Honestly, I do not know how much drug use is typical on a college campus today. I was not into it at the time, but I remember being amazed at the amount of drug use happening around me at Stanford (even after growing up with hippie mom, etc), especially with the wealthier kids. Is there less of this now?
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There is certainly some of it. It is not non existent.
I think it starts in the high school.
I am told about a third of our HS class has had alcohol.
Maybe some 15-20% have had weed in high school.
College numbers will be higher.
I donāt think my kids experimented with weed. I think there is occasional alcohol consumption ā maybe I am naive :-). I donāt think so.
Here is a senior survey from Princeton:
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Drug and alcohol use % definitely depends on the college. I am of the same mind as neela1: marijuana is a bad idea and is much more risky now than it ever was. Never have used myself and I know many many peers from back in the day (90s college) that never did either.
Interesting survey. I was especially intrigued by " Alcohol Consumption by Legacy Status."
Lots of weed and alcohol at Stanford, according to my kid whoās a sophomore. Easy enough to avoid if youāre not interested. ETA the first-year dorms had lots of kids transported to hospital for alcohol-related emergencies each weekend. The schoolās alcohol policy changed a few years ago and kids drink behind closed doors more often, which is also more dangerous since RAs are not able to monitor.
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My older two kids didnāt try alcohol or pot until college, but Iām not naive to the fact that it happens. Iāve told my kid, I f youāre going to smoke pot, get it from a dispensary. Do not ever take any kind of pill or anything else that could have fentanyl cut into it. Things are scary out there.
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I told my daughter something similar. Sheās going to Texas so I had to explain that pot is illegal there so if you want to smoke pot, wait until you get home because scary things are cut into illegal pot. I said the same thing about pills, if you want a pill for something weāll get you a prescription, otherwise donāt do it. And she went on birth control pills after speaking with her doctor, not because sheās currently sexually active but again, sheās going to school in Texas.
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Unfortunately this does happen even though we warn our kids. And my daughter says lots of cocaine. Donāt know if she really knows.
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āTheyā being: other waitlisted applicants!
JUST to clarify.
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No - I feel that Barnard actively encourages people to drop their need for aid by putting it right at the top of the wait list letter. One of the first sentences is instructions on how to change your financial aid status.
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I am big on common sense with D23. I told her in middle school - āAt some point, you are going to go to a sleep over and someone will want to sneak in alcohol. I want you to say that you will bring pizza, and I want you to eat! Donāt drink on an empty stomach, ever.ā
At this point, she says she does not drink or do drugs, does not like the way people act when they are drunk/high. And she is usually the person taking care of everyone so I tend to believe her.
With pot, I just say donāt vape and if you are going to smoke or eat a gummy, make sure you are with friends in case you do get disoriented or over your head. And then she tells me not to worry about it because she has no interest.
That could all change but I just hope she approaches drinking and drugs cautiously.
DH and I were pretty wild, we keep waiting for itā¦but sheās a much better behaved kid than we were.
Regarding the mattress topper conversation - my sophomore year my bed was so uncomfortable and at the end of the year I flipped the mattress and realized there was NO PADDING AT ALL. It had been ripped out. So it was just springs covered with fabric!
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What struck me about the results (though maybe struck isnāt the right word because I wasnāt all that surprised) was that higher usage was correlated to higher income.
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I found the differences by eating club to be the most interesting ā for various kinds of behavior.
Also, contrary to popular belief, there is some correlation between SAT scores and end of college GPA.
Isnāt it weird how many of us can say that we were pretty wild, but our children are not wild at all, or are even cautious? Itās a real change from Gen X to Gen Z.
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Gen Z and Gen X were raised very, very differently. I had literally no adult supervision at all. Not that itās equal across the board, but most of my friends had no supervision either. Latchkey kids raised by the āmeā generation, some of it is stereotypical, but thereās some truth there. My kids and their friends had very hands on parents, up in their business all the time. I do think there are cultural differences evident.
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Yes. Also interesting the stats vs legacy. The notion that mediocre students get in bc of legacy status is simply wrong. If anything, the bar is higher for these kids.
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We had no adult supervision and participated in SO much high-risk behavior. One of my best friends in HS had a fairly close relationship with her mom, she was the youngest of four and her mom was truly a confidante, but sheās the only one I can recall. While Iām not naive enough to think my kids tell me everything, I do know they share a lot with me. Itās rather remarkable, my relationship with my daughters is so much closer than my relationship with my own mother.
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Okay, I understand that someone has to have passed the āacademicā threshold, before legacy status can benefit between two otherwise equally strong applications.
But is there any data/announcement that legacy applications have to pass a higher academic threshold than non-academic? If so, I doubt that anyone ever would be applying with legacy status, if it served as a disadvantage?
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There is no way itās a disadvantage anywhere. But I agree that most legacy students who are admitted are probably well-qualified. At highly rejective schools, admissions is often a game of inches, and legacy can certainly help confer that.
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I was not saying it as fact but legacy students do have higher average scores than non-legacy students.
And yes, there are many that believe legacy can hurt you at some places given todays landscape. I am not sure Iād go that far, but I do think legacy have to be better than the average applicant to have a real shot at it these days. In that case legacy status will likely break a tie in their favor.