Is there any way to for a prospective student to tell ahead of time if the drinking culture at any given college will be acceptable to them? This thread prompts this topic:
New here, and wondering why all the alcohol is allowed on campus
I thought that comment #107 was especially sad. A snippet:
'It makes me so mad that when I am trying to sleep at say 2,3am that people are talking (slurred) obnoxiously loud in the hallways so I can't sleep. The RA does nothing, in fact I think she might be partying along with them. O__o
It just does not create a good atmosphere when you know everyone is going to doing tons of illegal drinking on a Friday, but to obey the law you have to do something else, usually with one friend or alone, on Friday night. It has become the norm for people to break the law.
And I am disappointed that I have only met 1 friend out maybe 10 that I've made that does not drink.
I hate that the university does not try stop it.
And I feel like the "oddball" when I say I don't...and just feel awkward when a classroom starts talking about their drinking, when everyone's underage.."
I have a friend who teaches at a "dry" LAC. She has around 20 students she advises yearly. She told me that she feels badly for those who chose not to make drinking the focal point of their social lives. She says they're isolated and lonely. She says they do usually find a group of people to hang with, but it often takes until spring semester of their first year.
I know of a couple of students who transferred to other colleges after feeling totally isolated by their non drinking habits. My daughter has a good friend from high school who started college at a religiously based LAC and was the only non partier in her quad. Her room was a drunk fest from day one. It took her weeks of complaining (with her parent's help) to get transferred to a room with a more like minded girl. She was ready to quit because she could not get any sleep.
So how can one tell ahead of time if they are going to fit in with any particular college's drinking culture? Please don't suggest going to a super strict religious school where many aspects of a student's life are controlled. Most people don't want to go to that extreme. I have to believe there are many students who would find it appealing to go to a college with a somewhat moderate alcohol culture. That is, where alcohol is present but is not the dominant feature of most social events, where stepping around puke puddles is an unusual event, and where one's fellows are not sent to ERs for alcohol toxicity in great numbers etc.
Do such colleges exist? How can one predict ahead of time if the alcohol culture in the college they chose will be tenable?