College alcohol use: A full or empty glass?

Data from the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study (1993) were used to describe weekly alcohol consumption and its associated problem s among a representative national sample of college students. The median nu mber of drinks consumed/week by all students, regardless of drinking status , was 1.5. When students were divided by drinking pattern, the median numbe r of drinks/week was 0.7 for those who did not binge drink and 3.7 for thos e who did so infrequently. For frequent binge drinkers, the median was cons iderably higher: 14.5 drinks/week. Nationally, 1 in 5 five college students is a frequent binge drinker. Binge drinkers consumed 68% of all the alcoho l that students reported drinking, and they accounted for the majority of a lcohol-related problems. The data indicate that behavioral norms for alcoho l consumption vary widely among students and across colleges. Therefore, it may not be possible to design an effective "one size fits all" approach to address college alcohol use.