katliamom:
A good friend of mine is a professor at a selective LAC in the northeast. He says he sees much more hard-core partying there than at either his large undergrad university, or the large private he taught at earlier. This is echoed by a professor who taught at another well-known LAC, where there was also a (well hidden) drug problem. Two students fatally overdosed on heroin during a 3-month stint my husband spent at that school. There was simply not a whole lot to do at these small schools which are also often located in isolated/isolating areas.
Perhaps it is other characteristics of the schools, rather than being small LACs, that are more strongly associated with greater drinking or other recreational drug use.
http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/media/finalpanel1.pdf (page 23-25) describes characteristics of schools associated with more or less drinking. Page vii and 21-22 list some characteristics of students associated with more or less drinking.