William & Mary student here. Haven’t really encountered a huge weed culture during my four years here. I would say that if you are in greek life, or more specifically a fraternity you are probably more likely to encounter weed and drugs, but overall it isn’t a huge part of the campus culture.
Would your son be interested in the University of Rochester? It is a high-caliber institution with a very midwest vibe Students work hard and party so so. There seems to be a nice mix and lots of things to do.
I know my daughter spent one night at Smith and was offered pot and other drugs. One night. Sixteen years old.
Don’t consider Bard or Hampshire.
@momofgingers I don’t have direct knowledge, however you may find some helpful information: try googling unigo or niche. They give some insight on drug culture, party scene, and more. We have found both seem to be accurate overall including the description of students, professors, etc…YMMV and take it with a grain of salt but at least it’s another possible data point.
lol is this a serious question?? There’s drugs in every college.
I had Rochester on my list but I know they want demonstrated interest, and my son isn’t planning to visit any schools until he gets in (long story but basically, he hates college visits).
@momofgingers , colleges understand that not everyone can visit a school. He can demonstrate interest by meeting a regional rep, requesting an interview, signing up for emails, and contacting admissions about specific questions. U of Rochester is a GREAT school with very intelligent students. It was one of the most diverse colleges we saw, in terms of all different types of people, from preppy to hipster to nerd to regular kids. It is a school without a big party culture for serious students who want to learn. It does have Greek life, which is not dominant. Partying happens, but isn’t emphasized. He should consider it.
Lindagaf, you are the second person to tell me that Rochester would be a very good fit for my son. I am going to start researching it. I didn’t say all of this before, but my son has very good grades and decent scores, but is not super studious or into academics just for the sake of learning. For this reason, we took William and Mary off the list. My son also does theater and a cappella group at school, but does not want to major in theater. He is interested in social work or education. We need a progressive enough environment that he will feel comfortable (he attends the most diverse-in-every-way high school in our state) but as I said before, the “hippie” schools that kids around here like are too risky for him. I think he will like a lively mix of creative, smart but not competitive, liberal-leaning students, not too Greek or preppy, but not so politically liberal that microaggressions dominate the landscape. I know, a tall order.
Check out St Olaf. The general adjectives for students there is “wholesome” (beside smart, musical, international minded, etc check niche for student opinions.)
I think Dickinson and Davidson may work too for what you want.
Personally I believe, to a certain extent, the “Top 10” ratings. I take them with a grain of salt and in combination with other sources like unigo, niche, etc., mentioned above.
I was not aware of Earlham having a stoner reputation and that is not our family’s experience. Perhaps in the past? Earlham has 20% international students, who in general are very focused on their education. I have to admit that Earlham is not in a very exciting location, for better or worse, and I think it lacks in student social programming. It probably offers plenty of theater and music options. Very progressive. Very diverse. Lots of internship and research opportunities. Almost everyone spends some time overseas.
I would look for a smoke free campus. Yes, there are still edibles, yes students can still go off campus or into the woods to smoke, but it just makes it harder to do. Most users of pot smoke it and that’s harder to do if the entire campus is smoke free.
Someone will probably bring up Grinnell (all campuses in Iowa have to be smoke free) to disprove my point, but it may be the exception that proves the rule. Earlham just went smoke free a year ago.
If it were my son, I’d look for smoke free campuses in states that have not legalized marijuana. I would encourage him to at least consider substance free or other specialized housing (wellness type, maybe not crunchy granola type). My D did quickly learn that the wild parties (which she avoids) all occur at one of the residential language houses, so proceed with due diligence.
Yes pot is everywhere, but I agree with your premise and think it’s feasible and worthwhile to at least stack the deck in a certain direction, no guarantees of course.
My friend’s son went to U Rochester. He is not a party kid and found a like minded group of friends. He spent most of his free time doing theater but he was a physics major. Unlike many schools, UR apparently has theater programs and activities that are available to non-majors or even minors.
Almost every college in America drinks alcohol and smokes pot. I completely understand your concern, but there are some things that you can do that may help your son avoid smoking pot.
- Commuting: This may help him avoid smoking, but it all depends on how far the drive is. If it's a reasonable drive, then this would help him in the long run.
- Be more strict with him: Now, if you really want him to avoid smoking, then you can give him a call every night via face to face chat to see if he's smoking or not. He may not like it, but I'm unsure of how trustworthy he is. He can just say that he's not smoking thru a text message, when he's really doing it.
- Understand that it's on him if he makes a bad decision: This is the harsh truth to reality, but you could possibly give him a mind changing talk that may get him thinking that this wouldn't be good for him in the long run. But, every time he smokes, he's always going to regret doing it later on in life if a video gets posted online of him doing that.
My son has been in an intensive outpatient substance abuse program since the beginning of summer, and has been clean ever since willingly entering the program. We still have this school year and next summer to help him stay on track before letting him move away to college, which is his goal and ours!
So this is not an issue of him trying to evade detection now or later, in college. He is actively working on addressing the issues that led to his overuse of marijuana, as well as doing things to help him adjust, such as finding a new group of friends for this school year (not easy to do), and involving himself with old activities (theater and a cappella group) and new activities (ultimate frisbee, anchoring the school newscast). So I have high hopes (pun NOT intended) that he will stay on this path and not repeat his mistakes in college, or ever.