<p>Thank you for answering my question, and just you know radimom, I don't drink or smoke.</p>
<p>Well, now there is a reply here, from what seem to be voices of experience, and I appreciate that. But I continue my concern about what is tolerated or normative on campus. It is stated that there's alcohol on campus, lots of it. What? Isn't the drinking age in Maine 21? Is there a ban on hard liquor on the part of the college, but the admin. is tolerating or permitting beer? Are they tolerating something that is in fact illegal? I know some of the student body is of legal age to drink, as at any college--but is the admin. turning a blind eye to the availability of booze for those that are underage? </p>
<p>I don't think it's a matter of "chilling," frankly. I have seen and known parental peers who have, finally, dealt with what they have termed "an unhealthy relationship with booze" and guess where it began--college, in a culture where getting drunk on Thursday nights was considered normative. You know, "no other way to have fun." I have seen parents of teens who have to put their kids in rehab., drugs or drinking, and believe me, it's NOT a pretty picture. Some day, some of you who are college students may have children, and I think you may have a different perspective, if you have to pay for or involve yourself in rehab. for your own children. This issue may look quite different to you then--especially if you are, at that point, spending $75,000 or more per year to send them to college. I appreciate the honesty of the statement that someone who avoids alcohol will dull their social life (and I have seen an earlier post about non-drinkers at Bowdoin being ostracized) but it sure does not excite me about the prevailing atmosphere there, as described.</p>
<p>i didn't feel ostracized and i didn't drink. let's not spin a couple perspectives out of control. i'll put it this way - there is less pressure to drink at bowdoin than at comparable LACs, and, in my experience, shockingly less drug use than at any other university i visited. i understand your misgivings about a policy that seems to silently sanction alcohol use, but bowdoin's been doing this for a while and they've had various experiences with different sorts of policies regarding alcohol. in their experience, a policy that is not overly punitive is the best approach. one can't assume that it's an unstudied policy. i've seen some of the worst abuses of alcohol on campuses where the penalty for drinking was steep.</p>
<p>radimom - I, too, am a parent, but I'm also a teacher and one of the things that I've noticed is that the biggest problems are with kids whose parents have neglected to communicate what they consider acceptable, have failed to teach their kids how to deal with peer pressure, and have restricted their children's independence in an attempt to protect them. Those kids go wild when they get to school and nothing a school does can alter that, short of having police wander the halls all day and night (and honestly, that wouldn't work either). There's no doubt that drugs and alcohol can have an enormously negative impact on a kid's life, but the time for them to learn about that is many years before they leave for college. If you haven't done it yet, you should make sure that you have clearly communicated your expectations to your child and help him or her figure out how to navigate these kinds of challenges.
Based on my experiences in college many years ago, the only thing that's changed is that kids have more positive relationships with their parents which means, in turn, that fewer of them get into really bad trouble. When I went to school, it was unthinkable not to participate in the drinking/drugs. There were no quiet dorms; no substance free dorms; and there was no one to hang out with if you didn't want to party. And I went to relatively tame LAC.</p>
<p>Regarding Post #39--I DO think that questions, even though they are only questions, can have a possible effect on rankings. Back in the day, at least, the term "weed" generally signified a user's familiarity with marijuana. It is known that parents and college admissions people, frequent CC. And they talk to each other. College counselors also talk to each other, and compare notes on the reputation of places. What happens if a number of parents get concerned about sending their offspring, Paying for their offspring, to go to a place where illegal drug use, or illegal underage drinking, seems to be tolerated? They don't want to send their students there, yield rates go down, application numbers go down, then rankings go down. (And then tuition goes up!) Maybe that makes little difference for Big State University, but Bowdoin's numbers are relatively small, and a reputation for tolerance of illegal behavior, can in fact make a difference when the numbers are smaller. I applaud and in fact appreciate the honesty here--that's the point--but if you value your school (presuming some here are current students) you would do well not to be cavalier about its reputation or its rank, and how that is affected by what you put out on the internet. I am not implying that drug use is tolerated at Bowdoin--that was not said or implied by the question--but I am saying that there is a larger context, and particularly in the deposit decision time of year, one should be careful about statements.</p>
<p>Unless you want to send your kid to a place like BYU or ORU, you're going to find that most prestigious colleges and universities recognize that college kids are who they are and that college regulations will not stop college kids from drinking and even on occasion smoking pot or sometimes experimenting with more serious substances . .</p>
<p>Digressive comments to radimom: (1)If you look up the studies, the correlation between binge drinking in college (which is fairly common) and subsequent alcohol dependence/abuse is low; the much bigger correlation is between high school (or earlier) binge drinking and alcohol dependence/abuse as an adult. (2) When colleges have draconian penalties sometimes inebriated students do not receive requisite emergency assistance because their companions are afraid to seek help for fear of consequence to the drunk or themselves.</p>
<p>Hey all, I noticed this thread was revived. Just wanted to let you all know I was rejected (the only school I was rejected from, not even rejected from UPenn!!! I guess Bowdoin didn't like my app). Anyways, I'm going to Notre Dame, but thank you all for your opinions. I don't think Bowdoin would've been the place for me anyways, but I really appreciate all your help, and I hope it helped other prospective students too!</p>