Stanford Parties

Colleges and Universities A-Z Stanford University
1

<p>I've read like two posts on this topic in Stanford but they were all a couple years old...so I thought I might as well ask it now, before school officially starts. </p>

<p>I'm going to be a freshman at Stanford this year, and though I've heard millions of comments about academics, rigor, expectations, and etc, I haven't heard much about the parties/night life. </p>

<p>Many of the people I've met through the FB group have told me they "don't drink" or "won't party." And I totally respect that, but that's definitely not what I plan on doing...</p>

<p>I've lived in a country where there is no real drinking age, and so I've been drinking since I was a freshman in high school. Yes, I've gone clubbing and to house parties many times. I always drink responsibly and I know my limit. I'm always sure to do it with friends so on the offchance I drink too much, I know there's someone to back me up. </p>

<p>I've read on the internet about a REALLY strict alcohol policy...how parties have to be registered and how strict they are on underage drinking (something about wristbands?). It even said that drinking games, shots, and hard liquor are all forbidden. The parties themselves are apparently kind of lame according to a lot of things I read, though I dunno if that's true or not. </p>

<p>I know going to college isn't about going to parties, and it should be about focusing on studying, but I really wanted to have that as a college experience...Ahh, I don't want to give anyone the wrong impression by posting this but this has been on my mind all summer. All my friends have gone off to move in already, and are constantly telling me about how crazy a time their having, going out to frat parties like every night. Obviously, I know how important the work is and how hard it's going to be, but I do want to have my share of ragers (and alcohol, despite being 18...)</p>

<p>tl;dr:</p>

<p>How are the parties at Stanford? Is it really hard for freshmen to get alcohol? Do people really follow the no underage drinking, no hard liquor, no shots, no games rule? Does having the parties be registered negatively affect what they're like? AAANNDD basically... WHAT SHOULD I EXPECT?!</p>

2

<p>Wow, I’m going to be a freshman too and was told the exact opposite, that the policy is so lax and barely enforced. Underage drinking is common–pretty much every freshman I met at AW was, “Sometimes I drink, sometimes I don’t, but I can always find alcohol.”</p>

<p>That, and the RAs are really chill–apparently they come chill at parties sometimes.
I haven’t heard anything about whether or not the parties are lame, but I’d imagine that they’d get old if you go too often.</p>

<p>Hope that helps!</p>

3

<p>Congrats on you both for getting in! Since you’re both frosh, and you’ll be on campus in like 3 weeks, I’d say just wait and see. NSO and AW give really bad depictions of what partying/alcohol/drugs on campus is like since it’s completely forbidden during those two periods, but Stanford outside of those events is MUCH different. </p>

<p>kriscynical, I don’t know where you got your information from but that couldn’t be more opposite from my freshman year experience. I won’t bother going into details here on CC, but you will see that there is a strong contingent of students who party and drink on campus and Stanford focuses on safety, not simply disciplining alcohol.</p>

4

<p>If you want to drink, you can. Easily. In front of your RA even.</p>

<p>If you don’t want to drink, there isn’t much pressure to drink.</p>

<p>You can generally drink in a dorm room, so long as the door remains open, without any consequence. At a party, it really isn’t that hard to get alcohol as a freshman, although a vast majority pregame.</p>

5

<p>Sophomore here agree with kimchee1212 wholeheartedly. What the RA’s will do is take a realistic approach and try to minimize risks associated with alcohol while encouraging you to act responsibly regardless of whether or not you choose to drink.</p>