<p>Nothing new, but still hate to read it.</p>
<p>Be Happy you do not go to Binghamton…</p>
<p><a href=“Amid Hazing at Binghamton University, Cries for Help - The New York Times”>Amid Hazing at Binghamton University, Cries for Help - The New York Times;
<p>At least yours wasn’t on p 1</p>
<p>This is pretty awful.</p>
<p>Yeah, there’s a lot of drunk idiots here. No idea how they even got in.</p>
<p>why is it bad? the social scene is affected by technology. there is room for nostalgia, sure, but it makes sense that things will change.</p>
<p>or is it bad how the students made up their names? I think that is pretty comical.</p>
<p>Saugus - you really need to get past this idea you have that smart people spend all their time in books and dumb people party. Some of the biggest party schools you’ll find are among the most rigorous. UPenn, Dartmouth, Duke, and Yale are renowned for their party reputations.</p>
<p>That’s what my peer advisor said when I asked him about how all of these partiers got in. He said it’s their way of handling stress. </p>
<p>It’s just that in high school, most of the top students didn’t drink and the biggest partiers were all idiots, so I’m just conditioned to assume that it’s the same here. Besides, most of the engineers/hard sciences/pre-meds I know here don’t party and spend most of their time studying. I don’t spend nearly as much time as them studying, but my idea of “fun” is extra-curricular/intellectually related, not consuming massive amounts of poison.</p>
<p>Professor Katezenstein went on a ten minute rant about this article in class. He simply couldn’t understand why people do something so self-destructive. I can’t understand either.</p>
<p>How pervasive is this culture of drunkenness? Are there ways to avoid it or minimize its effect on one? My S is strongly considering applying ED and that story will put us back to square 1 if he reads it. It doesn’t make me too happy either.</p>
<p>^
I don’t drink at all and I know quite a few others, but we’re definitely the minority here.</p>
<p>So is it difficult being in the non drinking minority? S doesn’t drink either.</p>
<p>Not really, aside from the fact that there isn’t much to do at “parties” if you decide to go to one. Also, Collegetown is a slum filled with drunk people. </p>
<p>I have yet to see a themed party where people actually do something interesting. I’m kind of looking for things like birthday parties, not just people binge drinking to lousy rap music. I would definitely go to a party with actual activities and games.</p>
<p>I have extra-curricular activities, so it’s not particularly difficult for me. But I do wish more people were willing to take a trip to the Commons and do something culturally interesting. The people on my floor are either partiers or reclusive studiers.</p>
<p>MomofNEA—
As Saugus said, if your son doesn’t want to drink, he doesn’t have to. He will find other people who prefer not to drink as well, this is a large school and all types of people come here. Some like to party, some don’t. Facts of life.</p>
<p>That said, I think Saugus needs to realize that life in college is very different from life in high school. </p>
<p>For one thing, to say that there isn’t much to do at parties is kind of ridiculous. No there are not “activities and games” like when you’re parents plan your birthday parties. We are in college. You go to a party and you talk and you mingle and you meet new people and dance. Oh and scratch that, there are games. Yes, they’re drinking games, but I know several people who don’t drink and just play pong with their half of the cups filled with soda. I myself have done that, when I don’t feel like drinking…</p>
<p>Also, the traditional stereotypes of who drinks and who doesn’t and who parties and who doesn’t and who’s cool and who’s not that often relate to high school don’t necessarily apply in college, especially at Cornell. </p>
<p>Most people who go to this school worked hard to get here, i.e. a lot of people here probably didn’t party much in high school. But now they’re here, and they want to. There’s nothing wrong with that. A lot of it is because that barrier that used to exist in high school, where everyone who partied didn’t care about school, doesn’t exist anymore. Nearly everyone here wants to do well in school. The “partiers” you speak of just know how to manage their time the way that best fits their needs. One of my friends is in a frat, goes out every weekend, is pre-med, a double major, and has a 3.9. It can be done, if you want to do it. (Sleep is questionable)</p>
<p>There’s also totally nothing wrong with not wanting to party, but that’s just down to personality–like whether you feel the need to let loose/destress by going to a crazy dance party or you’re the type that’d rather do so by staying home and watching a movie. But I do have to point out that I know a good few people who don’t drink or didn’t drink freshman year but still went out and had fun and met new people.</p>
<p>From my experience, most people here like a combination of both (or at least realize they do after freshman year). I mean take me for instance. Last weekend, it was Homecoming. On Friday, I stayed in studio and worked all evening and then watched a movie. Saturday, I started my morning having mimosas with my friends, went tailgating, went to the game, went to a party, went to Avicii–I basically went all out and had a great time! Sunday, I went to the farmers market with my friends, went grocery shopping, and did some work. I think that’s a pretty balanced weekend…</p>
<p>p.s. I didn’t drink in high school either</p>
<p>I was in a frat in undergrad & bartended in a college town in the early 80’s when in grad school. One thing that really strikes me is the type of drinking done now as opposed to then. By far the drink of choice was draft beer. It was cheap. MUCH MUCH more drinking “shots” of hard alcohol now. By doing so their blood alcohol levels rise much faster & they are much less likely to “self regulate” their drinking. Cornell would have much less trouble with alcohol if they opened frat parties back up to the freshman, but stipulated only beer at parties there.</p>
<p>MomofNEA - Your son isn’t going to be in a minority for not drinking. I hardly drank and tons of students don’t drink or hardly ever drink, though don’t be surprised if his views change as he becomes an adult. Cornell is no different than any other work hard / party hard university or college like most are in the upper echelon. It would be a huge mistake to walk away from a school he wants to attend just because of that article. </p>
<p>Didn’t you go to college? Talk to people who went to college in the 1970s or 80s and you’ll see how tame drinking is these days compared to what they used to do in college. Just a lot more media and regulation around it today. </p>
<p>A lot of university presidents are fighting to get the legal drinking age dropped to 18 or 19 so that the drinking can be done in a regulated setting in public rather than hidden behind dorm room doors like happens today with the absurdly high age of 21 that Reagan forced on states in exchange for federal highway funding.</p>
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<p>There are a lot of other students who don’t drink here. It might be slightly more difficult to make friends if you don’t go to parties but that depends much more on how outgoing you are than whether or not you drink alcohol. That’s probably true for any school.</p>
<p>Thanks for the insights. It is a bit of an exaggeration on my part to say he’d totally walk away. It’s just that this decision still feels so tenuous. He hasn’t ‘fallen in love’ with Cornell but it is not bc of Cornell–he’s just not that type of kid. He’s not going to fall in love with any place based on a visit and some marketing materials. Anyway, what you all said is very sensible and balanced. You are right–his views may change–but right now he would rather smoke weed than drink or be around sloppy puking drunks. I drank in college but he is not me and I don’t know college culture anymore. I am glad to hear he will have company whatever he decides.</p>
<p>haha, in that case don’t worry at all—the weed culture here is just as relevant as at any other school. we are located in ithaca…the commons has wonderful restaurants, but they’re interspersed between the 5 headshops within that one block</p>
<p>however, weed, while arguably not as dangerous as alcohol medically/physically, is a LOT more dangerous in terms of restriction. If an RA suspects/smells weed in a dorm, they’re instructed to call the police instead of just writing the kids up on a JA like they would do if you got caught drinking. my floor freshmen year happened to be full of a bunch of guys who loved smoking, and actually bought a “floor vaporizer” to prevent the chances of getting caught (less of a smell). It worked all year, but towards the end they got careless, and during the last week of spring finals they got caught. Luckily, they didn’t have very much on them (they were finishing the last of it since they were leaving the next day), so they didn’t get in huge trouble, but it could have been really bad—police were on the scene. If I were you I would caution him on this.</p>
<p>Wow,
while I look down on the current binge drinking culture of girls in high heels puking in the corner, and loud and obnoxious guys doing same, I am shocked at anyone saying weed is less dangerous than alcohol.
Not in today’s world. MomofNEA - the weed of today is genetically stronger than the weed of 20/30 yrs ago. It is also laced with many many chemicals all of which contribute to mental deterioration.
I dont know how to link anything onto a post, but if you do research online you will find medical facts about today’s weed.</p>
<p>I’m going to ignore the errors in this study and post it anyway:</p>
<p>[Alcohol</a> more dangerous than heroin, study finds - Health - Addictions | NBC News](<a href=“http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39938704/ns/health-addictions/t/alcohol-more-dangerous-heroin-cocaine-study-finds/]Alcohol”>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39938704/ns/health-addictions/t/alcohol-more-dangerous-heroin-cocaine-study-finds/)</p>
<p>I haven’t even thoroughly read all the posts on this topic (I will), but I will say for now that people who tend to frequently go out are more focused on consuming alcohol than anything else.</p>
<p>Also, I find that people who incessantly look at their phones do so to avoid any interaction with strangers. Just try walking through this campus (or in Collegetown) on a typical day. The lack of friendliness on this campus is pretty appalling sometimes.</p>