<p>I am very concerned about the huge and predominant drug culture and partying atmosphere at UC-Boulder.it appears to be much worse than other similar universities from the reviews I have read on the Internet:</p>
<p>From a site that sounds like College Howler:</p>
<p>If you plan on spending four (or the average five) years in a haze, then this is the place. Whether smoking from a bong, blunt, or joint, Boulder has stores, suppliers, and fellow friends that are happy to comply. A fraction of this “stoner” scene can be attributed to those that wander aimlessly around campus smelling like reefer and sporting hemp gear. Yet, they can only be held accountable for a mere percentage. The reality is that the majority of people in Boulder smoke weed. Sorority girls buy sacks so they can share a laugh with their fraternity boyfriends. Snowboarders cough up enough money to buy enough to last them a weekend up in the mountains. Quiet creative writing majors and fumbling film students smoke together to get inspired.</p>
<p>Though marijuana is the preferred drug of choice, mushrooms, acid, and ecstasy are used occasionally and more often by the younger students who are still celebrating their newly acquired freedom. As students turn 21 and start entering the bar scene, there is a shift from hallucinogens to stimulants. Still, in its definition, this is merely a “scene,” comprising only a portion of the student body. Although there is prolific drug use, students report that it is purely experimental and that it rarely interferes with academics.</p>
<p>Is it really as bad as I have heard and read about? "The majority of people in Boulder smoke weed"</p>
<p>My son has been accepted there and am looking for realistic input. The reviews that I read on several sites indicated that it is a huge pot school and lots of drugs. If this is in fact not the case, I would be thrilled to hear this. Princeton Review ranks it at #6 in the nation for Reefer Madness and the drug scene review(in my original post) on collegerowler was very worrisome.</p>
<p>My daughter just graduated in 3.5 years with a degree in physics. Kinda hard to do if she was stoned all the time. Party scene at CU is the same as any place else. She and her friends work hard during the week and kick back on weekends. If you are inclined to be a stoner there are ample opportunities. But no one is forcing anyone to take a bong hit.</p>
<p>Can I get input from anyone else who has attended about the party/drug scene and peer pressure to participate? Is it any worse than any other large state school?</p>
<p>Our D graduated summa cum laude in economics this past spring from CU-Boulder; now working in the Teach For America program. S is a junior there now, biochemistry major, wants to go into a health sciences field, possibly dentistry. So he’s also a very highly motivated student. He’s also a fraternity member and an IFC officer. They both have seen the availability of pot and other drugs, but there’s no more exposure to it here than most any place else. Welcome to the real world. Drug use is NOT a required part of the CU-Boulder student culture, not by a long shot.</p>
<p>I went to a small religiously affiliated college 30 years ago and there were a substantial amount of drugs there. You could always tell when the newest shipment came in by the steady “traffic” to certain dorm rooms. Curious kids and “subtances” have always been there in the college world, save for a very few exceptions.</p>
<p>So, to answer your question - there’s no more pressure to participate in using drugs at CU-Boulder than other public colleges, at least from my perspective. If your kid is going to imbibe, they’re going to imbibe. CU’s culture is pretty “chill” and no one holds a gun to a kid’s head to inhale or else they won’t be socially accepted. My kids don’t do drugs, and they have plenty of friends. Please relax, as what you’ve read is grossly exaggerated.</p>
<p>You’re welcome. Good luck to your son, wherever he ends up. We’ve been happy with our kids’ experiences at CU and we love to visit Boulder and the surrounding area. It’s a great college town. The restaurants are amazing!!!</p>
<p>I think where’s there’s smoke…there’s a bit “of fire” HAH. Is UCB a party school…yes. Are Univ Wisconsin, Univ Michigan, Penn State, Indiana, Ohio State, University new Hampshire, University Vermont, Ohio university??? Actually, you’d be hard pressed to find a larger “school-spirty” state school that doesn’t have some sort of Party School reputation. My Daughter is at NYU, she believes it to be a HUGE stoner school (but not soooo much drinking) I guess the question is: “Will YOUR kid be distracted by all the partying?” By senior year a parent should have a pretty good inkling. If they’re pretty straight and narrow, it shouldn’t be an issue. Maybe an advantage…if everyone she’s being graded against is high constantly…she’ll lead the curve! That said, I’d prefer a pot-smoking student body to a huge drinking culture. There’s a SCARY amount of binge drinking, stomach pumping, drunken brawls, and non-consensual sex with alcohol…not to mention driving issues. With pot… (especially if it’s a weekend thing) you’re biggest problem is lack of motivation and weight gain…maybe driving 32 in a 60 mph zone…</p>
<p>“your biggest problem is lack of motivation and weight gain” Ha! Probably accounts for the success of the freshly baked cookie delivery service, aptly named “Boulder Baked”. </p>
<p>But to add to the answers already here: I have a couple friends at Boulder and just spent winter break in Colorodo and it is very 420-friendly there (up to 1 ounce of weed is actually 100% legal in Breckenridge). My friends were occasional (3-4 times a year) pot smokers when they lived near me and in the 4-5 months they had at Boulder they became COMPLETE pot heads. I could barley carry a conversation with them. I took one to the San Diego game at Mile High (coincidence?) and spent the better part of the game searching for her-finally found her hiding in a MENS bathroom because she thought the security guards had dogs that could sniff her out. My point is just to accentuate what has already been said–If your son has any sort of propensity to lean towards drugs then Boulder is a very risky school.</p>
<p>Going to CU:B isn’t going to make your son a pot head more than any other school. Drugs are easily accessible at any college, and some students will choose to use them, others won’t. The only difference between Boulder and other schools is that if he gets caught, nothing will happen.</p>
<p>“Nothing will happen” - not true if you live on campus and you are found in possession. You can get kicked out of the dorms immediately. Happened to kids in both my D and S’s freshmen dorms. Same can hold true for alcohol offenses on campus, especially repeated ones. And there are plenty of severe criminal consequences if you’re caught driving under the influence of drugs. Can’t speak to the possession off-campus and if that’s pursued much. But the Boulder Police Department and the CU Campus Police don’t turn a blind eye to these things. After Gordie Bailey and Samantha Spady died at CU and CSU from alcohol incidents, both schools take overimbibiing in ANYTHING pretty darned seriously and work hard to prevent it.</p>
<p>Helicopter parent alert!
Can you not trust your kid to avoid the bad stuff? Drugs and alcohol are on virtually every college campus! It’s better to be exposed to these things than not in my opinion.</p>
<p>as many posters above have stated, ultimately the question comes down to how will your student react to the various temptations available at college? On the other hand, where the college culture is heavily influenced by either pot use or excessive drinking, the temptations can be greater. Hey everyone else is doing it, right? I’ve thought about this a lot as my D was considering applying to both Penn State and Boulder; which was worse, the excessive drinking culture or the pot smoking culture? In the end, she decided not to travel that far from home, but I think I would have been fine if she had decided to apply to Boulder. On the other hand, I did hear from a friend whose son is at Boulder honors college, that she is very concerned with the amount of paryting that he is doing. So yeah, I think its right to be concerned, but in the end, I’d be inclined to leave the choice up to my child.</p>
<p>Why don’t you let your son make his own college decisions, since he is the only one who is going to have to be living with them? I understand wanting what’s best for your kid, but at some point, that means letting go and letting him choose his own future. There are drugs at every school. period. (unless you plan on sending him to Army or Navy) get over it, trust him, and give him a chance.</p>
<p>I know this is just one little thing in the whole picture, but as a mom of twins with very different interests, we have looked at more than our share of colleges. I make it a habit of picking up whatever type of literature is on campus - such as the newspaper or other magazines that are available for free, usually in those racks by the door of the student center. I find reading them helps give you a feel of the “pulse” of the college.</p>
<p>I can tell you the worst magazine I ever picked up was from the student center at boulder. I can’t remember the name of the magazine but the centerfold was of all different types of marijuana in full color. Every page in the magazine had was filled with stories of sex and drugs, including and article that included a page of stick figures of favorite sexual positions and another full page spread of people in bikinis sitting in a stream smoking the medical marijuana. There were pages of ads of places you could go to get a prescription for your “back pain” or “headaches”.</p>
<p>Now of course, this is a very limited picture, but we also visited three other Denver schools (Regis, University of Denver, and Mines) and this magazine or anything even remotely similar was no where to be found, despite the medical marijuana being available across the state. We are from out of state.</p>
<p>We sat down with some students at lunch,which is also something we enjoy doing to get a bit more of a pulse of the campus and the impression we got from these students was that there was a lot of partying going on, and they knew several students who were flunking out of their classes because of lack of direction.</p>
<p>Now I know that drugs and sex will be found at any college campus, but I don’t feel they need to be flaunted in the student center. My son, even though he has a poster of boulder hanging on his wall, did not apply.</p>
<p>In all fairness, I personally know people who graduated from boulder and had a great drug free experience, but I would imagine there is a lot of temptation.</p>
<p>4 Nobel prize winning professors
20+ astronauts graduated from CU
The most students joining Peace Corps
top 5 physics graduate program in the country
etc etc</p>
<p>in all fairness indeed</p>
<p>read MaxW’s post in the “engineering vibe” thread - just another CU stoner I guess</p>