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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Avoid Greek life or a school with a heavy Greek presence.

[b]Avoid colleges in the middle of nowhere where there is little to do except drink. [/b]

Avoid colleges with an exceptionally high number of wealthy students.

But in the end it will be on your student to find other activities and friends who share her view. [/quote]

Avoid colleges in the middle of major cities where kids go to clubs [/quote]

NP. I really do agree overall with the general guidelines above; however,  it's easy to say "avoid colleges in this location or that location" when the reality is that if such a college has the program, professors and major the student wants and needs, it's possibly short-sighted to pass over them just because they're in the middle of a cornfield or in the middle of Manhattan.

OP, be sure to have your DC look for those activities, as one PP mentioned, that will give her bonds to other students based around shared interests--not around random partying. If they are focused together on whatever the environmental club is doing, or on organizing people to vote, or on playing board games, or on cultural activities, etc. etc., then there is likely less focus on mere partying defined as drinking. Yeah, sure, the political club or game club etc. can drink while doing those things. But it's just easier not to drink if the activity is, well, active, rather than just meeting up to hang out.

And I tend to agree re: Campuses of any size, anywhere, where the social life is heavily focused on frat or sorority parties. Also campuses with a LOT of off-campus living Greek or not. It's much easier to have plenty of alcohol and center things around it when you have your own big Greek house or off-campus apartment. Of course I know students can drink in dorms and even at college sponsored events at some colleges. But it's simply easier to drink at parties off campus or in frat/sorority houses. And many Greek houses are formed around the idea of "we all like each other/get along/our bond is social" and not formed around "we're in the same major/have the same commitment to a cause/our bond is academic or cause-related."

Of course not all Greek houses everywhere are party houses, and it's very hard to tell because they all talk about their service projects. It's hard to research this stuff for some schools but your DC can look online at various review sites where students post about colleges and sometimes are frank about drinking and drugs. Can your DC read that stuff but also take it objectively, understanding that some posts will be people with an ax to grind? I'd also Google news articles from the local papers and TV in the area around schools of interest, to see if they turn up as having partying issues. College Confidential is a site you can also try though it's a more limited set of people who reply to things there. [/quote]

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