus feels.</p>
<p>(Based upon these characteristics, but without seeing the data, I feel relatively confident in suggesting that UCLA and UCB will have lower rates, because of the high percentage of minorities, very high number of Pell grantees (i.e. students with low incomes), urban locations, and significant numbers of older students.)</p>
<p>As much as I would like to see you go to Berkeley (haha), if “m” is for MIT then go there. But I completely agree with gadad, I have an aversion to intolerance and self righteousness.</p>
<p>^^^ . . . but bear in mind that many of the residents in substance-free dorms are there at their parents’ insistence, not necessarily of their own volition.</p>
<p>OP, I respect you for asking the question, and I don’t think it’s a trivial one. There’s going to be some partying at any of the schools you mention. On the other hand, none of the schools you list is known as a “party school.” Most students are going to work pretty hard and while they may occasionally blow off steam with a party (and/or small-group alcohol and/or drug use), the social scene isn’t going to be dominated by that sort of activity. Also, these are schools with little or no Greek influence, which in my experience tends to be correlated with partying and alcohol and drug use. My guess is of the nine schools you specifically mention, Georgetown might be the most party-oriented, though I have no real basis for saying that other than that when I lived in DC it seemed I’d often run into hard-partying bands of Georgetown students on weekends. </p>
<p>But frankly, I don’t think your experience as a student would be all that different at any of these schools. Parties will happen, you will encounter them but they won’t dominate your world, and you can easily avoid them in favor of other activities if you so choose—and you’ll find plenty of like-minded people to enjoy other activities with. So just go forward confident in the strength of your own convictions, focus on how you live out your own values in your own life, and try to avoid being judgmental about others who don’t share your convictions on these particular questions, with respect to which in our pluralistic society there’s plenty of room for people to hold a variety of views and make a variety of personal choices.</p>
<p>Underage drinking and Drug usage may be illegal and a bit amoral , but the laws that keep these victimless “crimes” criminal are even more immoral.</p>
<p>I’d also agree with the UCs, they have a lot of commuters, many students who work and you can easily avoid the part of the student body that is living the more traditional, alcohol fueled, college lifestyle.</p>
<p>In the commencement address given by the President of my son’s college, he pointed out that in every single death of a student he has had to face in his years as President, alcohol was involved. Tens of thousands of lives are lost in this country every year in automobile accidents involving alcohol or drugs. Not too long ago a colleague of mine buried his son, who was out on a date - after surviving combat in Iraq - when his car was rear-ended at high speed by a drunk driver. The perpetrator was a repeat offender who had been let off lightly.</p>
<p>These are the physical victims. Then there are the countless psychological victims who grow up in families, even whole neighborhoods, ruined by alcoholism and drug abuse.</p>
<p>You don’t have to be a religious conservative to believe substance abuse is out of control in this country or to want something else to be the center of one’s social life.</p>
<p>IIRC, the OP has a perfect SAT score/a host of other impressive stats.</p>
<p>(Just a note for anyone suggesting in the future some “lesser” schools, even if they don’t have a prevalent drug/alcohol scene like the OP is apparently looking for)</p>
<p>^ I hope that doesn’t sound too presumptuous</p>
<p>Based on OP’s stats (woah!) and what he’s looking for, I would suggest Caltech. Amazing academics, and the kids are too busy with work to even think about drugs/partying/alcohol. Maybe UChicago also. MIT would be a good possible choice for him but it is known for some partying.</p>