62% of new college kids teetotalers

2/7/2011

Chicago Sun-Times

The tough economy appears to be having a sobering effect — literally — on incoming college freshmen. Some new surveys of high school students suggest increasing numbers are beginning college as teetotalers.

Outside the Classroom, which provides alcohol-education training at colleges, has found that the percentage of incoming freshmen who abstain from alcohol has jumped from 38 percent to 62 percent since 2006.

CEO Brandon Busteed said his organization surveys about a third of freshmen entering four-year universities and colleges each year.

It isn’t clear why the number of teetotaling 18-year-olds is up, but the economy is a big reason, Busteed said. Students “are taking [college] more seriously because they realize it’s their future,” he said.

Students also are realizing that nothing they do is private.

“A lot of young adults realize that the quickest thing you can do to destroy a job interview is to go in all shiny and polished up and then they check Facebook” and there they are “at a keg stand,” he said.