Alicia Baca always planned to go to college, and that might be what led her to binge drink during her freshman year.
According to an analysis by Steven Bloch, senior research associate for AAA, more young adults not planning to go to college reported binge drinking than those who planned to attend college. But once the students reached college, the binge drinkers switched positions.
Forty-two percent of college freshmen reported binge drinking, while 34 percent of adults not attending college binge drank.
John Steiner, project coordinator for UNM's Campus Office of Substance Abuse Prevention, said the findings are interesting to him.
"It seems like high school students are saying, 'I'm going to college I'll do my drinking there,'" Steiner said. "The ones that go get a job might have less time to drink than students who make it like their minor."
Having five or more drinks for men and four or more for women on one occasion defines binge drinking.
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Bloch compiled studies and research on freshmen binge drinking over the past decade to answer one question: What exactly happens when students graduate high school and become college freshmen?
The analysis was released by AAA New Mexico on Aug. 31.
Bloch said there's something about college that leads people to binge drink, especially when students break free from their parents and sow their oats for the first time.
Baca, a sophomore at UNM, said as she got more and more freedom, drinking became more common, although she never drank to the point where she was sick.
"It's the freshman year when you try it all," she said.
She said the fear her parents instilled in her kept her from drinking in high school.
But Sarah Lovato did the opposite and made high school her drinking years, although she had also planned on attending college.
"I drank more past my limit in high school, but more consumption-wise my freshman year," she said. "I drank more stupidly - more binge drinking."
Midway through her freshman year, she said she was burnt out.
COSAP conducts the Core Institute alcohol survey every spring and routinely finds freshmen drink more than their college peers.
It seems incoming freshmen have some expectation of college and alcohol, said Jill Anne Yeagley, COSAP program manager.
"Many assume that drinking and drinking as much as you want come along with it," she said.
Yeagley said that's not what it's about at UNM. According to the Core survey, most UNM students drink moderately, if at all.
She said she finds most freshmen overestimate how much people drink.
Norm campaigns that show students not everyone drinks all the time are one way to approach reducing alcohol consumption, Bloch said.
COSAP does this by giving students written information, presenting theater that weaves together drinking and violent attacks, and having them participate in game shows. She said that helps let students know about the risks of drinking and also about the norms at UNM.
