Are there college dances

Students attending these events promenaded—or displayed—that they knew how to dance and act in proper society. During that time, colleges could host these dances because the student population was much smaller.

And yes, just like at high school proms today, adults chaperoned them. As colleges became larger, they outgrew the proms and formal dances. However, middle-class Americans who wanted to send their kids began to push for similar social dances. These events were modeled after the college events. At first, high school students wore their Sunday best and attended an informal dance.

And as much as they enjoyed the prom experience, once they go off to college, they want to leave high school behind them. College has some events similar to a prom, but even social events with a similar name are quite different.

Three of these events include homecoming, spring break, and celebrations after games. For example, some high schools let alumni return to the campus to meet old teachers and see friends with whom they have lost touch.

Since homecoming is early in the academic year, the dance is a fall event. If you already attended a homecoming dance, expect the outfits to be fancier and more formal. But homecoming week at a college or university will include many different types of events, and those events vary from college to college. Not only will there be officially sponsored events, sororities, fraternities, and college clubs can add additional events.

Larger schools like the University of Michigan often have both university-wide and individual department often known as schools celebrations.

The university sponsors reunion events, such as lunches, art tours, faculty meet and greets, and milestone celebrations. Tailgate parties, both formal and informal, happen before the big homecoming game. And that leads to one of the most significant differences between high school and college homecoming—the students are doing their own thing, without adults chaperoning.

As a result, it will seem like there are parties everywhere—in dorms, sororities and fraternities, bars, and restaurants. In high school, everyone either loves homecoming or pretends to like it. Some fraternities and sororities—also known as Greek organizations because they go by Greek letters—have formals, which are prom-like events.

College students are on a budget, and besides, who wants to get that dressed up? Expect the formals to have a different theme every year. Sometimes a sorority will join with a fraternity to plan either the formal or a social. These can also have a theme. Many fraternities host two formals—one in the winter and the other in spring.

The winter event will be more formal, while the spring formals tend to be crazier, with multiple parties happening simultaneously. Usually one night is devoted to partying while the next has a formal dance followed by more partying.

Fraternity formals can also be out-of-town settings. That means there are 14 awesome dances throughout the year. In addition, some colleges do MORE than 1 formal! Pretty lights, all-you-can-eat Crepes station I had, like, 3 , a live Jazz band, hardwood installed in the middle of our courtyard for footwork on the dance floor.

Classy, fancy schmancy. The annual Halloween bash. Very fun. Rating: 8 out of 9 circles of hell. Docked one circle because it was really hot. Like the temperature inside the hall rose 20 degrees. Ours was at the Omni Hotel, the fanciest hotel in New Haven. Rating: Like, a million crazy donuts. Because we ate a million donuts at the dance.

This elegant ball features dance lessons from swing experts and a live swing band made up of Yale faculty! This one is so popular that it got shut down by the Fire Marshall last year. Community colleges do not have any formal dances. On top of having a large student population, community colleges diverse group of students.

There are veterans, single moms, dads, straight out of high school students, older folks, students who are new to America, and many more. However, there are plenty of ways to have and get involved. I personally go to community college and have attended many, many social gatherings through clubs and organizations. There are WAY better ways college students have a blast without any formal dances.

Here are some of those ways:. Club events are probably the best way college students have fun. There are literally clubs for just about everything. The best part is clubs are led by students. That means students can plan and organize social gathering events on or off campus.

For example, the International Club at my college literally hosted a party off campus. In my opinion, it was a lot better than formal dances. Campus wide events are mostly organized by the college. These can be theater performances or sporting events. Each college will have something special it offers to the public.

If you can go, then go and have fun. Colleges do have field trips. For example, my environmental class went to a lake for an experiment one day. But those can be boring. There are also days trips held in other states. These trips are usually for some national or state competition. For one club, I traveled to Chicago for three days to compete in a nationwide competition. I also went to Tennessee for three days for a Phi Theta Kappa field trip. Both these trips were times better than any formal dance I have gone to.

To wrap it all up, there might be one or two formal dances at your college. And probably none if you go to a community college.