J.C.
Hi J., I went to ASU and turned out ok (lol) but it is definitely a party school. It is a LOT of people in a 1 square mile campus so there will be opportunities your daughter probably hasn't been exposed to yet at 16. But it all depends on her maturity and self control, hopefully she will use good judgement. It sounds like you are already concerned...I don't want to scare you but I will tell you there's plenty of drinking, plenty of drugs, plenty of parties, etc. Unfortunately, my roommate's friend was killed while I was there as a result of riding on a motorcycle with someone who had been drinking...he hit a curb right outside Gammage Auditorium and she was thrown from the bike and did not have a helmet on. There were also reports of a rapist that attacked several times near campus when I was there. Playboy magazine came looking for recruits for their college girls edition, you wouldn't believe how many wanted to be in it. This was all from 1994-1998, so its probably changed since then. And I'm sure things like this happen at many large school campuses, even small ones. I'm just telling you my experience. Of my 4 freshman roommates, I am the only one to graduate (due to getting caught up in having more fun than studying). I am happy with my education and am currently utilizing my degree in my profession, but a big regret of mine was that because the school is so big, you are literally a number in your classes. Like I could not even begin to come up with a professor's name to give me a recommendation or anything. My student advisor was horrible, it was up to me to try and figure out what I needed to graduate and I found out that I was short a "cultural" credit 3 weeks before graduation and ended up having to take a summer school class after I walked because of it. So while I feel my education was good in the end, just let her know that she will be in large classes for lectures (unless its a lab or something...those were smaller), and won't get a lot of individual attention. There are good things about it though, the athletics of a large state school are really fun to go to, they have a great student recreation center (gym and pool), the libraries are very good and there are many computing centers around campus where she can have access to computers to use for studying or otherwise, and the student union has lots of options for food, etc. I guess the bottom line is, it is what you make of it. Good luck to you!