So about two weeks ago I asked some questions in my post. Mainly I was asking if everyone going into college expected to get drunk and have a great time? Are kids expecting that college is just one big party? I am now going to ask, does this whole idea of partying once you get to college affect the way students pick their college? What if you don't drink?
These questions I never really considered before I sat down and actually thought about them. Before I came to college I wonder what my thoughts about college were? I decided this weekend to ask my little sister this question, she is a junior in high school. She basically told me what the movies portray. Which makes sense. Thats the only way a high school student would know. See, the gap between high school and college is enormous. Its almost secretive I guess you could say. College kids don't usually hang with high school kids. Thats an unwritten rule I guess. Why in the hell would you hang out with some junior in high school when you could be hanging out with some college kid you never met before. Anyway, I think this whole partying scene of college is true.. Movies and media does play an enormous role in how college is viewed. For an example my 16 year old sister has no idea what college is really like and when she watches a movie about it, Road Trip ect., she is going to see college how that movie portrayed it. Besides who wouldn't want to believe the movies, they make everything seem awesome. In this case kids are going to be coming into college thinking that drinking is a huge part of college and they will get drunk everynight of the week if they can help it. And you know what, they are partly right.
So now that we have established that high schoolers have this party school idea in there head when it comes to college. We must wonder how this image effects the decision on what school to attend. See when I looked for colleges I looked at them with only a couple things in mind, in this order:
1. Do they have the major I want?
2. How is the town/party scene/social aspect.
3. Is this an academically good college... is it too hard where i can't have fun, is it too easy where all the kids are going to be dumb.
When looking through the college review sites I mainly looked at the social rankings of the school.. for an example #2 for weed... #7 for hard alcohol... #11 for parties.. #33 for prettiest girls. If it was ranked in those categories I took interest in it. Now what did I want to see here? Personally I don't know. When I saw alcohol, parties, girls... I got a little excited and to be honest I favored a school much more that had these rankings than a school that didn't. Of course a prospective student is going to want a great social scene but when do you draw the line. When is #1 better than #11? When does academics play a role? I can not tell you the amount of people that have told me they came to CU boulder for the party scene, where was academics? I'm interested to see if schools with rankings in the top ten list for party schools are considered more by prospective students. However you have to ask what makes a party school in the first place. Good sports team, 25,000+ attendance, what is the magic factor? Or does this even matter; party school or not, parties will still rage and alcohol related accidents will still flare. With whom to blame, sports? Mass amounts of kids? Movies? Freedom? Stress? Work load? I'd like to blame everything.
Now the last question I'd like to consider is, what if you don't drink?
Do people seriously decide to not drink in college?! Well they must be weird.
Welllll actually no, those people aren't weird or dumb, they're smart although it takes discipline. Let me explain. Down the hall I have a friend who chooses not to drink. Everyone likes him because he is different and genuine so he has friends... not necessarily friends he can hang out with on the weekends but other than that he has friends to talk to and eat with. Now how about the weekends, what does this kid do? Well he got involved. He goes skiing practically every weekend and as for what he does on a Friday or Saturday night? Well he is a genius so a lot of his time is spent studying, but when he doesn't study he either is working or he goes out with his friends from his church youth group. See you don't have to drink to make friends or fit in. This kid probably has more friends than me and he hasn't had a drop on alcohol in his life. You don't need to drink. See if you sit on your ass all day and don't do anything to get involved and you still don't drink then it will be difficult to find friends and thats even the case if you do drink. I think the best way to avoid alcohol is getting involved on campus, get a job, and focus on your school work. Friends come easy, you shouldn't have to be making sacrifices to get those friends.
John
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