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Taylor Lockard

Prof. Cook

English 1101

23 November 2021

Usually, when you think of college the first thing that comes to your mind is drinking and

partying. Drinking has become a huge culture and thing to do in college. This has been going on

for years and does not seem like it is going to stop anytime soon. But when people look at

college this way, they never see the damaging effects it can have on you and everything around

you. Drinking can lead to a lot more than just having fun at your dream school and really should

not be the reality of college anymore. Drinking in college truly can be very damaging and have

long-lasting effects. It can damage your brain, lead to academic problems, and maybe even close

death experiences. Drinking has many consequences and is very damaging, it should not be

college culture anymore.

Drinking in college can have many negative effects, one effect that it can have is

damaging your brain. Of course, binge drinking, and drinking in general, can have an effect on

your brain no matter what age you are. As young college students, their brains are still

developing and can have a huge impact on them and their lifestyles. One of the most common

signs of drinking is brain reduction and shrinkage. With this being said, it is said that consuming

a large “amount of liquor in a short period of time affects specific regions of the brain that are

responsible for comprehension and reaction”(Tanner 3). Drinking in college and at young ages,
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can lead to having an undeveloped brain. Brains do not fully develop until around the age of 25.

College drinking also has an effect on memory loss. The use of alcohol also messes with your

brain because it leads to risky decision- making and makes you have lots of confusion. Overall

drinking affects the student's judgment and self control. Impulsive drinking does affect the area

of the brain that is responsible for memory and other cognitive tasks. Which later in the college

and academic years can lead them to have academic problems.

The college culture of drinking can not only cause brain damage but can also lead to one

having academic problems in the future. It is important to realize that many college students pick

going out and drinking over studying for their tests and studies. It is proven that many students

will fall behind in class because they are drinking. Drinking in college can lead to the students

missing class because they are hungover and tired from the night before. It also said that

“students who binge drank alcohol at least three times per week were roughly six times more

likely to perform poorly on a test or project as a result of drinking”(Koob). This means that the

college students that are drinking are performing poorly in their studies. To point out, above it

was said that drinking can cause memory loss and memory loss can lead to academic failure as

well. Drinking can make it hard for the students to focus and memorize the things they need to

remember. So overall drinking has a very negative effect on the student's actual academic

performance. But not only does it have a negative effect on academic performance, but drinking

can also lead to close death experiences.

However many people, including college students say that alcohol can help perform new

friendships, and keep the students social. Although this may be true, there are plenty of other

ways that you can be social and bond with friends in your college years. You do not need to have

the excuse of drinking for any of these things to happen. In college, you can get into different
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clubs or even bond over what you're majoring in. The college students could even just go out to

eat and enjoy their favorite things together. There are plenty of things, other than drinking, that

you can do to find friendships and be social.

Like it was said above, Drinking in college can lead to serious and harmful experiences,

even death. Not only is it bad on your overall brain, but it can put you in very harmful situations.

SA and assault nowadays are nothing to joke around about, and college students drinking puts

them up at a high risk of this happening. When drinking, you do not know what is going to

happen or what is going on and it makes you an easier target. Drinking can also lead to drinking

and driving, which puts you and others in lots of harm. It is to be said that “1,519 college

students ages 18 to 24 die from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, including vehicle

crashes”(Koob). This proves that there have been many deaths because of alcohol consumption

and has many negative effects overall.

In conclusion, Drinking in college truly can be very damaging and have long-lasting

effects. It can cause many death experiences like Sexual assault, assault, vehicle harm, and put

many people at risk. Drinking can also cause academic problems like missing class and falling

behind. Lastly, it can lead to brain damage by causing lots of problems to mess up your brain,

and even cause shrinkage. Although I am sure that drinking culture in college will not stop

anytime soon, if it were, it would reduce the amount of young aged students to have undeveloped

brains and have good health when growing up. It would also allow the college students to be able

to stay away from being dependent on alcohol when they are older. There are many positive

effects that would come from stopping the drinking culture in college. And all of this proves that

drinking in college is damaging and will have long-lasting effects, no matter what.