UCSB Makes Top-Ten in Latest Party-School List

Penn State comes in first, but UCSB makes the top-ten again, from FOX 5 Atlanta, "Princeton Review Party Schools 2009":

Penn State University is now the nation's No. 1 party school.

The school known partly for its football tailgate weekends and fraternity and sorority scene snatched the title away from the University of Florida in the 2009 Princeton Review survey of 122,000 students nationwide. Florida, last year's winner, finished second in the annual survey released Monday.

It's the first time Penn State has finished first in the dubious category. The school has been on the list the last seven years and ranked third in 2008. The listing covers Penn State's main University Park campus in State College.

"These rankings are not more than popularity contests," said university spokeswoman Annemarie Mountz. She noted that groups on the social networking site Facebook have urged members to make Penn State the top party school ....

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1. Penn State University, State College, Pa.

2. University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla.

3. University of Mississippi, University, Miss.

4. University of Georgia, Athens, Ga.

5. Ohio University, Athens, Ohio

6. West Virginia University, Morgantown, W.Va.

7. University of Texas, Austin, Texas

8. University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.

9. Florida State University, Tallahassee, Fla.

10. University of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, Calif.

11. University of Colorado, Boulder, Colo.

12. University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa

13. Union College, Schenectady, N.Y.

14. Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind.

15. DePauw University, Greencastle, Ind.

16. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tenn.

17. Sewanee: The University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn.

18. University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, N.D.

19. Tulane University, New Orleans, La.

20. Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz.

It's easy to toss these rankings off as irrelevant, but young folks take this stuff seriously - "dead" seriously, in some cases, which is why parents should be concerned. (See, "Beloved UCSB Student Passes Abruptly.")

If I recall, UCSB was the country's #1 party school in the early '90s, shortly after I started graduate school. Upon moving over there my wife and I were advised not to move to Isla Vista unless we planned on attending kegger parties around the clock on the weekends. We moved off campus, because despite all the ill-repute blogging that goes on around here, I'm actually a pretty respectable guy!

Here's more on the latest rankings, including campus reviews:

Some students object to the view of UCSB as a party school: "people need to get past the party reputation and realize that this is an excellent school academically."

It's hard to live down, actually. I still get ribbed for having a "party-school Ph.D."

More from some UCSB students on Facebook, "Proud Students of the Most Intelligent Party School of the Nation."

And note these appellations: "UCSB = U Can Study Buzzed or the University of Casual Sex and Beer".

Photo Credit: "UCSB Ranked 10th Best Party School in the Nation" (from 2007). Plus an interesting comment from the piece:

The CNN/SI blog, FanNation brings up a good point when they question the list's lack of a local college who have shown more than their fair share of school spirit lately.

We’re trying to figure out how any college party could top UCLA’s annual undie run, especially after seeing these pics, but the Bruins didn’t even make the Top 20, so what do we know?