@Dimnarion As I mentioned above, I understand that partying will be a component of college life. I’m just looking for schools that are known for having a less prevalent party culture. I don’t mind parties; I’m just not interested. I’d like to go somewhere with a significant amount of students focus on academics and extracurriculars.
I went to a women’s college that was a great party school. Why would women’s colleges be less likely to be party schools?
Also, substance-free/wellness =/= no parties. You can, indeed, party without drugs and alcohol in college. I used to advise a substance-free student interest community when I worked in res life; many of the students in that group partied. Some of them even drank. They just didn’t drink or do drugs in the living space. I went to college on a dry campus that was still a pretty party-oriented culture; we just partied off-campus.
Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Appalachian State, Berkeley, UCLA, Colorado State, East Carolina, Georgia Tech, Rice, UTEP, Wake Forest, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Georgetown, Fordham, Furman, West Point, URichmond, Vanderbilt, the Air Force Academy?
It’s more about culture than individual characteristics.
Have you checked the net price calculators on some of these schools to see if their definition of “need” is sufficient for you to get the financial aid you need? Also, some of these schools are considerably better or worse than others.
For safeties, you may have to look at automatic-for-stats merit scholarships, since most of the good financial aid schools are selective enough not to be safeties for anyone.
I also went to a women’s college (a Catholic one) and there was still plenty of partying. Boys visited from other schools. The drinking age was 18 back then, so maybe the law helped and times have changed?
Often the demonstrated financial need is more than parents are willing or able to pay.
It’s too bad you are only applying to meets need schools, because I was going to suggest BU. Definitely not a party school (but those who wish to attend parties can find them–often at MIT!). If you have strong stats/an attractive profile you can apply to see if you get merit (they preferentially package), but they’re not a meets need school.
But there are more schools out there that are similar. This isn’t foolproof, but generally: look for schools that don’t have a major sport culture, especially and particularly football. Look for schools, especially in the Northeast, with little to no Greek life. Or, at the least, no Greek housing on campus. Look for schools known for quirky/intellectual/academic students while taking into account the sport/Greek angle. And then cross-check everything on the Internet… MIT doesn’t have football, but they have a party culture (though not on the level of some Party Schools!). Every school is different.
Colleges have huge numbers of single young people between the ages of 18-22…partying is what they do …at least on weekends.
25
The Engineers play a ten game schedule in the NEFC.
^ Live and learn. I lived in the greater Boston area and didn’t know that.
They(MIT) actually went 10-0 in 2014. You can watch or listen to their games on Saturdays…usually around 12:00 noon. They play schools like WPI and RPI.
Ah yes, the powerhouses in Football. :)) And this is totally in gest. A friend was the VB coach when I was in MA.
MIT is a powerhouse in most Division 3 sports, actually. Of course, they are a lot larger than many of LACs they are playing against.
UNC Chapel hill ??
‘I’m only considering schools that promise to meet 100% of demonstrated financial need. My parents can help me with a few thousand, but I will need a significant amount of aid.’ As ucb wrote, check out the NPCs.
I was being half-serious, half-stupid with the gibe about the football-obsessed schools. There will be plenty of serious students there, and at any school there will be a lot of students who party every weekend. Still there are different school cultures and proudterrier captures it well with a rec for schools with ‘quirky/intellectual/academic students.’
So for @greenteen17, what about schools in Northeast that can give merit to students in the 2040 SAT range (with 790 reading and 640 math, that’s 1430 out of 1600 on old and still absolutely valid SAT) that give good merit? Juniata? Kalamazoo or Beloit, if you consider the Midwest? Greenteen17, look for schools where you will be above the 75% mark for SAT. Apply to 5 or 10 of them, so that you can compare fin aid.
@mom2collegekids Maybe I’m being too optimistic, but there should be places with a sizable amount of students that don’t like partying. I understand that many young people enjoy partying, but there are those that don’t. For example, many of my friends are introverts and don’t like large crowds. I was wondering if there are specific schools that those types go to.
Bard is known as “the dinner party school”. Maybe a better scene for you? There is likely to be alcohol (and weed) on most campuses. Look for ones that offer activities that can be enjoyed sober.
Partying will be less prevalent at schools which are more heavily commuter schools. Urban schools often have less partying than college towns. Partying is more apt to be an issue at schools with a large and very active Greek presence than those with less. I agree with other posters that when you get a large group of 18-22 year olds together a subset of them will party. I doubt you will eliminate it anywhere.
Both of my kids attend big public state flagships. D1 reported a relatively peaceful dorm that housed a lot international students and engineering students. D2 reports a relatively peaceful dorm that houses the Honors College kids.
Just my opinion, but I think having peaceful housing goes a long way to make a non-partier feel comfortable. You can always go out and find the party, but it is much harder to get the party out of your room/your floor/your dorm.
At a large enough school and in a large enough town, there will always be something to do that does not involve partying, despite the school’s overall reputation.
I would describe myself as introverted. Many years ago, I started out at a small LAC in a rural setting. I thought it was an ideal match. As it turned out, it didn’t take long for me to feel suffocated. The cool kids partied on the weekends, and there just wasn’t enough people at the school for me to feel like there were a ton of other good options. There was nothing to do in town. The social scene definitely revolved around campus activities and Greek parties. Once friend groups formed at this small LAC, it wasn’t always easy to break in to another group. I did luck out in that my roommate was very chill, a serious student, and did not party. I felt our room was a safe haven to recharge.
I ended up doing an off-campus program and was a visiting student at a large public university for a full calendar year. I loved it. Wild horses could not have dragged me to that “party school” when I was looking at colleges in HS. I ended up loving getting lost in the crowd, not having everyone know me, meeting lots of new people when I felt like reaching out. I had no problem making friends, and felt no pressure to party. There was so much to do on campus, and opportunities to work off-campus (which I also loved and proved valuable).
This is not a knock against LACs. It’s just interesting to me how SURE I was of my inital choice, and how it turned out much differently than I had anticipated. Stay open and flexible is the life advice I give my kids.
LACs without Greek life are more likely to offer something else to do.
Ask about weekend programming: what is there to do for people who are sober?
I’d recommend the Claremonts - lots of activities since together they have 5,000 undergraduates, but five very different colleges (avoid McKenna).
1 Like
For what it is worth:
In 2011, Tufts made Playboy Magazine’s list of worst party schools.
There was much debate on campus as to whether this was an honor or dubious distinction as well as as to whether the outcome was the result of a lack of frequency of parties or the result of the parties not meeting Playboy’s lofty standards.
To the best of my knowledge, the debate was never resolved…