Harvard students suffer the same level of harassment from their hard-drinking peers as the rest of the nation, and undergraduates report having to "babysit" drunk roommates much more often than the national average.

"One reason [for the high numbers] is the close proximity of students, with 99 percent living on campus," Riley says.

And the academic drive of Harvard students--one of the main reasons undergraduates choose to limit their drinking--makes them more sensitive to the raucous, disruptive behavior of others.

"The competitive, driven nature of students here also makes them more likely to not tolerate and to complain about having to baby-sit drunk people or having their work interrupted," Riley adds.

Problem Drinking

Harvard students fall far short of matching their national counterparts for the frequency of their binge drinking, but they are almost exactly on par with national averages for secondhand effects of alcohol use.

About a fifth of Harvard students report getting in a serious argument as a result of others' drinking--similar to the rate of occurrence at colleges nationwide.

Almost half of all Harvard students said they have found vomit in the halls or bathroom of the dorm since the beginning of this year and about a tenth said they have had their property damaged, even with numbers for the whole country.