So I’ve never really heard about this before, but reading up on this forums site, I’ve started to see a lot of people mention the large drinking/partying reputation of Ohio. While I personally think that the college would be a great fit for me, I have absolutely no interest in any sort of drinking or partying, and it seems as if every parent on this thread who says their child had a good time at Ohio also said that they were into that sort of stuff in one way or another. My question is, as an accepted High School senior, will a more nerdy and studious guy like me be a total outcast on the campus if I don’t want to get involved with partying at all?
My sense is that OU is place that you are who you are. If you’re inclined to party it will be easy to find a place but there will be no pressure to participate and plenty to do otherwise. They have substance free dorms (not only is alcohol not allowed but neither is obvious intoxication), and honors dorms. The reputation largely emanates from a few large parties, Holloween, Homecoming, and Palmerfest all of which attract a lot of outside participants. You can easily avoid these events by simply not participating and frankly most do. Most of the time the campus is much like any other with those inclined to party doing so and the rest not. The things which seem to be common of schools with a “party school” reputation are
- Location - the smaller the community and the greater the influence of the campus to the area then the higher the party reputation. OU is definitely a small to midsize do college town. I think part of it is the ease of being able to walk to a place where one can party. Most students don't have access to cars. Many college towns have restaurants, bars, etc. within easy access to campus. More urban schools can make access more challenging.
- Residential vs. Commuter campus - a heavily residential campus lends itself to being labelled a party school. Commuter campus less so. OU is a residential campus.
- Greek life - the greater the influence of fraternities and sororities on campus the more likely the school will have the reputation as a party school. OU while having a Greek presence is not what I would call a strongly Greek campus. The frat/sororities on campus don't seem to be as pretentious as on other campuses and the attitudes between those who are Greek and those who aren't seem to be kind of laisez faire.
College life in general can lend itself to some on campus being irresponsible and the students at OU are no exception, however, I also don’t think they are in anyway exceptional in this regard either.