No one can deny that UConn is a well-known hub for wild weekend festivities. By Sunday morning, you can almost feel a university-wide hangover in the air. Storrs is scattered with empty Wings containers and Keystone cans. But what happens when you wake up on a Saturday morning and are already dreading the walk to Carriage? What do you do when Huskies beckons but you'd almost rather stay in than strap on another pair of heels? Don't panic: the rager spirit has not abandoned you. Visiting friends at a nearby campus may be the change of scenery you so desperately need.
University of Rhode Island
URI is located in Kingston, R.I., and has one major element that UConn does not - the beach.
"All the good parties are off campus in Narragansett, where most of the upperclassmen rent beach houses," said Shelby Carroll, a freshman at URI. "We call this area 'The Line' because you can just walk down streets and find parties. These are a lot of fun, but they are 15 minutes away so I always need a reliable DD," she added.
If a beach blast isn't your cup of coffee, head into Kingston.
"There are a lot of local bands that play around campus and in nearby coffee shops," said Megan Barry, a 7th-semester human development and family studies major and resident of South Kingston.
University of Vermont
If you're looking to take a break from T-Pain songs and catfights, look no further than UVM. Molly Northrop, a UVM freshman, painted a picture of a more peaceful scene.
"The atmosphere here at UVM is very relaxed," she said. "You will find that the people you meet are laid back and extremely friendly. When it comes to the party scene (which is pretty large here), you will hear a good amount of The Grateful Dead and a significantly less amount of rap. I have noticed that the students here take a genuine interest in getting to know each other, and I have not witnessed a single fight nor come across a single rude person since my arrival."
University of Massachusetts at Amherst
If UVM sounds a little too chill for your liking, you can find the exact opposite at UMass-Amherst.
Jason Matarazzo, a 3rd-semester business major and recent transfer from UMass- Amherst, warns, "If you go to UMass to party, you're bound to run into a ton of crazy frat kids, fights and people being obnoxious. There's a lot of strobe lights and rap music."
Matarazzo also noted positive aspects of the UMass-Amherst scene.
"Parties are pretty centralized and you don't have to walk that far. They have buses that pick you until 3 or 4 a.m. and will stop in front of parties to pick up busloads of kids," he said.
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