Party Schools- worried?

MAmom111
Fri, 18 Mar 2022 11:28:58 +0000

@CollegeNerd67 wrote “ Agree that at most colleges, one can find a party crowd if they want one. I do think that the amount and level of partying can vary depending on how hard the college is to get into (kids aren’t likely to jeopardize all the hard work it took to get the acceptance) and how demanding the course work is (the “work hard/play hard” scenario, but mostly on the weekends). STEM-heavy colleges with demanding courses of study are less likely to have 24/7 parties (kids who do that on a regular basis won’t last long, anyway). Nonetheless, there’s always a handful who sailed through high school and don’t take college rigor seriously.

One might encounter more of a robust party scene at larger, sports-heavy schools (some with higher acceptance rates).’

I would highly disagree with this. I went to HS in a city with 2 of the highest ranked schools in the country. We would go to parties at both these schools senior year in HS as we had aquaintances at both from HS. These parties were crazy. Hard alcohol, hard drugs, sex, you name it, it was going on. My much lower ranked, easier admit college 45 minutes away had nothing like that going on. We were actually listed as a “party school” on many lists even though we were a smaller school but our parties consisted of hanging out in an off campus apartment drinking keg beer on Thurs-Sun nights. Work hard/play hard is really a thing at some of these high ranked schools. It’s like nerds gone wild, I think many of these kids were never invited to a party in HS and they’re making up for it in college. When they play, they really play. Two of my good friends went to a T-3 school, one ended up in rehab junior year, the other one was a life-long coke addict till about 5 years ago. Both were extremely successful In their careers thanks to their education but at what cost? I realize this is anecdotal and can happen at any college, but both my friends said the stress levels at this college caused many kids to turn to drugs. They also had many rich friends who could afford to buy them.

My own kids do/will partake in college as I know they already drink in HS. Parties are a huge part of college life for the majority of students. I’m not worried about them going to parties, I’m more worried about what they will be offered when they get there and will they have the willpower to say no if it’s something they are not interested in.

I do chuckle at the number fo parents on CC who say their kids are not looking to party in college. They may not be looking for it, but most of them will find it.