College Life
Students who live away from their families
are generally housed in dormitories
at least for their first year.
Men and women often live in the same building,
though they may live on separate floors.
Some dorms have a theme, like an international house,
where students can learn about other cultures.
In language houses,
students try to avoid speaking their native language.
The idea is to learn a different language.
Many colleges and universities have a Greek system
that students can join.
This is a social system with fraternity houses for males
and sorority houses for females.
Members take part in campus activities and volunteer work,
and may also live and go to parties at Greek houses.
Colleges and universities often have many clubs
that students can join.
These include political, religious and service clubs,
as well as groups for activities
like singing, dancing, cooking, even learning how to juggle.
Schools may also have intramural sports clubs.
These are for students who do not play for a school team
but want organized sports with other students.
And schools will often recognize a new club or activity
if enough students are interested.
But one activity that legally is only supposed to be
for people age 21 and over
is drinking alcohol.
Some college presidents and others have suggested
that a lower drinking age could have the effect
of reducing alcohol abuse.
Others disagree and point to a study
just published in the Journal
of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Researchers found large reductions
in heavy, or binge, drinking in young people
between 1979 and 2006.
They said this was likely a result of
the legal drinking age being raised to 21
and other policy changes aimed at reducing underage drinking.
But they found little improvement for college students.
There was no reduction in binge drinking for college men.
And college women 21 to 23 had bigger increases
than non-students in that age group.