ALL colleges are party schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the point is that if your kid is not a partier they can still have a great experience at a “party” school. Party culture exists everywhere so let’s stop labeling schools this way.

+1

[Anonymous]

Underage drinking everywhere. Drugs, if that is how you roll, everywhere.
But
Some schools start partying on Friday. Others start on Wednesday.
Some schools shut it down for mid terms and finals weeks. Others don’t ever go to class.
There are schools that have parties.
And then there’s party schools like LSU and ASU. Huge difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the point is that if your kid is not a partier they can still have a great experience at a “party” school. Party culture exists everywhere so let’s stop labeling schools this way.

Yes, non-partier kids can have a great experience at any school. But we know several non-drinker kids who've coplained loudly about having SO many kids in their dorm getting plastered on the weekends and vomitting in the dorm bathrooms. And then there are the mandatory group projects when members of the group don't pull their weight because of their partying. You can pretend that as long as you find "your people," the amount of student partying has zero impact on you, but that's not true. The overall "vibe" impacts everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the point is that if your kid is not a partier they can still have a great experience at a “party” school. Party culture exists everywhere so let’s stop labeling schools this way.

Yes, non-partier kids can have a great experience at any school. But we know several non-drinker kids who've coplained loudly about having SO many kids in their dorm getting plastered on the weekends and vomitting in the dorm bathrooms. And then there are the mandatory group projects when members of the group don't pull their weight because of their partying. You can pretend that as long as you find "your people," the amount of student partying has zero impact on you, but that's not true. The overall "vibe" impacts everyone.

Exactly. The people who keep saying this want to convince themselves that they or their binge-drinking kids are “normal” (instead of at risk).

As has been said ad naseum, UNIGO posts survey results from all schools about alcohol and other drug use , and the results vary greatly.

Those are actual data, not one poster’s rant.

[Anonymous]

As a former partier - I can assure you that even on the lamest, most academically nerdy campus, the partiers - even if there are only three of them - will find each other. And also - if your kid is nerdy enough and not interested, they will probably not be bothered beyond just knowing it's going on down the hall.

[Anonymous]

Agree totally...the overall vibe affects everyone.

Here's my best examples from my freshman year at a famous football-focused university.

Freshman female roommate careless about locking dorm room door in mixed gender dorm. Fall semester, RA's drunk boyfriend gets confused on way back from bathroom and stumbles into our room. Wasn't too freaked out because I'd heard him bumbling around on other side of wall. But not pleased to have to explain to drunk man in the dark that he is lost and his warm bed is elsewhere. He went right away but did I even get an apology from him or RA? Nope.

Spring semester, after bowl game, am sleeping when I wake to hear my room door open and slam shut. Hear a menacing male laugh. Guy is leaning on the inside of the only door. I say to "Get Out" and he just laughs. I freak out for a few seconds that this time I really am at risk of getting raped and sit up to take evasive action when suddenly I hear my stupid roommate ask me "Who the H are you talking to...!!" She had already come back for the evening and went to sleep leaving the door unlocked again...but at least she was there. Mr. Menacing Laugh laughs creepily again and leaves. I get up, lock the door, get dressed and start quarrelling with my roommate about what to do next. Meanwhile, the idiot guy goes in some other girls' room, trips over a female guest who was sleeping on the floor, and that whole room erupts in screaming. We open our door to see floormate with some sort of makeshift club running around the corner in her granny nightie, chasing the guy. Campus police were called but I never heard if the guy was punished. After all, what did he do except open a few unlocked doors? Heard he was a student's friend in town for the bowl game and not actually enrolled. Our students tore down our goalposts that night (our team lost). That night, also, some dorm people did thousands of dollars of damage to a dorm bathroom for fun. Perpetrators were never caught so everyone had to pay a $200 anonymous vandalism repair charge at the end of the year.

I transferred to a different, allegedly less prestigious, University for sophomore year where I could get a single room. In general, much less idiocy going on there and the drinking culture was somehow lamer, less menacing, and never had to pay a vandalism repair fee.

People who like to drink a lot think it's all in good fun, but for the bystanders it can be boring, disgusting, and/or dangerous. Even if it's subtle, different schools definitely have different norms about campus life.

[Anonymous]

All schools have parties. Some kids go to parties. Not all schools are party schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not like back in the day. Kids today couldn't keep up with us.

+1. Agreed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seems to me that the schools in a boring location are the big party schools, if the school is in an interesting urban area there is more to do so less resort to just drinking for fun.

they just party at the interesting places

[Anonymous]

I live next to VCU in the fan, and it is pretty lame with the party scene. There is one block that I know of that has day and night parties, but past that it is quiet. Feel back for those kids, great city and no parties or college bars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems to me that the schools in a boring location are the big party schools, if the school is in an interesting urban area there is more to do so less resort to just drinking for fun.

they just party at the interesting places

\

And pay more for the alcohol and bars they hang out in the cities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Quit saying one college is a big party school over another one.

ALL COLLEGES ARE PARTY SCHOOLS! Yes even MIT.

Yes, & all cars have 4 wheels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seems to me that the schools in a boring location are the big party schools, if the school is in an interesting urban area there is more to do so less resort to just drinking for fun.

Wrong. Schools located in urban areas have tons of bars where students drink for fun. Same thing, different locale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Quit saying one college is a big party school over another one.

ALL COLLEGES ARE PARTY SCHOOLS! Yes even MIT.

Do you always think in binary terms? Of course, parties can be found at all colleges, thanks for the newsflash. Do some schools have a school that parties way more than others? Uh, yeah. Tulane parties are going to be way better than MIT.

+1
At Tulane you are more likely to also find a group who will party almost every day/night vs MIT/CalTech/other serious academic schools where "kids party hard and study hard". My kid is at one, where yes kids party, but very few party hard on Thursday, friday AND Sat night. My own kid will spend 8 hours at the library studying with friends on Friday night, then go out on Sat night. If they have 3 midterms on Mon/Tuesday, they might only go out for 3-4 hours on the weekend, the rest is spent studying/hagning out with friends at the dorm/apartments.
This is common for 80-90% of their school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, but some are definitely more so. Similarly, you can find drugs at all colleges. They’re more prevalent at some than others.

Absolutely, OP sounds very naive.