A friend and I were talking about this earlier this fall, and he said to me, "You know what Butler's problem is? We're the most over-programmed campus in America!!" What he means by that is that there is ALWAYS something going on at Butler, and our biggest problem is usually deciding what NOT to do.
I think the reason that we have so much going on at Butler is that almost everybody is involved in clubs and other extracurricular activities (usually more than one!) and these groups sponsor lots of events - some just for members, but lots that are open to the whole campus. We also have a really fantastic Student Government Association that puts on tons of free events like movies every Friday and Saturday night and Java Jams concerts in Starbucks every Wednesday.
One thing that I like about Butler's social life is that because we're a smaller school, we have lots of all-campus events that a huge percentage of the student body comes to. For example, during Welcome Week we have the Drive-in movie, where there is a massive blow-up screen on the mall and everyone brings blankets and watches a movie outside together. Some other big events are Dance Marathon (an all night dance party that raises money for Riley Children's Hospital), Spring Sports Spectacular (campus-wide all night party where you can compete in all sorts of events from basketball to ping pong to Catchphrase - and there's tons of free food!), Relay for Life (American Cancer Society fundraiser where teams take turns walking around the track in Hinkle all night.) Homecoming is also very popular and has lots of fun games and contests and our favorite event - Midnight Snack, aka as much free fast food as you can carry! haha now that I'm talking about all these events, it seems that we really like to stay up late and eat at Butler! I think that's true for most college kids. We also have two major concerts on campus each year. Past performers have included Ben Folds, The Fray, Jason Mraz, Better than Ezra, and Ok Go. There are also lots of dances/parties that different clubs will sponsor in our student union building like Swing Night, Salsa Night, Back to School Party and the Residence Halls host All Hall Fall Ball off-campus.
The party scene is different for everybody - some people prefer to go to the official events that I talked about above, others like to just hang out in dorm rooms or apartments. As far as big parties go, there are six fraternities with houses on campus, so they tend to host a lot of parties. Every Friday and Saturday night there will be a party at least at a few of these houses and these are pretty popular. There are usually one or two theme parties per weekend that draw the really big crowds - examples are the Voodoo Halloween party (which both Seitu and I wrote about in our blogs), Black & White, Red Light/Green Light, Ugly Christmas Sweaters and Highlighter Night. Basically, college students love an excuse to dress up! These parties are pretty much all open to the whole campus, but if you join a fraternity or sorority they will also have their own private parties sometimes. Of course, there are plenty of parties that don't involve Greek life at all - some of my friends who live in the Apartment Village or have their own off-campus houses host parties all the time. Some are themed, some aren't, but some recent favorites have been a Toga Party (with a cover charge that raised money for the American Cancer Society! party for a cause...) and a 1920's theme - gangsters, flappers and private eye detectives.
A typical weekend for me (minus the boring parts of homework, laundry and cleaning!) might include a basketball game, game night or a movie with my roomates or in somebody's dorm room, hanging out on the front porch of the frat house across the street from my house just chatting with friends and meeting new people, attending a concert or a play on campus (these are happening all the time and they're always amazing!),and always a Steak n Shake run. Actually, the late night food is the only thing that's really constant... other than that, every weekend at Butler is different.
I hope that helps to give you a better idea about our campus life - I wrote so much and yet I still feel like I'm leaving so much out of what goes on, because there are tons of other events or random things that we do for fun, like explore Indianapolis, or wander around campus talking to random people, or jump in the Star Fountain on the Mall! There is definitely a huge variety of things to do, no matter what your style is. Whether you like parties or not, I have no doubt that you'd have a fun time at Butler.
I think Brad is right - the best way to learn more about what really goes on is to read our blogs!