<p>I live in Holland and drinking here is very accepted. Up until last year, the legal drinking age was 16 (it's 18 now) and alcohol is a part of parties starting around 10th grade, sometimes earlier. I have read that Dartmouth has more of a drinking culture than other colleges in the US, but I was wondering what this actually means. Are there parties where people drink a lot? If yes, how often and what is considered drinking a lot? Or do student's drink heavily nearly every day?</p>
<p>In Holland students drink on average 16 glasses of alcohol a week, this is 20 for guys and 27 for guys in a fraternity.</p>
<pre><code>As the USA has a 21 yr age requirement for alcohol, comparing your country’s drinking culture to a school’s drinking culture is pretty unhelpful. A school’s drinking culture that puts a US student on the wrong side of the law is a real problem.
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<p>@Alfonsia Uhm, I think you may have misunderstood my question. I stated the situation in my country to give you my perspective as to how I know college drinking is in my country. I know nothing of the situation at Dartmouth (or other US schools) and my question was just what the drinking culture is like at Dartmouth. I am aware that you have to be 21 in the states to drink, but everybody knows that there’s underage drinking at basically every university.
Do you have any experience with the drinking culture at Dartmouth, if so could you answer my questions?</p>
<p>I’m a parent of former student, so take what I say with a grain of salt. My sense is that there are two or three drinking nights a week (Wednesday, Friday & Saturday). Total weekly consumption might be on a par with yours but more concentrated rather than spread out over the week. I assume we’re talking glasses of beer. There are also “tails” [cocktails] and harder liquor [pregaming}</p>
<p>@AboutTheSame Thanks, that was exactly what I wanted to know. Students here drink around three nights a week as well (Thursday, Friday and Saturday though). There’s just so many stories of an ‘insane’ drinking culture at Dartmouth that I started to wonder what is was actually like. It’s strange though, how do they get away with this? It is illegal to buy alcohol under 21, right?</p>
<p>Many things that are illegal are nonetheless done. “Friendly” over-21s have been known to be willing to purchase for younger students – much the way the older brother of my Swedish host family did years [many years] ago when I was an exchange student in Stockholm. Some things never change. </p>
<p>Oh, I thought that universities would be against it since you live in dorms. Yeah it’s probably the same everywhere, in Holland you can actually order alcohol online at any age. (Supposedly the delivery guy has to check that you’re 18, but they never do)
Some people seem to carry a grudge towards Dartmouth then, making it seem like all they do is get drunk. To me it seems like a great school.</p>
<p>For a more in-depth perspective, try a Rolling Stone magazine article, “Confessions of an Ivy League Frat Boy.” Essentially, it desribes a student who both seeks and is susceptible to the drinking culture at Dartmouth. You may then need to get further perspective on whether the article describes the College’s center-culture or it’s fringe-culture. The clear message, however, is that for a certain type of student the “drinking culture” at Dartmouth – perhaps to an extent not generally to be found at other colleges – is fully antithetical to intellectual pursuits and an extremely unhealthy form of alcohol abuse.</p>
<p>@merc81 Great article, thanks! Anyway, I’m not going to apply to Dartmouth for a different reason.
It seems very strange and gross though. I’m not easily shocked by kids doing crazy stuff (some of my friends do xtc about once a month, they’re very good at school though), but this really surprised me. </p>
<p>@alainf: I also appreciated your perspective from Holland. Btw, a good number of U.S. college presidents do not like the legal drinking age as high as 21, at least partly because of the almost untenable relationship between the law and actual behavior. So your questions about contradictions in terms of how the law is enforced are shared by Americans who have considered the same issue.</p>
<p>Obviously the use of the word “culture” implies other things about conduct besides the fact that students are drinking. I will add that the idea that nobody under the age of 21 can legally drink in the US is incorrect. Laws are confusing and they vary by state. In some states younger people can drink in restaurants with the consent of parents, for instance but they may not be able to buy the drink. And the waiter may not be able to sell the drink to the minor. But a parent can order a drink and legally allow their offspring to drink it. Some states allow consumption of alcohol on private property with the consent of a parent (often the parent must be physically present). Some states don’t outlaw drinking but don’t allow possession of alcohol by those under 21. The laws are complicated but it is not true that it is illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to drink in the US.</p>
<p>Well, I’m a Dartmouth alum, from long ago (class of '78). I’m here because my son is applying to colleges and considering Dartmouth. I can tell you that alcohol was a huge part of the culture of Dartmouth in “my day”. To give a couple of examples, the popular college drinking game of beer pong (<a href=“Beer pong - Wikipedia”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_pong</a>) was invented at Dartmouth, and the screenplay for the movie “Animal House” was written by a Dartmouth alum inspired by his experiences as a member of Alpha Delta Phi fraternity.</p>
<p>For most of Dartmouth’s history, it was a small all-male college isolated from the world in a very cold and remote region of New England. I think the isolation and absence of women fostered a very rowdy and macho culture and hard drinking was definitely a part of that. The drinking age was 18 and the college took a very hands-off approach to regulating alcohol use. Keggers in dorms were common and often paid for with social funds provided by the college.</p>
<p>My impression is that Dartmouth is a much tamer place today due to co-education and the rise in the legal drinking age to 21. Also increased awareness of the problem of the sexual abuse of women has persuaded the college to be more involved in regulating social and drinking activity on campus.</p>
<p>@alainf - As a current student, PLEASE do NOT take that Rolling Stone article seriously. It is NOT representative of day to day life at Dartmouth. A book can be written about why this article is seriously flawed- not only from factual errors, but also from the fact that its subject, Mr. Andrew Lohse, has a perverse incentive to somehow throw the blame off of his own actions - serious cocaine use, throwing a chair at a security officer, social isolation from these and other terrible acts of behavior, etc. - and paint a flawed scenario. I actually know many brothers of his fraternity - SAE - who are almost flattered to think that people believe they’re tough enough to withstand anything near what Lohse describes. </p>
<p>That being said, once you get here you’ll understand how not so simple it is. There are definitely people and groups and fraternities that are big on drinking, and definitely plenty more people and groups and fraternities that have other pursuits in mind. You’ll hear a lot about “pong,” and it’s a game that’s definitely not quite conducive to hard drinking – it’s something that’s a lot more casual and less high risk than insane pregames before state school football games.</p>
<p>@AboutTheSame - “tails” refers to mixers between fraternities and sororities (as well as anyone else that was invited… usually people with lots of friends in the fraternity/sorority but is not a member of either). It’s as close as you get to a normal bar setting. People are casually sipping cocktails while mingling and chatting trying to get to meet other people. Given the possibility of an upcoming hard alcohol ban, it’s likely that this tradition will end or change. Regardless, you don’t really have “high risk” drinking or anything during these events. </p>
<p>@HONORLIONS I don’t want to interrogate you, but you sound like a reasonable person, so I’d like to ask a real Dartmouth student.</p>
<p>Do you think drinking is present more at Dartmouth than at other comparable colleges?</p>
<p>Is the ‘frat culture’ (if it even exists) a bane to the community and the welfare of students and others? Does it make a positive or negative impact?</p>
<p>Thanks so much for any light you can shed on the Dartmouth community!</p>
<p>@icepierre - I personally don’t think so. Then again, I’ve never extensively stayed at another comparable college. If there is a ‘drinking culture’, it has more to do with the fact that casual drinking is a lot more accessible at Dartmouth to students than it is to students at other colleges. Fraternities are open, inclusive, and don’t charge you to drop by/have some drinks. At other colleges, the only students that can go somewhere to have a drink are those that are 1) well off enough to afford a bar or 2) those that are members of/close with/willing to pay members of exclusive social groups like fraternities or sports houses. </p>
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<p>When Dartmouth President Wright tried to abolish the Greek system in the '90s, alumni and students came out in full force to protest the move. Alumni threatened to cease donating, and students staged one protest after another until President Wright was forced to reconsider his intentions. Ivy League alumni - people who are successful doctors, lawyers, businessmen, financiers, politicians, educators, researchers, and everything in between - would not have come out in full force if the Greek system was a bane. Affiliated and unaffiliated people alike enjoy the social spaces fraternities provide. It’s something you will not understand until you are here and have given it a serious try. Is hanging out in a frat basement for everyone? Definitely not. But the Greek system caters to a much wider spectrum of people - from “nerds” to “jocks” - than it does anywhere else. I don’t know what you mean by “‘frat culture’” - I assume as a high school student you haven’t in stepped foot in a fraternity nor know anything more than television/state school stereotypes about them - but the Greek system is a powerful positive to Dartmouth.</p>