The first six weeks

Starting college means new friends, new freedom and a lot of nights out. This guide helps you and your friends make a simple plan for those nights: what you want to drink, how you'll get home, and how you'll look out for each other.

What to know about the first weeks of college

• The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism says the first six weeks of first year are a vulnerable time for heavy drinking and its harms. Part of the reason is what students expect and the social pressure at the start of the year [1].
• Several things make college drinking riskier: lots of unstructured time, easy access to alcohol and less contact with parents. The harms include injuries, violence and sexual assault [1].
• Women aged 18 to 24 experience sexual violence at a higher rate than women of any other age [2].
• People who use substances to commit sexual assault most often use alcohol, either alone or with other drugs [4].
• Drink spiking does happen. In a survey of 6,064 students at three universities, 7.8% said they had been drugged, or believed they had been, without knowing [3]. It's worth keeping an eye on your drink, but most of a good plan is about the alcohol people choose to drink and about sticking together.
• Most sexual assaults of college women happen at or near their own home, or at the home of someone they know [2].

Sexual violence is never the fault of the person it happens to. It can't happen without a perpetrator [2].

What you and your friends can do

None of these steps is required. Pick the ones that fit your night, and offer the same care to your friends.

1. Make a plan before you go. Go out with friends you know well and agree how you'll check in with each other [5].
2. Decide your own limits. Think about what feels right for you ahead of time [5], and don't drink more than you meant to, whatever anyone else is doing [4]. If you choose to drink, eat first and drink water through the night [5].
3. Sort out the ride home first. Plan a sober ride home. Don't drive after drinking, and don't get in a car with someone who has been drinking [5]. Some campuses run a free night ride service [5], so check whether yours does.
4. Keep hold of your drink. Open it yourself and keep it with you. Be careful with punch bowls and shared containers, and think twice about drinks someone else hands you [4].
5. Pay attention to how you feel. Get help right away if you feel drunk when you haven't had any alcohol, or if a drink hits much harder than usual [4].
6. Look out for each other. Watch out for your friends and ask them to watch out for you. If a friend seems far drunker than you'd expect, get them somewhere safe [4]. Alcohol makes it harder for people to notice when something is wrong [2], so agreeing on this before the night starts helps.
7. Know when to call 911. Call for anyone who is passed out and won't respond, is breathing slowly or not at all, is vomiting while passed out, or has pale or bluish skin [5]. Some schools have amnesty policies, and some states have Good Samaritan laws, that protect people who call for help and stay with the person. CU Boulder and Colorado are one example [5]. Check what applies where you are.
8. Consider bystander training. At one campus that ran the Green Dot bystander program, sexual violence was 25% lower over four years than at two campuses without a program. Most of that drop was in assaults involving alcohol or drugs [2].

If something already happened

It is not your fault, however much you drank and whatever you did or didn't do [2, 4].

• If you were assaulted or think you were drugged, call 911 or have a friend you trust take you to a hospital emergency room [4].
• If you can, try not to pee, shower, change clothes, eat or drink before you go, because staff can collect evidence. Ask for a urine test, because some drugs leave the body quickly [4]. If you've already done any of these things, you can still go and get care.
• Support is there whether or not you decide to report to the police [4].
• If this happened to a friend, you can stay with them, help them get to care and help them contact the hotline below.

Where to get help

• RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline: 800.656.HOPE (4673), or text HOPE to 64673, 24/7
• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988, 24/7
• Crisis Text Line: text HOME to 741741, 24/7
• In an emergency, call 911
• More options are on our Need help now page.