<p>In other words people that go on to be rich and successful.</p>
<p>I canât recall the exact number, but a few years ago, Penn Stateâs report of its own surveyed binge drinking rate was the highest I had ever seen, somewhere up near 60% of the campus self-reported binge drinking in the prior two week. Penn State is exactly the reason that I recommend doing a little research for the schools of interest. </p>
<p>Donât think for a minute that this is a state university issue. Dartmouth has also self-reported high binge drinking rates. On its own surveys, the number of students who reported alcohol blackouts or urinating in public was stunning.</p>
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<p>The two screenwriterâs who wrote âAnimal Houseâ said that they based the movie on their undergraduate experiences at Dartmouth College.</p>
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<p>I believe Miniâs generalizations are fairly accurate. For a concerned student, I think the best course of action is to take a hard look and visit the individual colleges. Kids are pretty honest about which dorms are quiet, which dorms party, what campus culture is likeâŠnot too much honesty if a parent asks, but definitely if a âkidâ asks another kid. I would hazard a guess that even at Penn State there are dorms for freshman that are âlessâ party-hearty than others.</p>
<p>idadâŠthe more recent numbers from PSU range from 52-54% for binge drinking. Some of this is a result of a change in the question (from 5 drinks in one sitting to 5 drinks in 2 HOURS). About 7% of the students self report as heavy drinkers.
And for what itâs worth of the 160 arrests on State Pattyâs day - half of them were visitors or non penn state students. </p>
<p>For a parents and students looking at a school like this (and honestly I donât think PSU is much different from places like UTexas, or Mich State or even UWisc for that matter). Visit the school on a weekend. Many of these schools have a small college town and and the drunks are VERY visible in the wee hours of the morning. And they are loud. And they cause damage. On the flip side, there are quite a few serious studentsâŠyou just dontâ see them. Theyâre sleeping (or trying to sleep) or attending events. </p>
<p>IMO, PSU is getting a huge black eye as a result of recent incidents and the resulting press. Itâs embarrassing for the students who are serious about their studies. And embarrassing for the faculty, admin and the parents. I hope the administration can figure it outâŠbut right now their efforts to quell this activity seem to be having the opposite effectâŠmaking it more desirable. I guess thatâs not a surprise. </p>
<p>Honestly, Iâm happy that my s is graduating this spring! Heâs had a good experience as a involved student thereâŠwhich proves it can be doneâŠbut you really have to develop toleranceâŠand bring your ear plugs. Overall though, it seems to me that itâs easier to avoid the drunks and find your niche if you have more students to choose from. There are plenty non or light drinking students at PSU (per the survey - close to 50% which would equate to 20,000 students). At a SMALL school with a drinking problem, finding your niche might be more of a problem.</p>
<p>^^Agree with this. The large universities are diverse enough that kids can find their kind. Non-drinking kids exist at the smaller schools with big drinking culture also, but finding and clicking into those groups takes more effort simply because the mass is smaller. That said, there are many threads pointing to small colleges where drinking is not the most important aspect of the culture. In my broad stroke opinion, if there is âtalkâ about Wednesday or Thursday parties itâs a major drinking culture. If itâs a Friday night or Saturday night but not both activity itâs probably a lesser drinking culture. A good litmus test is doing weekend visits, if kids are in the library during the early hours of Friday nightâŠthatâs a good signâŠthey are getting work out of the way so they can chill later on Friday night and Saturday. Everyone needs to develop their âownâ measuring stick about what is or isnât acceptable. Also, if the college doesnât offer weekend overnightsâŠwellâŠthereâs probably a reason.</p>
<p>momofthreeâŠinteresting thought about the overnight stays on weekends. We wanted to arrange just that at Lehigh and were toldâŠâNo, we donât offer that option.â HmmmmâŠ</p>
<p>It occurs to me that one might also ask whether the more desirable activities on campus are associated with heavy drinking. For example, is the marching band known for heavy drinking? Sports teams? Other student groups? This might mean that while a particular student could find people who arenât drinking, that student might not be comfortable in some activities theyâd like to do.</p>
<p>^^yes, but I really believe the only ones that will get a straight answer are the kidsâŠasking other kidsâŠnot the parents asking administrators or even the parents asking other kids. As far as weekend visits, I have no concrete evidence except that with both boys the schools known for âheavierâ drinking party culture did not do weekend visits and had their admitted students days were on week days. The colleges that were not known heavy drinking schools (although obviously have parties) did have Friday/Saturday visits and weekend âadmitted students eventsâ so itâs just my observations and could be a false assumption.</p>
<p>toneranger: attended an all womenâs college down the road from Lehigh in the 80âs - BIG fraternity scene then - even had one closed due to a scandal - not sure how it is now.</p>
<p>The disadvantage of relying on anecdotal stories from students is the lack of perspective. Thereâs a high risk of encountering the âthree blind men describing an elephantâ syndrome. For example, my alma mater is a relatively high binge drinking school in the universe of top LACs. They have had serious problems with some semesters seeing 50 or 60 alcohol poisoning transports, two high schoolers on recruiting visits unconsicious in emergency rooms touch and go on whether they will live, board level discussions of âthe drinking problemâ, outside consultants, and ongoing friction between heavy drinking elements and the normal students. Ask any student and the answer youâll get is that drinking is no worse than anywhere else â an observation that is simply not true. The students arenât lying. They believe that heavy binge drinking is normal because thatâs what they know.</p>
<p>Imperfect though it may be, this is where a consistently collected national statistical measure is so valuable. There is a noticeable difference in the experiences of students at below-average binge drinking schools and students at above-average binge drinking schools even though both types of schools have some heavy binge drinkers, some binge drinkers, some light to moderate drinkers, and some non-drinkers. Itâs all in the proportions. Binge drinkers are so disruptive in their behavior that, once it approaches 50% of the student body, it starts to feel like the whole campus is a drunk tank to sober students.</p>
<p>Many students and their parents donât care one way or the other. Some want a heavy drinking school. Thatâs fine. Iâm only offering advice to those students who specifically want to avoid that kind of scene. They should take advantage of the hard work that all colleges put into collecting this binge drinking data. Push comes to shove, I believe that a deanâs office is required by law to provide the data if asked. IMO, if more prospective customers asked, colleges would take the issue more seriously. I do think itâs becoming an fairly widespread concern. Very few people want pay $50,000 a year to have some kid puking in the hall of their dorm or verbally abusing them when they walk thru the common room.</p>
<p>And I am not speaking from the perspective of someone who thinks college students ought to be teetotalers.</p>
<p>Any schools on the east coast that are lower in binge drinking stats?
Where exactly are you finding these stats (even self reported)?</p>
<p>Speaking to a parent fo 3 out of school, all now in the low to mid 20sâŠ
all of those students had sports as well as academicsâwhich kept their time pretty busyâŠand they were in scholls that were not rural. The students noted that when they were home for the holidays -their old hs friends who went to rural schoolsâspoke of little more than all of the alcohol soaked parties. Being in a sport and not so remoteâŠthey had freinds and outlets for fun beyond the drinking.</p>
<p>I donât think the urban/rural rules are that simple. I know a EMT at GW. He reports many trips to the ER on weekends. Lots of drinking going onâŠincluding a strong pre-graming tradition. It may not be as visible since GW doesnât have a confined campus and many kids head to bars across the cityâŠbut it IS a problem.
Iâve heard similar reports about Boston CollegeâŠbig party sceneâŠfar from rural.</p>
<p>Two high school seniors in the ER, touch and go?? I hope their hosts were expelled.</p>
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<p>Well, then, as long as they wind up making a lot of money one day (because thatâs what life is all about, of course), itâs perfectly cool if they vomit, urinate, and destroy other peopleâs property. You go, barrons! Woo-hoo! (Isnât that the stereotype of Madison anyway?)</p>
<p>Is there a central clearinghouse of college binge drinking stats? Itâs not coming up on a simple Google search. Thanks!</p>
<p>I donât know of a central clearinghouse but maybe somebody here does.
I find it effective to google particular schools with the binge drinking term. Hereâs GW for example:
[âScary</a>â Drinking Behavior Rises at GWU - washingtonpost.com](<a href=âhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/02/AR2008060202454.html]'Scaryâ>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/02/AR2008060202454.html)</p>
<p>So is the CORE study that I should be looking up? One of the colleges my dd is very interested has most students not even drinking 1 drink a week and 80% not binge drinking in the last few weeks. Now to go look this up for her other interests. I know that she absolutely doesnât want to go to a high drinking school. She doesnât care about it being totally alcohol free although she is-hates the stuff- but totally abhors drunken behavior.</p>
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<p>Both found unconcious by passerbys or security â one an stairsteps outside, one in an indoor stairwell in a dorm. Both had BACs over .40. Both on athletic recruiting visits hosted by teams, outside of the normal admissions office visit mechanism.</p>
<p>After the first incident the Athletic Director did not even institute the require to sign a no-drinking warning before the visit as the admissions office had added as part of their procedure. That was finally added to the athletic visit forms after the second hospitalization.</p>
<p>The Athletic Director is still there. Athletic visits are still operated totally independent from the admissions office system. Two decisions that I believe are wrong. As I say, whether a school is a heavy drinking school or a moderate drinking school is a function of its community culture â influenced by many factors including admissions practices that enroll more high-school bingers, community practices that encourage heavier drinking, etc. IMO, the most effective way to control binge drinking is a student body that sends a message that it is unacceptable behavior. That wonât stop it (we are, after all, talking about teenagers), but it makes a big difference.</p>
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<p>CORE is one of many major surveys colleges administer that includes some version of the binge drinking question.</p>
<p>The numbers you are citing are extremely low. According to the Harvard College Alcohol Studies, the national average for binge drinking once in the prior two weeks is 40% to 44%. Schools in the low 30% range are low binge drinking rate schools (most of the top womenâs colleges, Swarthmore, etc.) I havenât dug into it, but I suspect Harvard is in the 30% range. Intellectual type academics (i.e. like future PhDs), large diversity, and strong community service participation tend to correlate with lower binge drinking.</p>
<p>Most schools have about 30% or so who donât drink regularly.</p>
<p>So the school you are citing with 50% non-drinkers and 20% binge-drinking would probably be as dry as youâll find in the United States. Military or religious, Iâm guessing? Or non-residential.</p>