<p>Hi Guys, I hope your summers are going well,
But anyways, how prominent is driking on campus? To be completly honest I don’t drink/smoke now and I plan to not start in college. When I visited Umich they told us they have substance free dorms. I would perfer to be in one of these even though I could careless if my roomate drinks (I’m not one to preach) its just something I would perfer. Also while on topic of dorms, does UVA have any dorms completely designated to learning a language? While I’m at UVA i’m going to study International Business and I want to become fluent in 3-4 languages… I already can almost speak spanish but I would love to learn some others (including japenese and what ever language is spoken in switzerland).
Thanks for your help fellas,
Also if anyones looking for ACT help hit me up, me helping you is like me helping myself and I need the help (shooting for the golden 33)</p>
<p>you spelt drinking wrong twice</p>
<p>and yes, there are a number of language houses - have a look on the department sites.</p>
<p>p.s. you don’t know what language they speak in switzerland but you want to learn it? you should be ashamed. for the record, they speak both french and german there, and italian in some parts.</p>
<p>dude the driking at uva is INSANE. it’s the only college where there’s so much driking. i actually haven’t seen driking anywhere else. man that uva… craaaazy…</p>
<p>There are no substance free dorms at UVA. I am completely sober though (always have been… family choice). So while a lot of people drink, it’s not necessary to have a good time. This comes up on this message board every now and then, and I recommend to subscribe to the “hoos sober” mailing list where they send out events which are alcohol-free every week. Great mailing list of events whether you drink or not.</p>
<p>Yea guys, I’ll tell you time and time again, my spelling is HORRIBLE!! And thanks for the response hazelorb. I’m not going to subscribe to a list for non driking events, I mean I’ll go to events with drinking I just won’t drink.</p>
<p>I am going to tell you the truth, because, as someone who may apply to uva, you should know. Drinking is very prominent at UVa. I just finished my 1st year, and, on friday nights, I’d say about 2 out of 3 people are out at frats drinking… and, in my hallway, it was more like 9 out of 10. Honestly, people who you’d never think would drink go out and have a few too many. It is very difficult to not get caught up in it during your freshman year, because, frankly speaking, there isn’t much more going on on a Friday night.</p>
<p>That’s based on my first year experience. YMMV.</p>
<p>note that I used the word “difficult” and not “impossible.” I stayed away from the stuff my first year of college, but, as previously mentioned, that left for little to do on friday/saturday nights.</p>
<p>I used to go to JMU and the drinking there was insane. I normally party every weekend once school begins, but at a certain point it gets old for me going to the same places all the time. You can avoid the drinking scene, just find people who share your views. You can still go to parties if you don’t like drinking, just hold a cup and blend in with everyone else. BTW Switzerland speaks Swiss German, which is different from pure German (that is what my German professor told me).</p>
<p>I mean, I don’t agree with that at all. Maybe it’s just that in Brown there are always events going on that don’t center on alcohol, but I never felt like there was nothing I could do except drink. I was also close with my roommate and we would stay in and get a movie from Clemons and order take in. I also was a member of the anime club and we would meet Thursday nights and Saturday nights and you didn’t have to drink to watch anime (though a lot of them do, haha). You can go to UVA clubs that meet at times that allow you to have a great social life. I dunno what else to say, you don’t have to go to a frat to have a good time.</p>
<p>yea, I go to a school where 95% of the kids are big drinkers and I still don’t drink. I’m pretty sure I can avoid drinking and I’ve done it at my school and have still managed to have a good time.</p>
<p>I just subscribed to “Hoos Sober”. Thanks for the info hazelorb.</p>
<p>I feel like if I signed up for Hoos Sober every event I walked into would be like walking into a funeral which is not what I want. I mean if hazelorbs in it I guess the club has some cool kids but who knows. If I don’t like going to parties that have alcohol I’m a movie type guy so I’ll hang out in my room hopefully with some other guys.</p>
<p>It’s not really a club…it’s more like a place for various clubs/groups to promote their own activities that do not center on drinking. I’m sure you’ll come across many different types of people this way (and not just the same people).</p>
<p>Oh yeah it’s just a mailing list with events. It’s not a club. So everything from sports events to plays to movies to club events get put on it.</p>
<p>LOL - I can’t resist …</p>
<p>That’s somewhat of a stale topic, I think. You’ll find drinking whereever you go, only the magnitude of the problem (fun for others) is what differs from college to college. It’s your choice if you participate or not!</p>
<p>Regarding Switzerland:
~60% speak ‘Swiss-German’ (not an official language, the written language is German)
~30% speak French
~10% speak Italian
~0.2% (I believe) speak Rumantsch (sort of a mix between Latin, Italian & French)</p>
<p>The ‘Swiss-German’ is basically the German of the medieval age, in Switzerland (and the South of Germany & Austria) the language development sort of ‘stopped’ on that level. But, as I said, it’s NOT an official language.</p>
<p>If you want to learn the language(s) spoken in Switzerland (next to Japanese!), you’re going to be pretty busy … LOL</p>
<p>Like automobile, i finished my first year at UVA. Unlike automobile I disagree about the amount of people drinking at UVA. I don’t drink or party and I get along just fine. Most people tend to go out on Friday and stay in Saturday or vice versa. Only the frat stars and party animals party both nights (and then some). I’ve never felt left out for not drinking because it’s ultimately a personal choice and people respect that. I will warn you though, most of the people who do not drink here are judgmental people of people who do/ are highly religious people. I have felt lonely at times because those non-drinkers are also people not in my crowd. To cope, i hang out w/ my friends on the night they decide to stay in and just use the night where they go out to catch up on my laundry, run, do school work and play video games. Doing the laundry on Saturday nights is easy when everyone else is gone too lol.</p>
<p>110percentwahoo, we should hang out sometime!! 
I think that all of my friends, even the religious ones, do drink here. But not heavily. Or else we wouldn’t be friends… Haha. I’ve felt similar … unease… since I’m Jewish and not Christian, but you make it work. I have a really close super Christian friend from high school and I go visit her at her super Christian college every semester. I don’t feel any more connected there with no one drinking because I’m not really a part of that really either you know? It’s rare for someone to be sober without religious reasons I guess. But you make it work and like 110 said you hang out with your friends when they’re not getting trashed if they like to do that. I was lucky enough that my friends did not go out every other night like 100’s did, just once in a while. There are a lot more people in the ed school who don’t drink for nonreligious reasons, though, or at least don’t get trashed. So I like hanging out with them a lot. But plenty of them like getting drunk as much as the next person as well. You find friends quickly who like to go to a movie, go out to dinner, or stay in and play games if that is the kind of stuff you like to do. And don’t underestimate taking a night off. I did it just to relax and it is amazing (I would always do Friday nights, it was the best).</p>
<p>I did drink, although far less after 21 I think, but I found a healthy balance within my circle of friends. Some nights we’d rage hard, but some nights we’d sit around playing Need For Speed (although often, those nights would end up us getting a case and “drunk driving”…although we never got really drunk, just tipsy enough we would hit a few more walls and throw controllers at each other) or Wii or go see a concert or movie or just sit around and talk. It was nice because I seemed to have enough friends that made that balance with me that if I wanted to go out and forget about my major, I could. But if I just wanted to sit around and watch a movie or trashy TV or go shopping or something, I could find someone feeling the same vibe. Fourth year, I never really went to parties outside of birthdays/specific celebrations because most of the time people preferred either social drinking in an apt/house or bars. I think a good handful of people are like that, but there are a lot of “let’s go out every night” and there are “I will never ever drink”.</p>
<p>Moral of the story? If you do want to get shwasty every night (which, btw, that reputation catches up with you…and STDs are a gift that keep on givin!), there’s people to do that. Alcohol does play a large part in college life…that’s life. Ask one of the old-school alumni on here about Easters, they’ll tell you how crap got done. But at the same time, there are people that don’t drink at all (I knew quite a few). And there are ones like me who enjoy a brewski and sometimes take it too far, but I know limits and sometimes I’d rather not spend half of the next day drowning myself in carbs and OJ.</p>
<p>On a completely separate note, to anyone who plans on drinking at any point in college: QUICKLY learn what will help cure your hangover. Sure, drinking water helps immensely but I always found if I got up and chugged a glass, bad news bears! Instead, I find heavy fiber (mini-wheats, oatmeal, whole wheat toast), eggs, and OJ/juice high in potassium/VitC are my hangover helper. I know someone who pizza and ice cold water is they’re way to go. Bodos is heaven on earth to anyone’s hangover, but $4 bagels add up. Bananas are great, as are sports drinks like Gatorade, and really any food that is energy boosting. The key is hydrating(!!), balancing sugars/carbs, and getting some usable calories in you, since you consumed nothing but empty calories the night/day before and your body is in half-shutdown mode. Also, preparing the night before is key too, make sure you eat before drinking and don’t try to drown yourself in alcohol, be responsible. You do risk death when drinking like that, but 90% of the time you either throw-up, fall down, or blackout and do something embarrassing and your friends tell you to stop drinking and go home. Any of the above is bad, try to avoid incidents and keep an eye on your friends. Also, enough alcohol violations and you risk being suspended (watched a dear friend go through that. A lot of dumb bad luck, but they didn’t really care)
Anyways, find what helps you kick that hangover. And don’t always turn to OTC meds, otherwise you’ll end up with an ulcer. Not encouraging drinking here, just offering friendly health advice :)</p>
<p>Haha shoe, have you seen that Everyday Blues about the std gift?</p>
<p>I’m not sure what dorms are “dry,” but you should probably avoid Lambeth or Bice, just because they have a reputation for being party dorms. Copeley is near the grad school, and I hear it is toned down. You can also get a single in Hereford, if you are concerned about the dreaded beligerent room mate.</p>
<p>Language housing: [Returning</a> Undergraduates, Housing Division, U.Va.](<a href=“http://www.virginia.edu/housing/upperclass.php]Returning”>http://www.virginia.edu/housing/upperclass.php)</p>
<p>You can find links to the language houses here^ but I hear they only have a few spots open, so you will probably have to apply early. They have the Shea house (Italian, Arabic, Chinese, Hindi and Urdu, Japanese, and Persian.) , German House, French House, Spanish House, and I think a few others. </p>
<p>For the record, I really respect your focus.</p>