Drinking issue at Dartmouth!

mini
Wed, 09 Nov 2011 00:53:58 +0000

Most of the data are owned by the colleges themselves. However, their “college alcohol/drug coordinator” (usually a dean) is required to release them if asked. Many of them have published the data in the college’s newspaper (you just have to do a search.

However, generally speaking, you don’t need the actual data. Researchers have found nine characteristics of schools with higher binge drinking rates (the average being around 44%). They are: rural, mostly residential, coed, non-religious, higher than average income, mostly white (and, especially, few African-Americans), big on spectator sports, higher than average percentage in fraternities/sororities; few controls on drinking on campus/surrounding community.

From experience, I can tell you that a school with 7 or more of these characteristics will almost always have higher than average bingeing rates; and five or fewer will have lower. Very rare to find exceptions.

There is also a lot of evidence that density of alcohol-selling outlets in areas around schools have great impact.

Here’s the summary of a good recent article on the impact of college conditions on binge drinking rates:
[Binge Drinking Tied To Conditions In The College Environment](Binge Drinking Tied To Conditions In The College Environment -- ScienceDaily)

Here’s an older article on individual correlates of college students who binge drink: