According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, college students are among the top populations that binge drink. About 40 percent of college students ages 18-22 report engaging in binge drinking at least once each month. Binge drinking is defined as men drinking five or more drinks in a two hour time period or women drinking four or more drinks in a two hour time period.

Each year, 1,825 college students die from alcohol related injuries and 696,000 students are injured by another intoxicated student. Also, one in four students suffer academically due to their drinking.  With so many students binge drinking, it is surprising that alcoholism rates for college students aren’t at a very high rate. This may be due to the fact that most college students who may have a problem don’t believe or even realize they do. They think it is normal to go out to the bar every night because they are in college. They don’t realize they can’t stop because they don’t have to.

Some college students do end up realizing they have a problem with drinking and get help. However, the amount of students who do so is very low. College students should be educated on alcohol, binge drinking and lifelong affects of alcoholism. Education could help lower the rates of binge drinking in college and lead the students who abuse alcohol in the right direction. It could teach them what is normal drinking behavior and what is not.