<p>You misread what I was saying. I have no specific problem with people drinking, although I personally would prefer a social group which encouraged moderate to minimal drinking. What I meant was that I thought drinking should be curtailed during PFW. None of us are old enough to drink, and it puts us in an awkward situation when we’re trying to talk to students about Caltech and the rest of the lounge/courtyard is drinking. It sets us apart from current students and puts up a barrier to the kind of close interaction we’re looking for.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, MIT forbids drinking during Campus Preview Weekend.</p>
<p>Also, the house I was staying in seemed to have a culture of almost universal drinking at all times of day and night. This is actually one of the reasons I was annoyed by the secrecy about the houses - no one would tell me that this house wasn’t representative of Caltech as a whole. I ended up finding this out anyway, and in the process found a different house that I would absolutely love living in. But it would have been nice if someone could have told me, “That house has more drinking than most of the others. Check out X house or Y house if you don’t like the social climate there”. Keep in mind that a negative reaction to one house can turn a student off to the entire school, so they may never come back and discover that there were many houses they could have enjoyed.</p>