University Park--Social/Drinking Scene

<p>Toneranger, thanks for the link. The "satisfaction" percentages that you cited are encouraging. I think I read an article, probably in The Collegian, which cited the particular survey about how, this year, a somewhat lower percentage of new student feel that they've established new friendships with other students--I wonder how much of that may be related to the unusually large size of the current Freshman class.</p>

<p>hey, im in my second semester here as well and i love it. </p>

<p>Most weekends i will go out and drink but if ur not into that, its not easy to stay away from. all of the frats are behind college avenue so if u dont wanna go outside and see drunk ppl flailing all over, than just stay on/around campus.</p>

<p>and there is a lot to do here even if u dont drink. almost any weekend night there will be atleast two or so sporting events such as basketball, ice hockey, mens/womens volley ball that you can go to. Tho, u may not be into those sports, its still a lot of fun. i dint think id ever love watching womens volleyball lol. </p>

<p>Aside from sports/Late Night/ and the town (tho not huge, it still has a couple movie theatres, plenty of restaraunts and a bowling alley somewhere around here) i dont know what else u could expect to be doing outside of going out drinking. every college will be like this....Wisconsin and michigan, from what ive heard of my friends that go there, is pretty much the same thing if not worse. </p>

<p>And also about the social life, there are TONS of clubs u can join, from THON committees, IM sports and other major related groups. if ur not a drinker, than its just more of a matter of finding friends who are like you. If you do so..and theres plenty of of non-party drinnking type kids here..then u will hang out w/ them nad have a great time. i think more people that dont like PSU are the ones that dont get friendly with people like them and instead are either too shy or are friends with drinkers and so when it comes to fri/sat night time, they have to stay back and not have much to do. </p>

<p>Also i pledged a frat first semester (dropped out after a few weeks so i could focus more on gettin a good start on my grades) and i am pleding again this semster so if anyone has anyone questions about pledging and what not, feel free to ask.</p>

<p>sorry if this post is quite random or out of order.</p>

<p>btw i had a 3.73 GPA first semester incase it was at all relevent.</p>

<p>Sufi where u pledgin?</p>

<p>axp this semester</p>

<p>i did DU last semester</p>

<p>Folks, it would be interesting if there was a way to objectively measure student drinking across the country and across types of colleges (large state univ, small LAC, etc.) I went to Lehigh and graduated in 1980, and Lehigh was all male until 1971. Trust me, I cannot imagine that more drinking goes on per capita at PSU than at Lehigh in my day. (It is less now, I understand.) I also suspect that you would find similar experiences at most major state colleges, and many larger private ones. </p>

<p>Unfortunately, seeing lots of alcohol and making one's own decisions about how to deal with it (or not) is part of the college, and growing up, experience. </p>

<p>I'm simply saying that focusing on the amount of drinking at PSU, with the suggestion that it is worse than at similar schools, is anecdotal at best. But my son will likely be there this fall, so if anyone knows of any objective studies of this issue I'd be interested. </p>

<p>Frankly, I'd prefer that he not replicate my experience in college, which in hindsight involved too much drinking.</p>