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<p>Williams, Amherst, and Dartmouth all have high binge drinking rates, at or above the national averages.</p>
<p>Things that correlate with a heavy drinking culture in the surveys are: northeast, rural, white, wealthy, fraternities, and athletes.</p>
<p>Swarthmore’s surveyed binge drinking rate is drastically lower than any of these three schools, a number supported by the few instances of alcohol poisoning hospitalizations. I don’t know Harvard’s rate, but I suspect that it is much closer to Swarthmore’s than Williams/Amherst/Dartmouth.</p>
<p>the 1999 COFHE survey, 30% Swarthmore’s freshman hadn’t drank in the previous year and 43% hadn’t drank in the last 30 days. The average freshman reported drinking 14 times a year, or about every other weekend. The drinking rates increase a big for sophmores, then juniors, then seniors.</p>
<p>What’s interesting is that Swarthmore has the most lenient enforcment. There is no ban on alcohol in dorms and alcohol is freely available at campus parties without any real effort to check ages.</p>