<p>How easy is it to hide these things at college? Or is there absolutely no need for attempting to "hide" them since pretty much everyone seems to do it? Does it depend entirely on each college - like whether it's dry, religiously-affiliated, or strict? I mean, it's still technically illegal to drink for underage kids, so how does that stuff all work out? Like, is it safe to keep stuff in your room and no one's gonna do room checks or anything, right? (I kind of wanna know these things based on small LAC perspective)</p>
<p>Well I don't go to a small LAC, but unless you're a complete idiot and leave the stuff lying around, you shouldn't get caught. An RA won't go in and search your room unless you give them a reason to do so.</p>
<p>I actually spoke with my past RA this year, and he told me that he would only go and bust someone if they were BLATANTLY obvious about it. So as long as you're not too loud when drinking (if you decide to do so in the dorms), or smoke out in your own room, you should be fine.</p>
<p>Let me simply say that most RAs want their residents to like them. And well, my RA was saying something along those lines herself and how she doesn't want to be the one catching people...and being hated.</p>
<p>They don't go through and search through your stuff. Health and safety checks are just simple eyeball checks that take like 20 seconds.</p>
<p>Unless you leave stuff lying out in plain view you're not likely to get caught. The RAs here aren't allowed to go into people's closets or mini-fridges looking for things. Also don't have huge alcohol/drug-related things in your room like posters, etc. that will make them suspicious that you might have that kind of stuff either (cause then they will try their darnedest to find something you might have accidentally left out, like a beer can in the trash, or something).
My RA's attitude was "You're all grown ass men and grown ass women. I'm not your daddy, so don't expect me to be. I'm not trying to get you in trouble; just act like a f---ing adult and we'll be okay."
I wouldn't recommend actually smoking a bowl or anything in the dorms though. A kid got arrested and kicked out of housing my sophomore year for smoking in the basement. If you're gonna smoke do it off campus. But for alcohol, you should be fine unless you are staggeringly drunk all the time.</p>
<p>It does, as the OP suggested, vary by school. Highly religious ones, the type with visitation hours and dress codes, will deal extremely harshly with this. Other schools, especially higher ranking private schools, will more or less turn a blind eye. In some cases, the school even winds up funding student drinking (see Claremont McKenna). Of course, it should be noted that I'm speaking about alcohol here. Even at more open-minded schools, pot can often cause serious problems if you're caught with it, as certainly can harder drugs. There are certain places on campus you're less likely to be caught, but it still isn't wise. Best to make friends with somebody that has an off campus apartment.</p>
<p>just keep alcohol in your fridge & weed in a drawer..even if the RAs do random room checks, they won't be allowed to open your fridge or dresser or anything. only if they see a case of beer sitting in the middle of your floor would they be able to do anything.</p>
<p>I go to a small LAC that is loosely religiously affiliated. Our RA's really don't care what you do because no one wants to be the uncool RA that busts everyone. The RA for the floor below me started out very strict, and quickly figured out that everyone was going to hate her guts if she kept up that way, so she loosened up a bit. But she's definitely the exception to the rule. On my campus, they're only going to write you up if you are walking around in the hall carrying a beer can and flaunting how you're drinking. If you have a drink in a Solo cup, no one can do anything about it, only if it explicitly says it's alcohol on the container. The provost even told some other students and me this. Of course, you don't want to be all like, "Look at this beer I have in a Solo cup, you can't catch me, hahaha!" This year my roommate is 21 so we're allowed to have alcohol in our room, and it's just assumed to be hers. Last year I lived with a freshman like me, and no one ever searched our room or anything. Just don't be stupid about it. We have on campus parties at the fraternity houses, and our campus police walk around and just watch everyone drink. They're only there to make sure everybody gets back to their rooms ok, doesn't die of alcohol poisoning, and doesn't kill each other in a fight. Some kids I know will call campus police to drive them out to the houses because they're already too intoxicated to drive, and the police don't care at all. However, the town's police sets up roadblocks once a semester to catch people, but as long as you don't have an open container, they don't really do anything either.</p>
<p>As for meds, I don't think anyone would care because they could just be your daily prescriptions for all they know. I wouldn't advocate using them, but if you must, just keep them hidden in a drawer. Same thing with pot. Pot is riskier, since it's illegal, but some kids at my school do it all the time, both in on campus apartments and dorms (everyone is required to live on campus). Our unspoken/unwritten policy is something along the lines of: Don't be stupid, don't get caught.</p>
<p>Make sure your roommate is ok with you having all these things, by the way. If not, he/she may turn you in because he/she could get in trouble along with you because schools usually equally fault both roommates. Some people don't enjoy living in a cloud of pot smoke with someone who's drunk/high all the time. If you don't make sure out of common courtesy, because you should be respectful of your roommate, at least make sure they're ok with it so you don't risk getting caught.</p>
<p>You should be fine.
R.A.s act like it's a big deal and will try to scare you into believing you can't ever come back to your dorm drunk etc. But me and my friends pregame in our dorms, stumble down the hall, rip down signs in our hall, etc and we never have gotten in trouble. R.A.s have their own life and getting kids in trouble takes too much time and effort on their own part.</p>
<p>haha, if you call it pot (unless you're over 40), you don't smoke it, thus don't have to worry</p>
<p>Haha, yeah. I don't remember the last time I heard someone call it pot.</p>
<p>No, I don't smoke "pot." You guys were right!!</p>
<p>But I do deal meds and white powdery snowy things are extremely important to me. I'm obviously still at high school and CC is the best place to ask questions like these for newbies like me- love it. Thanks everyone so much for answering my question!!!</p>