Social life at Swat vs. Bowdoin

dchow08
Sat, 21 Mar 2009 10:53:29 +0000

I almost feel like I’m going on the defensive because people keep misinterpreting what I’m saying.

Izz: You’re putting words in my mouth. I never said that people who don’t drink are bored during the weekends, nor that drinking is the mainstay of life here. I also don’t drink. I said that your options are somewhat limited if you don’t drink. I also believe that there are way more things to do if you go to a large school or a large city, and I’ll stick to my guns.

interesteddad: I also never suggested that drinking here is heavy, but I wouldn’t say that it’s light either. You don’t have to be bored if you don’t drink, but, as I said in the previous post, I think that you have to be able to form a circle of friends and be proactive and find things to do that aren’t already set (whereas things like Paces parties and Pub Nite are set). By the way, you don’t have to drink to go to the Paces parties.

Swarthmore probably does have a low binge drinking rate, but a significant proportion of the student body does drink (I’d estimate maybe half of the student body drinks regularly on the weekends.). So the drinking rate at Swarthmore is not the same as the binge drinking rate. Most Swatties don’t drink to the point of binging.

interesteddad: The events you mentioned aren’t really weekly things, besides the Olde Club event and the dance recitals. The screening of The Graduate occurs only once a year, and the sushi and sake party probably wasn’t a weekly thing, so I’m interested in what things she did besides homework on weekends in general. Either way, I still believe that you need to be proactive and seek opportunities to find things to do (e.g. she decided to host a party).

So I think that your options are somewhat limited; I’ll stick to my guns.