Many schools seek to educate their students on the dangers of excessive alcohol use, but health professionals warn that education alone cannot solve the problem; the white males in the Greek system who remain the heaviest drinkers are also those receiving the most information.

"You can educate students, but as long as alcohol is thrown at them … they're going to drink," said Henry Wechsler, principal investigator of the Harvard School of Public Health's College Alcohol Study. Limiting access is crucial to curbing consumption, Wechsler said.

While some colleges increase penalties to deter risky alcohol use, other schools, including the University of Texas, Cornell University, and Emory University, have implemented medical amnesty policies so that students are free to seek help in alcohol-related emergencies without fear of punishment.

Another popular approach is the interactive self-assessment test. AlcoholEdu, one such program developed by Outside the Classroom Inc., asks students about alcohol use, family drinking history, and other issues. Over 450 universities use the program, most assigning it as part of sanctions for alcohol-related offenses, and some 140 offering it to its new students.

The University of California at Berkeley actually required that all 6,900 incoming freshmen complete the AlcoholEdu course this fall. At the University of Illinois, students who completed the program reported 50 percent fewer drinking-related problems than students who had not participated.

Another assessment program, named Check Up To Go, or e-CHUG, was developed at San Diego State University and the University of Texas-Austin. E-CHUG, which lasts only 10 to 15 minutes, tells a student how much his or her alcohol use is equivalent to in cheeseburgers. One student said of the program, "It said I drank the equivalent of 44 cheeseburgers in a month," or more than 95 percent of males his age.

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