Alcohol may be a fact of life in college, but binge drinking is a real danger to students.

Drinking over your limit can lead to alcohol poisoning, liver damage, date rape and even death.

It is important – if you make the choice to drink – to know your limits and stick to them.

Drinking should be about having a good time, not seeing how much you can throw up in one night.

Here are some scary statistics on college drinking, from factsontap.org:

About 300,000 of today’s college students will eventually die of alcohol-related causes, including drunk driving accidents, cirrhosis of the liver and heart disease. About 159,000 of today’s freshmen will drop out of school next year for alcohol- or other drug-related reasons. The institute reports the average student spends about $900 a year on alcohol and about half that much on textbooks.

One night of heavy drinking can cause your thinking to be impaired for up to 30 days.

Almost 70 percent of college students admit to having engaged in sexual activity they wouldn’t have if they were sober.

Either the victim or the assailant is under the influence of alcohol in 90 percent of all campus rapes.

Sixty percent of college women who are infected with sexually transmitted diseases report they had been drinking when they contracted the diseases.

If you choose to indulge in alcohol, don’t drink more than you can handle, and don’t ever get behind the wheel.

editorialboard: Carrie Tett, Jocelyn Marcus, Katie Goldsmith, Andrea Hauser and Tim Paluch