<p>I don’t know that list particularly well, but I wouldn’t be surprised. Another approach might be to prepare a checklist of the factors linked with binge drinking I cited above, and if a school has lots of those characteristics, check campus life (in ways suggested by Interesteddad) really hard, and if it has few, chances are the culture is lessened. </p>
<p>(The schools that are quite public in their data about big drinking cultures - UColorado, Penn State, Dartmouth, Williams, Duke (note, for Duke, I only have “blackout” data) - have most of the characteristics.)</p>
<p>I also agree with ID about the freshman ghettoes and their links to sometimes highly dangerous drinking, but I don’t think it has ever been studied.</p>
<p>my ds was involved in the information gathering for this study. At the time he felt many students were conciously minimizing how much they drank. No way to force them to answer differently. I think it was anonymous.
“A study by the Communication and Health Issues Partnership for Education and Research (CHI) shows that at-risk drinking by Rutgers students is less than national norms and that a student does not have to drink dangerously to be accepted into the Rutgers campus community. The partnership wants to get that message across, especially to first-year students and others who may be newly arrived on campus, through a public awareness campaign called “RU Sure?” that is using posters, T-shirts, advertising and educational programs.”
<a href=“http://commhealthissues.rutgers.edu/news/news04.html[/url]”>http://commhealthissues.rutgers.edu/news/news04.html</a></p>
<p>thanks for all the info, folks. long ago, in the dark ages, my DS looked at a rural PA LAC overnight. He arrived Sunday morning and there was not a coherent student in the freshman dorm, and all the girls talked about having had blackouts. At the time he was Mr Straight edge, so that school was out.
My worry is that if almost all parties are wild this stuff becomes normalized for all the kids.
So I want a no Greek, multi-ethnic, DivIII, urban/suburban school with a large endowment for average students. Oh dear, I so hoped for a school with a few other blondes so she didn’t feel like the only pale kid in the class. (g)</p>
<p>All the large colleges have special dorms which you can join with special qualities, like alcohol free, substance fee, organic philosophy, honors dorm etc etc.I think there is more of a problem with the smaller colleges than the larger ones.
My sons actually have a great alcohol free time at college. There are kids who go off drinking and partying but there are many who are involved with other aspects of campus life. My son had a great time with his roommate fixing up his dorm into the untimate technology dorm room. Then one can also establish a movie night. That worked well so my son established a movie night for just his dorm. Also, athletics is a big motivator to be clean and it makes my son exausted. That plus just going to the gym picking up a game or working out or if a girl walking or pedaling .</p>
<p>interesteddad-I agree with you that there is more of a drinking culture at schools that are more “male.” There was a really interesting thread a while back about Yin versus Yang colleges, naming which ones seemed to be more male, and which more female, and all that that meant.</p>
<p>I think you will find that a lot of schools with a large non-drinking culture, especially ones with few fraternities, urban, and low spectator sport participation have high levels of drug use. Would MINI like to “speculate” on what the druggie culture is like at Gotham U? I only bring this up because in striving to avoid the drunken frat boy scene be aware there are other pitfalls out there that are perhaps not quite as apparent.</p>
<p>Overall though I believe whatever a schools dominant culture there is usually enough diversity that most kids will be able to find a niche. That might not be true at some of the smallest Liberal Arts colleges or at some of the religiously affiliated but by and large…</p>
<p>Nah. We’ve got data on that one. Wanna find the schools with the highest drug use? Putting aside some of the outliers (i.e. Weed), it’s the schools with the highest alcohol use, with a slightly western tilt. (I suspect, but cannot prove, that a lot of this simply has to do with available cash, and time on their hands.) But it is true no doubt that you’d notice the drug use more readily in places where there was less alcohol use.</p>
<p>As has been discussed over and over again, the “binge-drinking” culture is based on bogus surveys and other speculation by the same folks. Of course this is my opinion, but I’m entitled. ;)</p>
<p>I have posted this before- but while Ds college is very small ( smaller than her sisters high school)- there seemed to be less substance use from the student population, than there was among my 70s era suburban high school.
Overall… Overall- I wouldnt advise prospies to visit during 40’s night- warning it doesn’t involve swing dancing-*</p>
<p>Additionally- many groups overlapped- one of the pluses of a small school. The jocks hung out with the drama geeks who stayed up all night listening to their bio major best friend expound on the influence of “Steve” on the scientific community.</p>
<p>“As has been discussed over and over again, the “binge-drinking” culture is based on bogus surveys and other speculation by the same folks”</p>
<p>Yeah, those Harvard School of Public Health and University of Michigan folks, and those folks at that second-rate Duke University Medical Center, and those third-rate surveyors at Dartmouth and Williams that could only get 63% participation, and those folks from the National Survey on Behavior and Health who only interview 65,000 folks face-to-face every year, and these fifth-rate peer reviewers at the Journal of the American Medical Association, the American Journal of Public Health, and the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, what do they know? ;)</p>
<p>^ Ahh, the life of a professional surveyor! Are they the ones who call in the middle of dinner? Yeah, I always give them the truth and nothing but the truth… hehehe. :D</p>
<p>Yeah, they always call when I am blitzed out of my mind, and can’t even mumble. And, why, those folks who show up at the Duke University Medical Center, they’re just attention-seekers. And those folks from the NSDUH who show up at my house, and won’t go away, why, I offered them a couple of martinis in a paper cup, but they were really a pain in the butt!</p>
<p>And those Haahvad professors - they really gave 'em Ph.Ds for that? :eek:</p>
<p>If they pay the students to take the surveys that probably works well in generating valuable data. That way the students will indeed tell the absolute truth. I also heard that the folks at places like Duke Medical (a favorite recurring mini reference) hand out vouchers for a free drink for the first surveys completed. These are often done right before Happy Hour to get the best turn-out. :)</p>
<p>Seriously, though. A lot of the drinking data is collected as part of large student satisfaction surveys. For example, the survey that the 31 member schools of COFHE admister (and share data from) include questions on alcohol use – as well as teaching quality, advising, residential life, and on and on.</p>
<p>^ That “hiring strippers” comment makes no sense at all in reference to the conversation at hand.</p>
<p>However, we all know that the binge drinking culture is only at schools with drunken frat boys in the south. We also know that the <em>umm</em> “politically correct” students at the LAC’s in PA never drink, do drugs or have sex (unless with their best friend). . :o</p>
<p>As a student, I’m more concerned with the level of drinking than with the extent of it. I don’t mind having a few drinks in an intimate setting with people I know well, but I’m not interested in huge, rowdy parties where blacking out and vomiting is de rigeur. I’ve been drunk a grand total of twice, at smaller parties with kids I’ve known since 7th grade, but I’m aware enough of my low tolerance to stop after one drink, and I’ve never vomited, passed out, or been hung over. To me, binge drinking just seems excessive and ridiculous.</p>
<p>Of course, I’m from a country where the drinking age is 18 (though my parents’ attitude is far from lenient), so that probably influences my perspective.</p>