Are colleges crazy like in the movies?

Not in my experience. But my major was economics.

Not in my experience either.

Yes…what movies don’t show though is actual classes and studying going on in between all the beer parties and sexual stuff.

That’ll be movie cliche #5839
Here in England Town they’re just an extension of school life really. You know…...boring & sedate!

Yes. And we all look like we stepped out of a magazine and have all the best stuff without ever having to work.

The frats across the street from my college housing always seemed to be having a good time.

It certainly was not my experience, but I lived at home and took the bus to campus every day. I was also an English Literature major and spent most of my time in the library actually studying. I am sure plenty of college goers have that “movie” experience, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be like that. In fact, I am quite thankful that my experience differed.

I’m British, and I want to say this is a great question!
I’ve always wondered this myself, seeing all those parties on American television.

Yes, in my experience. I went to a large, public midwestern University in the early 1990s, and plenty of kids lived the “Animal House”, movie-like college experience. I lived a much quieter existence, and it was still the most fun 4.5 years I’ve ever had. College in the U.S. can be an absolute blast. :)

My son is home for the summer after finishing his first year of college. I just asked him this question and he said, it’s crazier than the movies. lol

Luckily he has a good head on his shoulders and didn’t bother with the partying.

For some, it’s more crazy. For most, it’s not.

Yup, but only a little. The writers for “Animal House” used some of antics that caused the Frat house to have their national certificate demitted, five years before I lived in Dorm.

Real Genius or Revenge of the Nerds crazy? No.
Animal House crazy? Well, it depends on the school

It certainly had its moments where it was (I never want to see 12 naked men pulling a sleigh with a naked fatty as Santa tossing beers out to everyone ever again though)

Having gone to uni in the US and now living in the UK….the parties at American colleges pale in comparison to the weekly drinking binges by students in the streets in the UK. And in the US, usually the parties are on the weekends. Here, drinking benders happen on most nights of the week in a lot of cities that have universities…and the parties spill out from pubs onto the streets.

It’s bad in the US…but the US does not have a huge drinking culture as in the UK.

I think UK students have the decided edge on the big, crazy drinking scenes. I’m not saying they don’t happen in the US….but in the UK, all that is much more accepted and encouraged.

(However, US “spring break” is another planet altogether. That is “anything goes” and I’m guessing that movies only touch on what happens there. But once again, it is one week out of the year, and is contained mostly in certain areas of the country.)

A lot of it is close to the reality of where I went to school – UC Santa Barbara. I was in a fraternity, my best friend was in a fraternity at University of Kansas. between the two of us we had seen or done just about everything in Animal House.

We didn’t put a horse in the dean’s office, but we did a live goat inside a sorority house in the wee hours of the morning. I did know a guy who had an affair with a much older (20 yrs.) older woman who was a professor’s wife.

We had the annual rugby tournament party in our parking lot – 100 kegs daisy chained together and gone in about an hour. There were as many women as men, and it became clothing optional about halfway through.

And I went to my first toga party in 1973, five years before the movie came out.

Art school parties can be pretty insane. That’s all I’m going to say.

Yes and no. I went to art school and we spent at least 90% of our free time playing board games or video games. But everyone let it all hang out in the dorms and we got up to shenanigans sometimes. We made a slip-n-slide that took up one of the upstairs hallways and soap went everywhere. My friend R rearranged all her furniture into some sort of vertical pile/monolith one night, so the only places to sit were up by the ceiling. It was kind of like being in a giant couch fort. We made bonfires at the park at night and one night after finals we started drinking at around 3 AM and went swimming in a fountain as the sun was rising. Last time I went down there for gallery opening night, there was a dj playing trance music and a bunch of people juggling fire and dancing with flaming hula hoops.

So stuff like that happens sometimes. But mostly, we just sat around playing world of warcraft and final fantasy and eating leftover pizza.

In my experience, only if you join a sorority or fraternity. Some schools have more leniency towards partying than others.

Best and Worst Party Schools 2011

A university education in the US can cost between $15,000 – $50,000 a year, and a lot of parents and students are asking for better value for their dollar these days.

I went to Wisconsin in the late 80s-early 90s. Back To School was shot there the year before I matriculated, but I didn’t expect to party like that at school and I didn’t.

Fratboys, though, fratted with a vengeance that would make John Belushi and Lisa Birnbach blush.

Everyone else, not so much.

Great Question! I have been wondering this ever since I saw the movie College and this weekend I have had a marathon of teen movies like 18 year old virgin, american pie and such. And I am always asking myself the same question.

Depends a lot on whether or not you are working to support yourself while you’re going to the Big U.
And depends a lot on whether you live on campus or around a lot of other students or just out in civilization.

I agree with @Neurotic_David and @Cruiser. Super fun. Parties to be had. Drinking does go on more than just weekends, we were allowed opposite sex to stay over no problem, but, there is studying going on in between. I went to a big midwestern party school too, but I didn’t drink or toke, but I went to parties, and had a lot of fun being with friends. The frat houses really could be crazy. Hell, my brother floor in the dorms was a fog of smoke all too often. Fine on campus for marijuana was $5 if caught smoking. But, one of the frats I hung out at was the engineering frat, and those guys were brilliant and interesting. They still had big house parties though.

The guys on my son’s floor in the dorm would play music until early in the morning (crappy rap). His roommate also dealt pot. His roommate applied to be an RA next year. I’m thinking so he has better control of his pot distribution? seriously

Like I said before, if you have a good head on your shoulders you’ll do fine. and hopefully your roommate doesn’t say the pot is yours. :/

Not in my experience. I didn’t live in a dorm ..if that makes a difference. In Canada, fraternities and sororities are not quite the same as American ones. I think that may be a factor. I think Canadian liquor laws, in general, are more restrictive (or at least more adhered to) than in the USA.

Be aware that a lot of behavior in fraternities changed in the late 80’s because of liability and insurance issues. Most houses are now dry, parties with liquor must be held away from he house at a place with a liquor license. The national fraternities have really come down hard.

@zenvelo brings up a good point. Had our national HQ knew we threw parties for 5,000 + students and blew through over 80 half barrels in a single night with 3 live bands to boot we would have lost our charter on the spot.

ya I would say that at some points during the week, those movies are completely accurate. However, throughout the week, class and banality is king!