Sobering Statistics

Despite what you may have heard, college doesn’t have to be a drunken haze. In fact, one in five college students doesn’t drink at all. Besides, why cloud your memories from Saint Peter’s and let the myth of college drinking influence you to be under the influence?

Know the facts

*According to the Core Institute, an organization that surveys college drinking practices, 300,000 of today’s college students will eventually die of alcohol-related causes such as drunk driving accidents, cirrhosis of the liver, various cancers and heart disease.

*159,000 of today’s first- year college students will drop out of school next year for alcohol- or other drug-related reasons.

*All alcohol is not the same: 12-ounce beer = 5-ounce glass of wine = 1 ½ ounce shot of 80% proof liquor.

*The average student spends about $900 on alcohol each year. Do you want to know how much cash the average student drops on his or her books? About $450.

*Almost one-third of college students admit to having missed at least one class because of their alcohol or drug use, and nearly one-quarter of students report bombing a test or project because of the aftereffects of drinking or doing drugs.

*One night of heavy drinking may cause you to experience impaired behavior, loss of inhibitions and concentration, impaired judgment and sexual functioning, coordination problems and can actually impair your ability to think abstractly for up to 30 days, limiting your ability to relate textbook reading to what your professor says, or to think through a football play.

*Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant. Despite the fact that most experience a euphoria initially from alcohol, it does act to depress certain body functions that are controlled by the central nervous system (heart rate, respiration, blood pressure), and this is where the danger lies.

*The impact of alcohol effects are different for different people, and can be different for the same person at different times.

*Several factors influence the effects of alcohol: amount and rate of consumption, presence or absence of ingested food, mood state, gender (women metabolize alcohol at different rates than men), weight, and previous experience with alcohol.