"Party Schools" And The Risks Of Substance Abuse During The College Years

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Earning a reputation as a notorious party school does little to enhance the prestige of an institution, but reactions to these persistent reputations vary drastically between colleges. Some schools have enacted fundamental policies designed to influence substance use, while others have offered little more than lip service reactions.

College is a major risk period for binge drinking and the development of substance abuse problems, and parents and prospective students should examine the drug and alcohol policies of a prospective school carefully before committing to four years of temptation.

As much as school administrators try to minimize the negative repercussions of a "party school" reputation, there is a statistical correlation between greater rates of alcohol and drug abuse and dependencies at these so called party schools than at other comparable colleges.

Substance abuse in college

College alcohol and drug abuse is a pretty big problem, and the percentage of alcohol and drug abusing people at colleges statistically exceeds the levels of abuse in non academic environments. There are a number of factors that contribute to increasing substance use and abuse during the formative transitional years out of the family home through college, but one of these is certainly a persistent collegiate culture which promotes binge drinking and recreational drug abuse.

With as many as 33% (Harvard medical school reporting) of college students meeting the criteria for substance abuse, and a significant percentage of these students meeting the more serious criteria for alcohol or drug dependence, addictions professionals acknowledge that college substance use represents a significant challenge to health.