By Jennifer Smith

Between the 52 colleges and more than 300,000 college students in the greater metropolitan area, Boston has earned the title “College Town, U.S.A.” Despite having the highest ratio of 20- to 34-year-olds among big cities (according to the 2010 census), Boston’s nightlife is seen as lacking for those under 21 years of age.

Boston’s nightlife is primarily focused on bars, which poses a problem for the mass of its population under legal drinking age. Fraternity parties and other activities available to college students often involve alcohol as well.

In September, Northeastern University Division of Public Safety (NUPD) and Boston University Police Department (BUPD) began the initiative “Operation Alcohol Interdiction,” which was a crackdown on underage drinking to set the tone for the rest of the Fall 2011 semester. It particularly zeroed in on those providing alcohol to minors.

The initiative resulted in over 1,000 seized cans of beer and over 100 students reported to the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution (OSCCR) in the first three weeks of September, The News reported in a Sept. 20 article.

Associate Director of Public Safety James Ferrier said freshmen and sophomores were caught with alcohol most often in a past interview with The News.

“[The plan] is to seize the alcohol before it is illegally consumed, thereby preventing people from the ill effects of alcohol,” Ferrier told The News in September.

NUPD was unavailable for further comment.

Though the number of raids and reports of underage drinking have increased, students like Boston University freshman elementary education major Stephanie Panetti said that the police have been “pretty lenient” with those involved and the BUPD in particular were “more understanding with their students.”

In light of these enhanced measures, the shortage of activities for students under 21 has become apparent. Though there are 18+ nightclubs within Boston, few of them are easily accessible or are of interest to the 18-20 population.

“[Boston] is not too friendly to people under 21, club-wise,” Boston University sophomore visual arts major Tiffany Ramos said. “There may be some options [for underage students], but all the good ones are for 21 or older.”

Northeastern provides afterHOURS as a potential source of entertainment. The venue presents nightly shows ranging from open mic nights and the popular NU Improv to a recent screening of the Foo Fighters documentary.

Freshman studio art major Miranda Marean fulfills her workstudy at afterHOURS a few nights a week. As “security,” she is responsible for tracking the number of people who enter and exit through Curry Student Center.

“There are about 40 people that sit and watch [a performance] on a good day,” Marean said. “It’s almost impossible to tell the amount of people that walk in and out because of Starbucks. There might actually be 20 people for the show, and then there are the people who sit and do homework.”

Many students including freshman theatrical arts major Denny Acrich, said afterHOURS is not a viable place to spend their evenings.

“I hear about some shows, but I guess I don’t pay enough attention,” Acrich said.

Others like senior psychology major Melissa Burnett said afterHOURS just doesn’t interest them.

“It seems like it’s trying too hard to appeal to students,” Melissa Burnett said, “and it’s just not a place I’d want to go and chill out.”

BU’s afterHOURS counterpart, BU Central, offers many of the same events, with professional and student-central shows and concerts taking place every weekend.

“Some are definitely more popular than others,” Ramos said.

In addition to school-sanctioned clubs, some colleges are trying to encourage alternative evening activities in place of late-night drinking.

According to The Crimson, Harvard University’s daily student newspaper, Harvard’s Office of Student Life has allocated additional funding to the residence halls “to support ‘alternative programming’ on weekend nights.”

This new financing has accompanied recent re-evaluation of Harvard’s alcohol policy. Other Boston schools are experiencing similar reform.

“There was a huge crackdown on drinking,” said Tufts University undecided freshman Rebecca Czaja. “They had to change our system. So many people were put on first level probation that they are making it more lax.”

For students who are not staying on campus in the evenings, there are limited options that don’t involve some form of drinking. The only 24-hour bowling alley in Boston is in Dorchester, and there are no 24-hour movie theaters.

Multiple Northeastern students have expressed interest in karaoke bars and dance clubs that don’t require a minimum age of 21.

“In my freshman and sophomore year, I was partying way too much,” Burnett said. “It would have been great to have other programs and activities.”

There is not necessarily a connection between lack of diverse 18+ activities and an increase in underage drinking. As The Crimson pointed out, students that would rather be socializing at parties may not be dissuaded by the opportunity for early-morning apple-picking, one of many alternative activities that Harvard residence halls have implemented.

Even if there were copious readily-available alcohol-free opportunities in Boston, students are often discouraged from staying out late due to the MBTA’s hours of operation.

“It’s frustrating … wanting to go out past 12:30,” Ramos said. “There isn’t always a way to get back to campus.”

Most T trains make their last trip at apprximately 12:35 a.m., which poses a difficulty for students who visit any of the other 50 colleges in the area.3

Students who find themselves on the other side of the Charles River from their schools after 1 a.m. face the choice of an hour-long walk back to their homes or the cost of cab fare.

“I got out of a film once at 1:30 [a.m.],” Burnett said. “I had to walk all the way back because there was no public transit running at that hour. Now I have to take a lot of cabs.”

The MBTA’s operational hours have become a sore spot with students from cities involving 24-hour transportation.

“As a New York City resident, I enjoy the fact that our trains do not ever officially cease,” Marean said. “It seems detrimental to the things that teens usually do.”