<p>What is there to do if you don't want to hang out at frat parties?</p>
<p>Plenty of things. Colgate’s scene isn’t all that different from LACs in similar settings. Student organizations put on events. There are free movie nights. People do chill with friends in their room and watch DVDs. Not all that different from say… weekend nights in HS.</p>
<p>this is my daughter’s big concern also. i hope there is more to do then just movies.</p>
<p>To be honest, there is not much to do at Colgate once the sun goes down besides the frat scene or the bars. Plenty of kids know this going in and that is why they choose Colgate. </p>
<p>But I have also seen plenty of others who were unaware or dismissed it as a false stereotype and ended up frustrated. There are only so many movies and board game nights one person can go to before they get tired of it. </p>
<p>To pickle and minoafrau, if your kids would be unhappy in such an atmosphere they should go somewhere else. It may not be what they want to hear, frank advise often is not, but it might be some of the most helpful they receive when trying to select a school.</p>
<p>I’d have to disagree. Having spent 4 years at Colgate without attending a single frat party or ever going to the Jug, I was just fine, and I wasn’t… sub-free, shall we say (though my idea of a good time doesn’t require alcohol, either). Between several different free movies on campus each weekend, the movie theater, concerts, and just hanging out with friends, I had plenty to do. Yeah some weekends could be boring, but I live in New York City now and still have boring weekends.</p>
<p>I think it has to do with your particular group of friends. If they all really really really want to go to a frat party and you don’t… then yeah, not much choice. But none of my friends ever wanted to do that. There are people like that at Colgate, they’re just not necessarily the majority.</p>
<p>I have spent a lot of time on campus since my graduation many years ago including 2 weeks this month. As far as how students keep busy I can suggest you look closely at the colgate.edu site. There is so much engagement among students, with faculty and staff and the folks in the town of Hamilton that you may well wonder how they also manage to study!</p>
<p>Colgate is indeed an active and vibrant community.</p>
<p>I would say that spending 4 years at Colgate without ever going to the jug or a frat party is certainly not the norm. While I don’t doubt that you and a close knit group of friends enjoyed their time there, I can think of multiple examples of students from freshman year who felt like they did not fit in because they were not big partiers and as a result chose to transfer. Are there exceptions? Of course. There are exceptions at every school. I am sure at BYU you could find a pot head if you knew where to look. At its core, Colgate is a party school made up of like-minded individuals. </p>
<p>While there is a good amount of clubs and programming for a school of its size, the fact is that not being an active member the party scene leaves you with limited options in the evenings. </p>
<p>IMHO if someone is concerned about there being not much to do beyond drinking then Colgate, in more cases than not, is not somewhere they should attend. Like I said before, and no one has really seemed to refute, once the sun goes down at Colgate if you are not going to parties you are not going to have a lot of people to hang out with.</p>
<p>I never said it was the norm; it’s definitely not the majority. It’s just not quite as rare as many might have thought. For some people, the party scene is the entirety of their social experience at Colgate, so to them it seems like the only possible experience. And it’s not that I didn’t go to parties at all - I did - they just weren’t beer soaked fratty hook-up parties. There was no peer pressure to drink whatsoever. Plus if someone REALLY doesn’t want to participate in that at all, there’s always sub-free communities.</p>
<p>Because it’s not the norm, you might have to try a bit harder to find it, but it is there. You just have to take the initiative to find your niche. Not everyone needs alcohol to have a good time - some people are perfectly happy just sitting around watching a movie with friends.</p>
<p>We can both agree then that the social life at Colgate for non-partiers is restricted.</p>
<p>I found there was plenty to keep students busy, even if you don’t want to participate in the party scene. It’s restricted in the sense that they don’t want to participate in any and all aspects of social life, but not in the sense that there’s nothing to do.</p>
<p>I have yet to have a sip of alcohol, step inside a frat or the jug at Colgate and I’m really happy here. </p>
<p>You just have to find your niche, but once you do, there’s plenty to do and you can figure something out. I HIGHLY recommend requesting sub-free, that just makes it easier to find people. I’m still really close friends with people I lived sub-free with. I found it ridiculously easy to make drinking as big or little a part of my social life as I wanted to. </p>
<p>You are going to run into people who judge you for not drinking, but I had friends and I was happy, so it never bothered me.</p>
<p>Right. Nobody’s really going to check on you to see how much you’ve had to drink. You can just carry around a cup and make conversations and play in beer pong (there will be people who are more than happy to take your beer during the game as there are students who just cannot drink due to medication). I’ve never been judged for how (little) I drink just as long I have a cup in my hand.</p>
<p>Believe it or not, frats and sororities do need “sober” members to monitor the party so you will find a few sober people at each frat/sorority mixers and parties. The fun part is that you get to witness all the stupidity that people won’t even remember the next day.</p>
<p>You will just have to keep looking to find your group of friends who you can hang out with.</p>