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| Should we study tonight? - Why?! There's a great party we can go to instead! Woo!!! |
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Benny "Stud" Hill approaches a couple of birds
on the beach but is startled by clicking camera. |
Why do we need to party? We do not. But college kids, that's a different story. "There's a time and a place for everything," and that place is college. Campus life is built around it. It's practically what the U.S. university system is all about -- socialization and normalization of heavy drinking to get by, to socialize, to speak up, to let loose and drop the stifling inhibitions beaten into us.
Whatever the case, party status is a big consideration for most college students selecting a college, though most will just follow someone to the other person's choice of school, so terrified are we to be alone or set off on an uncharted course. This party obsession has terrible side-effects, but they seem par for the course. Welcome to adulthood. Welcome to the workplace on the first day of your life sentence.
Why do we crave "
partying"? It is the only relief we have ever known to
the disease of craving (
tanha). It is at best a temporary fix that too often slides into habituation, obsession, and even addiction. This "partying" may be defined as
self-soothing through one or all of the senses:
- tongue and tastes,
- eye and pleasing sights,
- body and pleasurable sensations,
- nose and scents,
- ear and engaging sounds,
- mind and fantasies.
It seems to mean getting high and tight, but it is more than drunkenness, prescription pill popping, smoking, and dabbling in fentanyl laced street drugs. Sex is partying. Dancing is partying. Getting out of our heads surrounded by fellow distraction-mates, aka fast "friends," is partying. Sunday night rolls around, Monday looms, what to do? Climb on and off the carousel?
"If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are a PEACE, you are living in the present"
Which University of California campus is it?
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| Students on UCSB campus mill about like stoned beach zombies (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times) |
.
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| The fictional lives of coeds (HBO) |
Southern
California - This California university, home of many Nobel laureates, tops the 2025 party school list. Is it Chico State? It's always Chico State. No. San Diego? It must be San Diego! No. Spartan Trojans of USC? Bubbly Bruins of UCLA? Shroomin saps of Santa Cruz? Are they dropping acid at UC Berkeley? Meth at Stanford?
(LA Times) A California university that’s home to Nobel laureates has also gained the distinction of being the
top party school in the United States, according to a recent Niche ranking.
- Expect applications to skyrocket as the top 10% of California students eligible to access the UC system -- by their hard work, historical exclusion, natural academic or sports talents, or willingness to do endless homework and participate in boring school activities -- being sick and tired of living like goody-two-shoes, finally have a chance to break free and underage-drink to excess to deal with social awkwardness, clinical anxiety, and trying to finally be part of the app-based campus hookup culture they've heard so much about.
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| White privilege is off the charts as is our fragility |
To calculate the rankings, Niche — which uses a database of nearly 500,000 student college reviews — factored in:
- student surveys on the party scene,
- access to bars,
- athletics grade,
- Greek (sorority/fraternity) life grade, and
- access to restaurants.
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| Yes, we always wanted to learn to party! |
Reviews from current and former students [confessing about their and their peers' drug use] describe the university as “combining academic rigor with a laid-back coastal lifestyle” and praised the “vibrant student community.”
More than half a dozen Nobel Prize winners in economics, physics, and chemistry — including David Card, Alan J. Heeger, Herbert Kroemer, and Shuji Nakamura — have taught at UC Santa Barbara over the years.
“I used to be an over-the-top party guy but living in Santa Barbara/Isla Vista helped me form new healthy outdoor habits while learning out how to be more responsible,” one student wrote.
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| We'll worry about consequences later. Party time! |
“There are so many activities you can partake in around town and on campus that is not partying... It is literally
heaven on earth for an 18–21-year-old as long as you don’t overdo it.”
But one person, who described him/herself as the parent of an alum, rated the university only two stars, complaining that students “party all day.”
- Declining or advancing? In 2015 The Princeton Review ranked it third on its list of top party schools
Spring Break Rager
“College kids party, but UCSB is out of control,” the person wrote. One of the best-known party events is “
Deltopia,” an unsanctioned spring break party that unfolds in April.
The party, made popular among UC Santa Barbara students who live in Isla Vista near the campus, was paused during the COVID-19 pandemic but
resumed in 2022, resulting in multiple arrests and citations during
the weekend-long event.
In 2014, more than
20,000 people were estimated to have attended Deltopia, which
devolved into a riot resulting in dozens of injuries and more than 100 arrests.
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| Cruise ships ply coast of the three Californias |
The UC Santa Barbara student association at the time issued a statement saying that “
The ‘wild party’ stereotype and image exists because we, the students, allow it to exist.”
This year and last year, Santa Barbara County officials closed the beaches in Isla Vista in anticipation of
Deltopia. Last year more than 150 people were issued citations, while 23 people were arrested.
More
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| Personality/intelligence intertwine? Everything we know is wrong? Depression from moving? |
