Schools without Fraternities

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for the responses. I completely realize that no fraternities does not mean no drinking. I went to a Jesuit school with no Greek life and everyone drank themselves silly all throughout the week. I think my son just wants to avoid a school where there isn't much left for a non frat boy to do. He doesn't want to be an outcast.

In that case I think your son's better off researching how prominent Greek life is at a school, not whether or not frats are present at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn't drink at all in college because I drank too much one day in high school. My friend's mom was out of town and we decided to raid her liquor cabinet while we were studying for an exam. Needless to say we didn't know our limits. I drank so much I was throwing up bile and had a black out. My friend was about to call the ambulance. I felt so horrible I didn't drink at all for the next 10 years!!!

Ha! I drank so much one night in high school that I blacked out and cracked my head on my friend's front steps. He had to sling me over his shoulder and carry me home (several blocks, uphill). My mom came home and found me unconscious in a puddle of puke and blood in my bed. She threw me in the shower, then got out her suture kit and stitched my forehead (she was a doctor).

Didn't slow me down for a minute. I did learn a valuable lesson about my limits, though.

[Anonymous]

I went to several colleges, including one with fraternities, and I never drank. I belonged to an eating club, and still didn't drink. I'm not a drinker, nor were my friends drinkers.

I think the NESCAC schools might be good choices if your child wants small liberal arts school. All have computer science, physics, and some have 3/2 BA/MA in Engineering programs with other schools like Columbia, Carnegie Mellon and Cal Tech. The NESCAC schools have generous FA, so you will be fine as long as he keeps his grades up and gets in. They don't have engineering, though. Bucknell and Lehigh have great engineering, but both have Greek life. The engineering students (now I'm making a huge generalization here) tend not to be a big part of drinking life at those schools, though, so your kid can get through four years at either of those schools and never set foot in a fraternity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to several colleges, including one with fraternities, and I never drank. I belonged to an eating club, and still didn't drink. I'm not a drinker, nor were my friends drinkers.

I think the NESCAC schools might be good choices if your child wants small liberal arts school. All have computer science, physics, and some have 3/2 BA/MA in Engineering programs with other schools like Columbia, Carnegie Mellon and Cal Tech. The NESCAC schools have generous FA, so you will be fine as long as he keeps his grades up and gets in. They don't have engineering, though. Bucknell and Lehigh have great engineering, but both have Greek life. The engineering students (now I'm making a huge generalization here) tend not to be a big part of drinking life at those schools, though, so your kid can get through four years at either of those schools and never set foot in a fraternity.

Trinity in Connecticut is a NESCAC school and has engineering.

[Anonymous]

Williams

[Anonymous]

This is like avoiding women because you don't want to avoid sex. I am not trying to be mean, but your son is of an age where he may want to practice self-control and college is a time for him to explore clubs and sports and various social situations. The greek scene is a small fraction of most colleges. It's weird he is limited his academic scope to schools with no frats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is like avoiding women because you don't want to avoid sex. I am not trying to be mean, but your son is of an age where he may want to practice self-control and college is a time for him to explore clubs and sports and various social situations. The greek scene is a small fraction of most colleges. It's weird he is limited his academic scope to schools with no frats.

Frats=alcohol. He doesn't want to go to a school where you need to join a frat to fit in. Alcohol has ruined the lives of many of our family members. Call it weird but it isn't weird where we are coming from.