On College Party Culture

The semester is fresh and Berkeley is slowly waking up from its winter stasis. The streets are packed and loud with students looking for a place to party.

The more time I spend in college the further removed I feel from that mindset. I certainly had it as a freshman. As someone who's always preferred a night relaxing with my buddies (or even on my own) than raging, I really wonder why I felt that way. How many of these freshman trying to get into my fraternity's party really want to be here?

I think nobody will need convincing that this comes from the popular image of college life, which we see in movies, TV shows, songs, liquor commercials, etc. At the end of the day watching a raging college party is way more entertaining than seeing a few friends study in the library, even though the latter is probably a more accurate representation.

As is typical for the pop-culture industry, it's also about selling you something: an image. An image which you have to live up to if you want to "do college right", and which you may have to buy a few brand-name liquors and albums to achieve.

First things first. There is nothing wrong with participating in the party culture. Seriously. Tons of people genuinely enjoy it and that's fantastic. If you're one of those people: party on.

Unfortunately, I'm not. While I had a lot of fun pledging my fraternity, my biggest regret in college is forsaking my studies that semester and permanently dropping my GPA 0.5 points. It's closed a lot of doors. I'd wager that a great deal of college students are also not willing participants of the college party culture and are facing an enormous amount of pressure to conform to it.

The irony is that college is about the complete opposite of what the party culture promotes: individual development. Not just academically, but development of every aspect of your persona.

I've found that there are four critical rules to maximizing your time at college: study hard, socialize, be physically healthy, and enjoy life. Do these however you want, but do them.

This is where party culture becomes damaging. Will partying help you be social? Definitely. But what about the rest? Studying? Definitely not. Physically healthy? Hard to say, but given the calorie intake of liquor we'll go with 'probably not'. Enjoyable? Entirely depends on you. If you're like me: not really.

College party culture promotes a lifestyle that is not only not universally enjoyed by those that are pressured to participate, but also damaging to the college experience in general. When I look back at how I've spent my time in college, I value the nights gaming or watching movie with my few, close friends far higher than partying at my fraternity. I've skipped tons of nights on frat row to spend it in San Francisco with my girlfriend and I've never regretted it once.

College is about becoming your own person. Don't let anybody or any body dictate how you should do it.