Thoughts on "party schools"

wolfpiper
Sun, 18 Mar 2007 04:39:36 +0000

As many of you know, I sought heavily to avoid heavy drinking “party schools” in my college search and went off rather reluctantly thinking that my midsized state u would be all alcohol all the time while my friends at SLACs would not encounter much drunken partying. To make a long story short, boy was I wrong. While there certainly is drinking at my UM, I have never felt any pressure at all to drink and find that there is almost never a dearth of things to do–and I even went Greek! (all the soriority houses are dry, by the way). Friend #1 goes to small, mid-selectivity LAC that is perhaps known for a pot scene but not a drinking scene.Also not a drinker, she’s had real trouble with the drinking scene at her school, even though she lives in a subfree dorm. Alcoholic drink recipes are published in the school paper and she says the dominant topic of conversation is how drunk everyone got or is going to get. Friend #2 goes to highly selective LAC known for intense academics and often recommended on CC as school for people who want to avoid drinking-heavy party schools. Her facebook page is rife with references to heavy drinking partying. I know all this is ancedote and that some schools and some Greek systems are more party hardy than others, but I guess my points are 1) Don’t leap to conclusions about schools based solely on reputation, 2) Greek does not always equal alcoholic, not Greek does not always equal sober, 3) Don’t assume your kid does/doesn’t drink based solely on the school they go to.