I did the fraternity thing in college as others have mentioned.. I am an extremely moderate drinker and have been ever since I finished college. Sometimes as

I did the fraternity thing in college as others have mentioned.. I am an extremely moderate drinker and have been ever since I finished college. Sometimes as little as 1 drink a month, and in periods where I am actively working towards a sports/fitness goal I might go months without drinking any alcohol. I definitely drank to excess in college but never to a huge degree or constantly. Even in a fraternity that is pretty wild there are a spectrum of students. I finished school with a 3.7 GPA, though I would say the fraternity impacted my grades, they might have been even higher. But almost any social activity would have had an effect. At my school the social scene was pretty dead outside of greek life. - Fraternities & sororities generally have risk management plans/training these days. I am not sure I think they are more dangerous/less responsible than underground/unorganized social situations on a college campus. Fraternity parties often have alumni supervision. Even 20 years ago when I was in school those parties were registered an inspected. House parties, off campus parties, hidden dorm parties were far riskier. - The European model of letting people drink younger often gets brought up in these discussions. The only problem I have with that is Europeans on average drink far more alcohol than Americans throughout adulthood. I am not sure I believe the kids are more responsible in Europe either when you consider things like Alcoholic drinks marketed to high school students that would never fly here. - The massive fraternity parties are getting shut down these days on campuses. My alma mater has banned all drinking on campus and at fraternities/sororities/social clubs on and off campus, even for members/alumni who are 21. The weird thing here is they put a loophole in for sports teams... athletes who are 21 and alumni can drink at sports team events.. ridiculous. - Some of the largest national social fraternities & sororities are requiring all chapters to ban alcohol among members now