College and Alcohol...Is it worth it?

Seth Reeves

It was around the beginning of August, and I was so excited that I was about to head off to college until I found out I had to do a mandatory Alcohol Education class online for Georgia Tech. It was supposed to take about two hours to do, and I wasn't going to drink in college anyways, so why did I have to do it?

Well, after finishing it, I found that I learned a lot. My perspective on college and alcohol changed, or so I thought. The course explained that only a small group of people in college actually drink heavily, and cause the problems that people hear about. But, it said that most college students just like to drink a little bit. Also, it mentioned that college students were actually in favor of stricter drinking laws. Finally, the course said that as long as you are old enough to drink, and do so wisely, it's alright.

I must say that I agree mostly with the Alcohol Education course. It had many interesting facts and statistics, and I learned a lot about what to do in certain situations. I believe that most people would agree that as long as you are careful, drinking a few beers won't affect you academically. But, after doing some research, I found some interesting statistics done by Ball State University that might change some people's minds...
- 25 percent of college students report that their drinking caused them to fall behind in classes and receive lower grades overall.
- 34 percent of college students say they've missed at least one class because of their alcohol or drug use.
- Nearly 34 percent of college students admitted to failing a test or project because of the aftereffects of drinking or drug use.
- One night of heavy drinking can impair your ability to think abstractly for up to 30 days, hampering your ability to understand complex concepts or think through a basic math problem.
(For more interesting stats, click here.) Here is a graph about how many college students drink:



So, the question remains, is it worth drinking in college to have fun, and possibly let your grades drop?

For myself, I believe that it is not even worth drinking in college. Christopher J. Lucas wrote that more people drop out of college now than ever before, so I wonder if alcohol is at all related to that? Also, I think that people don't realize that alcohol is still considered a drug. So many people believe that alcohol doesn't affect them that much when it really does. Click here for more information.

I know where I stand, but what about you? Post a comment!