Where do kids enjoy themselves on weekends, but within reason, without too much binge drinking, drug use, etc. I’m a parent and I know this goes on everywhere, but where is it most or least dominant, on the CC Top Liberal Arts Colleges list?
Thanks
It would only be guessing. Whether your student overindulges is also independent of that.
You could search for “top party colleges” lists and just avoid them… Though I doubt you’ll get an actual answer here since that kinda information is only known to the actual current students and early grads…
Also, I highly doubt there’s a prestigious college in US where you can’t avoid those sorta activities.
I think the severity of binge drinking and the prevalence among undergrads (ie., percentage of those who do something else) as well as the college’s alternative offerings differ greatly.
It’s actually a very good question = Colleges where we KNOW most students drink AND do so more than elsewhere…
I’ll start:
Washington&Lee
DePauw
Sewanee
Thanks, all. I wasn’t really imagining that binge drinking could be avoided entirely, simply trying to determine if there were some schools worse than others, from among the CC Top LAC list.
But the ones above from @MYOS164 DO surprise me…though irrelevant to my purpose here…
High fraternity participation may have something to do with it.
None of the CC Top LACs have big greek scenes, so that’s not going to help
@donotworry (re post #6): "None of the CC Top LACs have big greek (sic) scenes . . . "
That’s simply untrue. For example, Washington and Lee is one of CC’s Top LACs and it has an exceptionally large percentage of fraternity initiates. Erroneous information hardly assists OPs.
The USNWR entry for each college shows the percentage of students who are members of fraternities and sororities. These numbers are shown in pie charts under the “Student Life” heading. The Common Data Set, section F1, also shows these percentages.
At W&L, 82% of men join fraternities and 82% of women join fraternities. These numbers are unusually high. I think donotworry would have been correct to say that many of the CC top LACs have only relatively small Greek scenes, or none at all.
Rural locations seem to correlate with higher levels of binge drinking as well, but as always there are exceptions to be found.
The best way to get a sense of the culture of any school is to visit. You can probably find binge drinkers at any school you attend and likewise you can avoid it at any school you attend/
I concur with @hudsonvalley51’s point about the link between rural isolation and heavy drinking. W&L and Sewanee fall into this category. Princeton Review recently placed Bates, Colgate, and Kenyon (cf. Bob Dylan’s oft-cited remark about there being nothing to do at Kenyon but go off into the woods and drink) into the “Lots of Beer” category; in addition, Colgate made the “Lots of Hard Liquor” list. Hamilton also has a reputation for heavy drinking.
Of course, you’ll find some binge drinking at most top LACs, often in conjunction with “jock” culture, but a remote location seems to up the ante.
I’m been exploring this topic as well. In general, here’s what I’ve noticed…and sorry that i don’t have strong data points propping this up…I would truly like a better window into this:
- Colleges in rural areas or colleges that take over a town, seem to have higher drinking.
- Colleges with disproportionate numbers of greek participants. My theory on this is that greek organizations have parties more consistently and have a stronger culture around drinking.
- Colleges with big 10/SEC/etc. sports scenes
- and then – this is the harder one to verify - but colleges where it’s tolerated…whether that be history or something else. But i don’t want to make too much of this because i can’t verify.
On that list, I’d say the women’s colleges (Mount Holyoke, Smith, Wellesley, Barnard and Bryn Mawr) are likely to be at the bottom of a drinking/drugs list. yes, it still goes on for sure, but not as badly as at other schools.
When I was at Colgate years ago, there was definitely a lot of drinking! As noted above, its in a very small town and there is little to do besides go to parties.
http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/niaaacollegematerials/panel01/highrisk_05.aspx describes characteristics associated with high drinking.
@tk21769 (re post #8): I agree with you; of course, the major problem is @donotworry (in post # 6) did not qulaify or limit his statement; rather he said “NONE of CC’s top LAC’s”. He was factually in error.
@SouthernHope - I don’t really agree with your second point #3 - let’s call it point #4. I don’t believe there is necessarily correlation between tolerance of drinking on campus and heavy drinking. Many schools with a heavy drinking culture have also cracked down and are not very tolerant of it - busts, fines, etc. It hasn’t proven very successful. I would argue that stricter no alcohol policies can make it worse. Kids wind up hiding it and pregaming in their dorm rooms which leads to more binge drinking. I’d much rather have my kids be in an atmosphere where they can openly drink some beer or wine socially chatting and hanging out with friends - even a cocktail or two - rather than locked in a dorm room with a handful of friends throwing back shot after shot to get drunk before heading out to that night’s adventures. The pregaming and covert drinking is what scares me. Having a more open policy also allows students to monitor each other.
@Doschicos i think that’s a really valid point…sometimes cracking down just means going underground…
one thing i was thinking about later…some colleges just have it easier than others…an NYU may simply have fewer issues than, say, an Ohio State…and the administration may have nothing to do with it…
For the NYU/Ohio State example, urban area with more things to do, no sports culture. I think student bodies can be self selecting to some extent. Some students want frats, sports, etc. and the drinking culture that comes with it. In my own kids’ high school graduating classes, I was seldom surprised by the choice of college and respective college social scenes made by their classmates.
Whenever I see threads like this, I’m inclined to suggest that the OP list colleges that he or she is considering, and then ask for input regarding them. There’s no point in going on about partying in northern New England, upstate New York, Minnesota, or Wisconsin, if the query is coming from a student or parent exclusively interested in warmer climes. If you aren’t interested in colleges affiliated with teetotaling religions, then it will be hard to avoid the partying altogether. I’ve found that some “hippie-ish” colleges are actually less party-intensive, because they have less Greek/jock culture, and are likelier to have health-conscious students. My younger son attends a college with under 1000 students, but they plan to have a “substance-free” housing unit next year.