I know that alcohol is prevalent in the social scene but what about recreational drugs like weed etc?
No more than any other college you’d go to, but less than if you went to a left leaning, arts and theatre oriented school.
IF your going to frat parties and hanging with that crowd it is not uncommon for you to stumble into a room where ten kids are all doing lines of coke off a flattened wall mirror. But if you avoid the frats, there is lots of pot, usually pretty accessible and cheap. lots of peer pressure as well. every ones so smart so you think hey if they do it then so can i. Very different than turning down a high school drop outs offer for ahit.
Lots of kids dabble in (certain weekends like Homecoming, SPW, or end of term) or regularly use weed at Colgate.
I’ve got a funny story. There was once a beer pong game and lines of coke being done in a darkened room of a townhouse. Campus Safety came to break it up and managed to miss the hastily hidden coke lines. Every student in that room of 17-25 hastily and even gratefully took the points for having drinking paraphernalia. To answer your question, you won’t be seeing the crazy stuff like crack, meth, or heroin here. In order of prevalence, worst offenders are marijuana, adderall abuse, and cocaine.