College is a time when a student is placed in a new environment full of new people and opportunities to try new things. This is also a time when most students finally feel like adults as they can step away from their parents and make their own decisions. Sometimes college students get carried away by this newfound freedom and make poor choices. One such bad choice is drinking alcohol which can turn into a binge with many consequences. Alcohol consumption has become a major part of college environments and can range from a simple glass of wine in a dorm room to a keg at a house party. Lowering the drinking age to eighteen would make it easier to combat the problem of binge eating among Iowa City college students and the problems that come with it. Binge eating is defined as alcohol consumption that increases a person's blood alcohol concentration over a short period of time. It is not only harmful to your body but also highly dangerous. This usually means five or more drinks for men and four or more drinks for women in the space of two hours. Although most college students are not allowed to drink alcohol until their freshman year, approximately four in five college students drink alcohol. These students may drink for many reasons such as peer pressure, desire to experiment and many others. Of college students who drink, about half choose to consume alcohol excessively. Binge drinking increases the risk of suffering from alcohol poisoning which could even result in death. It also increases the risk of committing suicide and/or being a victim of sexual violence. Between 1.2 and 1.5 percent of college students say they have attempted suicide, and more than 97,000 college students are if... middle of paper... a thrill of lawbreaking that can lead them to overdo it and binge drink. There is a big difference between simply drinking an alcoholic beverage and binge drinking, one is practiced by many and is accepted by all, but binge drinking is highly dangerous and puts many college students at risk for harmful consequences. These consequences consist of, but are not limited to, sexual assault, alcohol poisoning, and death. Binge drinking is a serious problem on college campuses across the nation, including at the University of Iowa. There are currently many solutions in place at the university and in the Iowa City area, but they have not had the desired effect and the rate of excessive alcohol consumption still remains above the national average. This is why it was necessary to lower the legal drinking age to eighteen to help combat the amount of binge drinking among college students at the University of Iowa.