The Truth Behind “Party Schools”

When it comes to selecting the right college, prospective students and their parents have to consider a long list of factors, including academics, location, tuition and extra curricular activities. Unfortunately, most college guidebooks won't give them a comprehensive picture of campus life. Prospective students, excited by the impending freedom of college, and parents, distracted by visions of academic grandeur, often fail to consider potential problems such as high-risk student drinking. Alcohol is a persistent and costly problem that affects all colleges, campus communities and students, whether or not they drink. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, “Some 1,400 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die every year as a result of hazardous drinking, and a half million suffer unintentional injuries under the influence of alcohol.” ¹ While college manuals highlight so-called “party schools,” they don't provide information about the many negative consequences of student drinking.

	Princeton Review lists top party schools, but fails to report the dangers of high-risk drinking on college campuses.

The Princeton Review, a company that provides services to help students prepare for college, graduate school and professional licensing exams, publishes an annual handbook called “The Best 351 Colleges.” When the book comes out each year, the media routinely reports The Princeton Review's list of the top 20 party schools. What the media overlooks, and the guide fails to report, are the problems that often come with partying: excessive student drinking, alcohol poisoning, injuries, assaults, academic failure, arrests, vandalism and many other health and social problems.

“The Princeton Review should be ashamed to publish something for students and parents that fuels the false notion that alcohol is central to the college experience and that ignores the dangerous consequences of high-risk drinking,” says Richard Yoast, director of the American Medical Association's Office of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse. “College binge drinking is a major public health issue and a source of numerous problems for institutions of higher living.”

As if to underscore Yoast's concerns, The Princeton Review's #1 party school in 2003, the University of Colorado, Boulder, made headlines the Spring of 2004 when its football team's alcohol-fueled recruitment parties led to rape charges by several female students.

A Harvard study found that the prevalence of sexual assault, including rape, is higher at schools with high rates of binge drinking. ² Students and parents need to look beyond college guidebooks and recruitment brochures to assess the safety of a given campus' alcohol environment. Although any student can become the victim of alcohol problems on campus, families with a history of alcoholism may be especially interested in getting answers to the following questions ³:

• Is the college surrounded by a high density of bars and liquor stores?
  
• Do the bars in the surrounding community promote drink specials such as “nickel pitchers” or “ladies’ night,” which encourage high-risk drinking?
  
• Are there penalties for bar owners who violate underage serving laws? And are local police enforcing these penalties?
  
• Does the college have a clearly defined alcohol policy that is widely publicized and consistently enforced, including a policy to control high-risk drinking at fraternities and sororities as well as residence halls?
  
• Does the college offer alcohol-free residence halls and activities?
  
• Have there been alcohol-related crimes in and around the college campus, including sexual assault or violence in the past year?

You may have to dig to find answers to some of these questions. But this information can help you and your child make an important decision as well as help you sleep better at night once the school year begins.

See Alchol News Article- Albany is top party school in nation

1. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/Reports/TaskForce/

2. American Medical Association, Alcohol Policy Solutions Matter of Degree Program. www.AlcoholPolicyMD.com/press_room_mk_8_29_ten.htm