One in six high school students on overnight stays at prospective colleges drinks alcohol during the visit
Many colleges urge prospective students to make overnight visits to their campuses, even arranging for them to spend the night in the dorms. But a new survey finds that one in six high school students on such overnight visits reports drinking during their stay.
(This may explain why so many high school students have told me over the years that that they somehow missed the official college tour while visiting campuses.)
A survey by the Center for Adolescent Research and Education at Susquehanna University (CARE) and SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) found that about 16 percent of surveyed teens who had been on an overnight visit reported drinking alcohol during the visit.
The results don’t surprise me as going to college parties is often a highlight of a campus overnight, especially during informal visits where two high school juniors bunk in the dorm room of an older sibling or cousin. I would love to see this survey extended to find out whether the teens drank once they arrived at college and with what frequency.
(A friend taking her high school graduate to a summer freshmen orientation at UGA a few years ago said one of the slide shows featured police mug shots of teens who had been arrested for alcohol during an earlier freshmen orientation. She said the mugs of the bleary-eyed 18-year-olds and the university’s warning of dire circumstances for such offenses scared her. She was not so sure they scared her son.)
In the survey, teens also reported engaging in sex or other intimate sexual behavior (17 percent), using drugs other than alcohol (5 percent) or driving while impaired (2 percent) during their overnight college visit.
According to the release:
The study, conducted for CARE and SADD by ORC International Inc. surveyed 1,070 U.S. teens from age 16 to 19, 270 of whom indicated they’d been on an overnight college admissions visit. It includes high school students currently making college visits and current college students reflecting on previous visits. Data was collected online between April 17 and 20, 2012.
“This information offers a cautionary tale to parents and college administrators,” said Stephen Gray Wallace, director of CARE and an associate research professor at Susquehanna University. “One in six teens who have been on an overnight college admissions visit, some as young as 16, are making poor and potentially tragic choices on campus. Colleges and universities should examine their policies on campus visits to ensure the safety of young visitors and their hosts.”
For some teens, the college visit was the first time they engaged in some of these behaviors. For example, 51 percent of teens who reported drinking during the overnight visit said they had done so for the first time. Fifty-two percent of respondents who reported engaging in some type of sexual activity during their visit indicated that they participated in behaviors in which they had not previously engaged.
“These results speak to parents about the importance of communicating about risks and setting expectations for their teens in advance of new and potentially challenging experiences,” said Penny Wells, SADD’s president and CEO. “The temptations are waiting for these young people as soon as they go off to the next phase of their lives at college. Parents should open a strong communication channel with their teens to guide them in the right direction.”
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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71 comments Add your comment
Anonmom
June 27th, 2012
9:42 pm
I think we do some things backwards — I think Europe has the drinking/driving order right — it’s no “big deal” to get alcohol — “kids” can drink as teens — it’ s not that big a deal — they learn to drink responsibly and I’m not convinced that they have the same issues with alcohol poisoning and binge drinking that we have here (yes, they have drunks….). On the other hand, it’s really hard to get a driver’s license in Europe — I think it’s somewhere north of 18 and costs a fortune. I think that puts the emphasis and the “specialness” on the driver’s license rather than the drinking — I think that makes much more sense — instead we hand the keys to a heavy and deadly machine to 15 year olds and 16 year olds and then tell them they can get into lots of trouble for drinking before they hit 21. They can be sent to war to fight and can vote at 18 — if they commit a serious crime or have sex with someone against their will or harm them by the time they are 16 they can do some serious jail time — but sorry, no alcohol until you are 21 …. This is actually pretty crazy. It goes back to some of my earilier posts about this crazy, weird “teen” zone that America has intentionally created that didn’t really exist before 1908 and that, physicaaly and harmonally probably shouldn’t have ever existed…… we’ve made a mess of our “young adults” with some of these rules and they backfire on us.
mountain man
June 27th, 2012
9:48 pm
“There is a problem when if they can’t get their hands on anything illegal, they will go to the store and buy cans of whipped cream or pressurized computer cleaner or rent a helium canister from the party store.
It’s not a problem that will be fixed by lowering the drinking age.”
If they are that desperate, then having a law mandating a 21 drinking age doesn’t help either. What the law DOES is trap good kids into rediculous “crimes” if they get caught.
mountain man
June 27th, 2012
9:49 pm
ridiculous
Atlanta Mom
June 27th, 2012
9:56 pm
I have a question for you folks. When I went to college, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, drinking age was 21 and everybody drank. But we didn’t go out and plan to get sh*t faced. It did happen upon occasion, but it wasn’t the plan. But as I talk to my children, that seems to be the goal for the evening.
Can anyone explain that to me?
TimeOut
June 27th, 2012
10:06 pm
My son decided to ‘cruise for chicks’ at UGA while he was still 17. Being short on money, long on stupidity, and harboring a growing problem with alcohol, he decided to take the bet offered on the terrace of a local establishment, and drank several shots in a row. He was proud that he won, and happy with his winnings. He displayed them with glee ot the arresting officers. It took him a year to work off his charges via treatment, public service, and fines. While it is true that most can drink casually with little danger, I wonder how much misery we could banish from our society if we chose to empty our land of booze. It’s no more necessary to a good time than is a cigarette, a chocolate bar, etc. The difference is that chocolate bars, even tobacco, rarely result in random acts of violence on our highways, in our families, etc. When I adopted my son when he was 3, I was aware that his Mexican Indian heritage included generational alcoholism. If we can’t banish alcohol, and all of our teaching does not protect those who lack the ‘enzyme’ or whatever it is to properly deal with alcohol, then what can we do? I don’t want to pretend that I care about being a ‘prude.’ That means nothing to me. I care about my child’s future. I care about my siblings, three of whom have been maimed by drunk drivers in three separate accidents: one lost his leg; another had his back broken; another had extensive plastic surgery to rebuild his face. Can’t we have a good time without pretending that we don’t pay an often tragic price for the privilege? We should admit that this is what we value, and that this is the price we are willing to pay.
Atlanta Mom
June 27th, 2012
10:11 pm
Timeout,
Many asians also lack the enyzme to digest alcohol. But they aren’t looking to ban the drug.
bu2
June 27th, 2012
10:39 pm
@mountainman
I remember the argument well about being sent to Vietnam and not being able to vote. I was in the groups that could vote and drink at 18. The drinking age changed shortly thereafter.
Its just a good law. 18-21 year olds aren’t real responsible. If its harder to get, its less abused. Some people make the same argument you are about legalizing drugs. I think it just leads to more abuse and more addiction.
And the problem isn’t as much what the kids do to themselves. Its what they do to others when driving and drinking. Its all well and good to say parents should teach them better. That doesn’t help the people who get killed.
3schoolkids
June 27th, 2012
11:29 pm
It is ridiculous “crimes”. It is not the under age drinking by itself (talk to the campus police and they will tell you if a kid is drinking and not causing any trouble they probably won’t do anything but make sure they get home ok). It is when they drink and drive, or drink and fight, or drink and rape, or drink and steal, or drink and do drugs or drink and get hit by a car or jump off a balcony that it becomes ridiculous and dangerous, for them and others. Do you think a group of kids quietly drinking in the basement are going to get in trouble with the police? Not unless something bad happens. The kids know this. The biggest game for many college girls now is to go party at the local bar, get in with the fake id (which is SO obviously fake-no challenge in that) and NOT have to pay for any drinks. It’s not that they are “trying to get away with something” or enjoy breaking the law-they just want to party.
Mountain Man
June 28th, 2012
7:35 am
“But we didn’t go out and plan to get sh*t faced. It did happen upon occasion, but it wasn’t the plan. But as I talk to my children, that seems to be the goal for the evening.
Can anyone explain that to me?”
Atlanta Mom, I graduated in 1980 and the drinking age was 18, though it changed soon after that. Are you saying you were BEFORE it went down to 18?
I don’t understand why people want to drink to excess, either. We all know why MEN want WOMEN to drink to excess. To quote the rhyme:
Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker.
That is something I preached to my daughters constantly. I didn’t have a problem with them drinking, but I wanted them to know that there was a REASON those men in bars bought them those free drinks. I think I got my point across.
Sometimes I wonder if people get drunk so they can do things that they want to do and then excuse them in the morning by saying, “oh, I was drunk, so don’t hold me responsible.”
Mountain Man
June 28th, 2012
7:43 am
“It’s not a problem that will be fixed by lowering the drinking age.”
LOWERING the drinking age should never have been a question – the question was why was it ever upped in the first place. It would have been different if they had said “we have done studies and the brain is not capable of making informed decisions until 21, so we are raising the age of majority FOR ALL PURPOSES to 21″. That would include voting, serving in the military, buying cigarettes, buying alcohol, entering into contracts, everything. But they chose the coward’s way and just said “we can take away these kids’ rights and THERE IS NOTHING THEY CAN DO ABOUT IT”, so they did. If it was just about kids dying, how many 18-21 year olds have died in Iraq and Afganistan?
Yankee Prof
June 28th, 2012
8:20 am
My freshman orientation program invited parents to stay overnight in a dormroom as well, though in a separate wing from their children. I snuck off to an off-campus party at my earliest opportunity and stumbled back to the dorm around one a.m., only to run into my dad and a group of the other fathers, who were stumbling back from the one bar located just off campus!
AlreadySheared
June 28th, 2012
9:24 am
@Timeout:
“I wonder how much misery we could banish from our society if we chose to empty our land of booze.”
This was tried once via a constitutional amendment. It was a disaster.
@bu2
An 18 year old is a grown man or woman – able to form legally binding contracts, vote, and yes serve our country. Eating 5 – 9 servings of fruit and vegetables daily, along with engaging in regular exercise, will also promote good outcomes and prevent bad ones. Do you want to make a special “eat your vegetables” law for adults under 21 as well? Since they aren’t respsonsible? Otherwise they may just eat McDonalds cheeseburgers and sacks of chips.
3schoolkids
June 28th, 2012
11:15 am
And there it is right there “we can take away these kids rights”…to drink so we will. Drinking alcohol is a right? That is the problem, our society thinks of alcohol as a right to be given or taken away. Landsakes Ma get out the still, the govment is takin’ away r likker. We don’t know how to deal with it, Prohibition is not the answer, but neither is free access to everyone, so we have to have an age cutoff somewhere. Anyone notice the uproar over banning sugar laden sodas and obesity? Ever wonder why there is no uproar about alcohol consumption and obesity? Do you know how alcohol impacts your metabolism and how much sugar is in a monster margarita? Yet there is not a peep about that because alcohol is for adults and adults have a right to decide for themselves.
And by the way, I don’t have a problem with raising the voting age, enlistment or drafting age, etc. I would much have preferred my brother to not have been able to enlist right after graduating high school and go to Iraq. It was a huge learning experience for him, but I thank God everyday that he got to come home and pray to God everyday for those who didn’t and those still serving us.
bu2
June 28th, 2012
12:38 pm
@Sheared
Missing the point. Its not about what they do to themselves. Its regulated because of what too many were doing to others. Noone cares how loud you play your music if you live in an isolated mountain in Idaho. But if you live in a city, there are noise ordinances at certain times for bars and residences. Drinking isn’t regulated for those under 21 because they might destroy their liver or become lifelong alcoholics. Its because they might get in a car and kill someone else.
So they can vote, so they can join the army. There’s no reason to be hung up on one age for everything. They can’t be a US representative until 25 I believe. I think its 35 for Senator or President.
Mountain Man
June 28th, 2012
2:06 pm
“Drinking isn’t regulated for those under 21 because they might destroy their liver or become lifelong alcoholics. Its because they might get in a car and kill someone else.”
If that were true, then why not just address the drinking and driving part? 18-21 year olds are no more likely to kill someone in a drunk driveng accident than other age groups. As a matter of fact, 30-33 I believe is the highest death rate for drunk driving. Why not just make drunk driving punishable by one year in prison for the first offense? I am totally in support of that. No, they would rather just take away the “right” of the young.
And yes, drinking alcohol is a right. The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I believe purchasing alcohol falls under the latter two.
Mountain Man
June 28th, 2012
2:12 pm
So if we are talking about age limits for safety reasons, why have we not set a maximum age for safe driving, say, 70. Why not? Because the over-70 crowd has too much political pull. No matter how many people are killed by aged drivers.
Currently you have to have a license to drive bigger, heavier vehicles, unless it happens to be a RV. Any 75-year old can drive a 40-foot long RV that is 15,000 lbs and 8 feet wide on a regular drivers license, with no special training whatsoever. Take away that right as a safety issue? Not on your life, they VOTE.
AlreadySheared
June 28th, 2012
4:24 pm
@Mountain Man,
Some folks believe essentially that the only things which are yours are those things which teh government allows you to keep, and THEY will let you know what those things are.
To people like bu2, the idea that all men “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” is a quaint anachronism. To these folks, if we can increase the greater good by limiting some individual freedoms, then we should, by all means, go for it.
Anonmom
June 28th, 2012
11:46 pm
Throw stones if you want but I think we should legalize drugs and stop spending billions and trillions on the drug war too — (hey, anyone following gun walker in Mexico– it’s a version of the drug war….) — If we were to legalize drugs –say let “weed” be legal and regulated ala cigarettes and alcohol with the same rules and stigmas and then tax it so government gets the money and it can’t be laced with stuff… and you couldn’t hurt anyone when you took the stuff and (no, I’ve never done it) — then you took the harder stuff and had it available through doctors with prescriptions that could only go to addicts and comes with rehab and counseling then maybe we would save a lot of money, clear the jails of folks who are there on crimes that aren’t “harming” others (make room for the criminals who are harming others) –… bring the drinking age down to rational (18? 16?) and make the driving age higher…. that would make much more sense to me. Okay, throw stones…..
Ole Guy
June 29th, 2012
1:50 pm
They wanna be “big people”…letum be big people and, in the process, learn how to handle “big people” ways. One of the most important big people skills I learned…albiet in the 60s military…was driving with one eye open so as not to “get the multiple ditches confused”. In the hindsight of many years, I would quip that I probably would not have flown half the missions I did if I had been sober.
While it’s easy…ala nancy reagan…to simply say “just say no”, it’s far far more important to learn how to be a responsible adult while sidesteping the landmines of reality. I can’t believe half the crap I pulled, in my wayward 20s, and woke up the next morning with nothing but a “bad head”. Was booze-fueled behavior, then or now, justified? Certainly not. However, the big…no, make that “humongus”…difference…there was, once upon a time, a little something called CONSEQUENCE…something which, somehow, tended to (let’s call it) modulate our behaviors. I’m not alltogether sure if that sense of consequence is anything more, today, than just another ole fashioned quantness.
If the kid, away from the guidance of “big people”, can learn to accept the responsibilities of big people, well and good. If, on the other hand, the kid behaves like a kid the minute he’s outa sight of big people, well, he’s got far bigger challenges than going to college.
Quite frankly, the campus visits are quite useless and serve no real purpose. The first time I saw a college campus was 3 days after my release from active duty; I was there, not to “visit” the campus, but to register for classes which were scheduled to start the next day. Whynhell do you folks insist on the “toe in the pool” approach to college? Just jump in and start swimming for cryin out loud!
JacketFan
July 5th, 2012
12:17 pm
Two pennies of anecdotal nothingness:
My sole college visit was to the one school I wanted to attend – a small Methodist church in the North Georgia Mountains (ahem). It was a weekend visit, with us spending the night in the dorms on a Friday and Saturday night. Both nights we treated to impromptu parties in the woods above the campus planned by current students attending summer classes. I had a great time, got to socialize with future classmates and “upper” classmen (it was a 2-year college at the time) and learned more about what to expect at the college from those conversations over lukewarm keg beer and cigarettes than anything the orientation leaders had planned for us. It’s a rite of passage. Now, can teenagers drink irresponsibly and over do it? Absolutely. But, so do a lot of grown folks (a trip out to the bars in Midtown, VaHi, EAV, etc. will prove that). I agree with the first commenter – we Americans have a real bug in our butt when it comes to drinking and it does nothing to curb this behavior.
JacketFan
July 5th, 2012
12:17 pm
that should read, “small Methodist college”