Findings from the 2009 Administration of the Your First College Year ...

more hours on online social networks (30.6% vs. 23.2%). On the other hand, a slightly largerpercentage of male students reported spending more than five hours in the typical week instudent clubs or groups (11.5% vs. 9.4%). Male students were also more likely to reportspending five or more hours in a typical week partying (21.5% vs. 15.8%). Overall, only 17.7%of all students spent more than five hours partying in a typical week.Table 21Student Social Activities in the First College Year, by GenderSpent more than 5 hours in a typical week: Female Male TotalSocializing with friends 74.9 77.1 75.7Online social networks (e.g. MySpace, Facebook) 30.6 23.2 28.1Partying 15.8 21.5 17.7Student clubs/groups 9.4 11.5 10.1Partying and alcohol consumption often go hand-in-hand. Approximately half of all firstyearrespondents reported “occasionally” or “frequently” drinking beer (47.5%) and/or wine orliquor (53.0%) since entering college (Table 22). Taking a look at heavy episodic or “binge”drinking, the majority of students reported drinking five or more alcoholic beverages in a rowzero times over the last two weeks (65.8%). However, 34.2% did report drinking five or morealcoholic drinks in a row at least once in the last two weeks.Table 22 also shows that only one in ten students reported that during their first year ofcollege they “frequently” felt depressed (11.8%), and a similar number felt lonely or homesick(10.8%). Slightly more students, 15.8%, reported seeking personal counseling since enteringcollege, and two in five students (40.1%) reported “frequently” feeling overwhelmed by all theyhad to do.20