<p>I am not really asking about "liberal" or "conservative" college campuses. We can get that from college guidebooks. What strikes me is that either kind of school, so-called "liberal" or "conservative", can have lots of drinking and drugs.</p>
<p>This issue seems to go beyond the other obvious issue which can be measured, frats. At first it seemed common sense that schools with frats would have more drinking and drugs. Now I wonder if frats can be a good thing, because they move the hard-core partyers to their own separate space on campus?</p>
<p>Fundamentalist Christian colleges tend to be too conservative socially. Catholic colleges like the Jesuit colleges seem to have the same issues with alcohola nd substance abuse.</p>
<p>Yes, it is college and there will be drinking and drugs wherever. Yes, I am a parent so it is not ultimately up to me but to my kid to figure out how to respond in the situation.</p>
<p>Still, there are kids who will be miserable (or at least uncomfortable) in a setting where alcohol and substances dominate. </p>
<p>The women’s colleges, but perhaps your child is not eligible. Beyond that, it’s a matter of individual campus culture. On the whole, avoiding the most rural colleges is probably a smart move.</p>
<p>look at hillsdale college, it is for free thinkers. and while I am sure their is drinking and drugs there it is not like some of the rich liberal schools in the northeast full of spoiled children.</p>
<p>Look in to the more urban schools–while there is still a good amount of drinking/drugs, schools in cities offer a lot more to do, so that drinking is not the only activity to break the monotony on weekends.There are still going to be students who devote the whole weekend to drinking–but there are going to be a lot of students up to do other things as well.</p>
<p>Some schools are totally urban in character, like NYU and GW (both also known for their big party scenes; but also with a lot to do for those who don’t want to party–it just doesn’t get the same extravagant attention), but for a student who wants a more traditional campus with a quad, there are a lot of those schools out there too–for example, American University, Emory, University of Denver.</p>
<p>Lower drinking risks tend to be found at historically black schools, women’s colleges, schools with less or no fraternity and sorority presence, schools with less prominent athletics, substance-free dorms, dry campuses, commuter-heavy schools, large schools, schools in non-northeast regions, schools in urban or suburban (versus rural) locations.</p>
<p>I would look for schools with substance free/wellness living available for freshmen. And I agree that an urban school offers other options for social things to do other than drinking/drugs.</p>
<p>As an example, my S did not drink at all before he started college. He attended Fordham in NYC and lived in the substance free dorm for both his freshman and soph. years (caveat – some kids did drink even in while living the wellness dorm, but it was a much lower percentage than the school on the whole and it was easy to find others who didn’t drink at all). His last two years he lived with people he knew from the wellness dorms. There was plenty to keep him busy between friends, activities/clubs on campus and NYC. He eventually would go out for the occasional beer or have a drink with dinner but alcohol never played a large part in his social life there. For grad school he went to a midwest more rural school and he said that other than sports, the bar scene was the dominant social activity which was less to his liking.</p>
<p>My daughter chose Wellesley in part because she wanted to avoid a heavy drinking culture. It’s fine if some people do it, but there are plenty of kids who don’t want that to be the dominant culture. My son is interested in Gordon, a Christian college (not fundamentalist, though) for similar reasons. If you have a daughter, definitely check out the women’s colleges. For either gender, avoid schools like Williams, Middlebury, and Bowdoin, which are excellent, but are known for their intense partying.</p>
<p>This link says that 47.4% of college students in 2005 were heavy drinkers. By race or ethnicity, “The Core Institute reports that African American students were the least likely to be heavy drinkers on campus, with 23.3 percent of them drinking heavily in 2005, compared with 50.2 percent of white students, 49.3 percent of Latino students, 52.6 of American Indian students, and 33.7 percent of Asian and Pacific Islander students.” The report also notes that white students at HBUs drink significantly less than white students at other schools (although black students’ drinking is similar at HBUs and other schools).</p>
<p>I will give that “study” as much credence as I gave the tobacco executives who testified before congress that smoking is not addictive. when it comes to non scientific “studies” tell me who wrote it/published it and I will tell you the results without reading it.</p>
<p>I suggest you focus more on the other attributes you desire in a college (size, academics, whatever). Most colleges have substance-free housing options, and if your S is in a substance-free dorm he will naturally meet other students who eschew the party lifestyle.</p>
<p>I do think you need to focus on your other criteria first. It is impossible to find schools that will meet all of your criteria and have little alcohol/drug use. It happens almost everywhere.
I agree that urban schools have an advantage over rural ones. And the school should be big enough so that you can easily find like-minded people.
Also search for other threads in here, as this subject comes up a lot.</p>
<p>Well zobroward, it’s the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention. Not sure who would be better able to present such a paper (references carefully listed at the end of the actual article) . But believe whatever you want to.</p>
<p>Shouldn’t be all that surprising. A (likely) large part of the binge drinking on college campuses is related to disposable income. If you can’t afford to buy it, you can’t drink it. If you are in a work study program, you ain’t drinking.</p>
<p>And since HBCU’s have a lot of low income students, many of which are working part-time to pay the bills…</p>