Top 10 party schools

[moonfall]

Let's hope future employers feel the same way, Lainie. Last thing I need is someone looking at my resume and thinking I went to a football-and-drinking school.

Well, UF is known for football and partying, but the academics are pretty good too. Wonder what Penn State did to top us this year? Interesting fact: The picture they show for UF in the article shows a guy climbing a lamp post, but after the first basketball championship (we've had 2 football and 2 basketball wins in the 4 years I was there), they started greasing the lamp posts. Either that picture is from the first one or people managed to climb greased poles.

[HazyCosmicJive]

I loathe this list with the burning passion of a thousand suns. Not only is the methodology completely unscientific, but the phrase "party school" is completely meaningless. Define "party school" in a way that doesn't apply to every university in the nation (except maybe BYU and Bob Jones U). You can't. Unless, of course, you come up with a definition that doesn't actually apply to any institution of higher learning.

This ridiculous "ranking" is a ploy dreamed up by the dickheads at Princeton Review to make a few bucks by creating scandal and buzz and selling a few of their trashy books. That the public at large has continued to buy into this absurdity is baffling to me.

[LizardWizard]

I agree with the last couple of comments, but then I attended a stone cold sober school. It seems to me that all else being equal, one will get a better education being sober than being stoned. I don't know why a school would want to be on the "party" list, or why serious students would find excessive underage drinking a plus. You can drink as much or as little as you want no matter where you attend, but alcohol abuse is still a really bad idea.

For that matter, I disagree that party is defined by the swallowing of ethanol. I couldn't find a dictionary that required that a social gathering has to have alcohol to be called a party. In that sense, "stone cold sober" and "party school" are not mutually exclusive.

[putitinwriting]

Originally Posted by LizardWizard

I agree with the last couple of comments, but then I attended a stone cold sober school. It seems to me that all else being equal, one will get a better education being sober than being stoned. I don't know why a school would want to be on the "party" list, or why serious students would find excessive underage drinking a plus. You can drink as much or as little as you want no matter where you attend, but alcohol abuse is still a really bad idea.

FSU! FSU! (Sorry, had to do it - I am a local, but never went to FSU and actually don't give a damn about it. That being said, if you live here you can't help but know what's going on.)

Well, the schools don't want to be on the party lists. In fact, every year FSU puts out some sort of "we are not a party school, please ignore that list" statement. The students, on the other hand, tend to love it. Because FSU is a party school. Sure, there are serious students here, but they are vastly outnumbered by the kids who are going to college because that's what you do after high school. They want to join frats, play beer pong, spin the wheel at Poor Paul's Pourhouse, tailgate at games, and study as little as necessary on their parents' dime. It's a football school, and if you are an underage student who wants to drink, the presence of excessive underage drinking is definitely a plus.

[Lainie]

Originally Posted by LizardWizard

I agree with the last couple of comments, but then I attended a stone cold sober school. It seems to me that all else being equal, one will get a better education being sober than being stoned. I don't know why a school would want to be on the "party" list. . .

The schools don't want to be on the list. It's based on an unscientific survey of students, which means all the big partiers nominate their schools. I'm sure the administration of those schools hates the list.

. . . or why serious students would find excessive underage drinking a plus.

I'm sure they don't. Serious students probably ignore the list.

[moonfall]

Originally Posted by putitinwriting

FSU! FSU! (Sorry, had to do it - I am a local, but never went to FSU and actually don't give a damn about it. That being said, if you live here you can't help but know what's going on.)

Well, the schools don't want to be on the party lists. In fact, every year FSU puts out some sort of "we are not a party school, please ignore that list" statement. The students, on the other hand, tend to love it. Because FSU is a party school. Sure, there are serious students here, but they are vastly outnumbered by the kids who are going to college because that's what you do after high school. They want to join frats, play beer pong, spin the wheel at Poor Paul's Pourhouse, tailgate at games, and study as little as necessary on their parents' dime. It's a football school, and if you are an underage student who wants to drink, the presence of excessive underage drinking is definitely a plus.

I was a serious student, and sometimes I wish I'd partied a little more. Most of the parties I went to were just hanging out at my friends' houses and playing video games. I had a lot fewer hangovers that way (only one) and graduated with a decent GPA, so maybe I did the smart thing. It's important to know how much partying is too much.

I attended WVU from 87 - 91, Back when they would have the Grant Ave. Block Party the first week of school. IIRC, 500 kegs, 10,000 cases of beer.

One magazine put out the list of top 10 party schools that didn't list WVU, but at the bottom was the following note...

"WVU is not on this list, we don't rank them with amateurs."

Trying to clean up the image they banned the Grant Ave. party my junior or senior year, I didn't care, I never drank.

[Errata]

Originally Posted by Debunker

My son and I took a campus tour at UCSB last spring and they did their best to debunk the notion that they are a party school.

I missed this before, but I'm not surprised to see them in the top 10. They're a decent enough school, academically. But they're also a party school. Those aren't entirely incompatible. The party atmosphere is largely centered around Isla Vista, so you can probably avoid much of it if you want to by living on campus. It can get a little wild in Isla Vista at times, but they've cracked down some on some of the worst excesses lately. There is an increased police presence and safety consciousness, but still plenty of debauchery.

Originally Posted by HazyCosmicJive

Not only is the methodology completely unscientific, but the phrase "party school" is completely meaningless. Define "party school" in a way that doesn't apply to every university in the nation (except maybe BYU and Bob Jones U). You can't. Unless, of course, you come up with a definition that doesn't actually apply to any institution of higher learning.

My university wasn't a party school at all. There was a joke article circulating among alumni about the school being voted top party school, including details about wild parties at a local pub (which is actually quite sedate), and it's funny because it would never happen. There were of course some parties and underage drinking, but there were a whole lot more quiet, smart kids who spent too many of their weekends studying to get in much trouble. And it wasn't at all like BYU, it was a secular Ivy League school with a liberal-leaning student body.

If you've experienced a real party school, you'd know the difference. Not all schools fit that category, not even close.

[snopes]

The University of Georgia won a national title this year - top party school.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...TAM&SECTION=US

[Beachlife!]

Here's the list:

From the Charlotte Observer

I don't hear the University of Ohio mentioned very often. I sometimes forget it exists.

[Lainie]

Originally Posted by Beachlife!

I don't hear the University of Ohio mentioned very often. I sometimes forget it exists.

The University of Ohio doesn't exist.

It's Ohio Unversity.

[snopes]

Originally Posted by Lainie

The University of Ohio doesn't exist. It's Ohio Unversity.

He means Ohio of Miami.

[DotBat]

Originally Posted by moonfall

Interesting fact: The picture they show for UF in the article shows a guy climbing a lamp post, but after the first basketball championship (we've had 2 football and 2 basketball wins in the 4 years I was there), they started greasing the lamp posts. Either that picture is from the first one or people managed to climb greased poles.

They did that after the Phils won the WS in 2008 but before the election. They probably should have just greased the entire city.

[snopes]

Ohio University, set in an Appalachian town known for its rowdy Halloween bashes, has been named the nation's No. 1 party school, pushing the University of Georgia down a slot in the 2011 Princeton Review survey.

http://news.yahoo.com/student-survey...165421394.html

[GenYus234]

Originally Posted by RFReedII

Trying to clean up the image they banned the Grant Ave. party my junior or senior year, I didn't care, I never drank.

Did you burn a couch?

[Beachlife!]

Originally Posted by GenYus234

Did you burn a couch?

There's nothing wrong with an occaisonaly couch burning, it preserves the police cars for the important stuff.

My alma mater used to be on that list, but they've worked to end the party-school reputation.

[Lainie]

My alma mater, OTOH, is number one this year. Not for the first time, either. ETA: Correction: first time for this list, which appears to date back to 1997. OU's rep as a party school was well established when I started there in 1980, though.

FETA: It also topped the list for most beautiful campus. I wouldn't presume to make such a ranking, but OU's campus is beautiful, partly because it's surrounded by beautiful scenery but also because of careful design over the years as the campus grew.

[amorrison50]

Originally Posted by snopes

Ohio University, set in an Appalachian town known for its rowdy Halloween bashes, has been named the nation's No. 1 party school, pushing the University of Georgia down a slot in the 2011 Princeton Review survey.

http://news.yahoo.com/student-survey...165421394.html

If that's all it takes to be the top party school in the country, college in general must be a lot less exciting than movies make it seem (shocking, I know). Having lived in the same town as OU for close to 40 years, yeah there are bars and drinking but I guess I never would think it is more prevalant than at many other campuses. Halloween is a big deal but honestly, I lived about 3 miles from the street the party is on (also in town) for 13 years and other than all the cars parked at Wal-Mart, as long as you didn't venture straight for the party, it was pretty easy to pretend it didn't even exist.

[snopes]

College students consider the University of Iowa the nation's best party school, even though Iowa City has tried to make its famous bar scene less hospitable to underage drinkers.

The Princeton Review bestowed Iowa with the top rankingon a list determined by 126,000 students in a nationwide survey. Rounding out the Top 5 are: University of California, Santa Barbara; the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; West Virginia University and Syracuse University.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2...title/2619793/