The nation's top party schools

[CyFan61]

Iowa State is not even close to being a huge party school. Every school parties. Iowa State would be last as far as parties go in this state(with the big 3. UNI, ISU, and Iowa).

This might be the dumbest thing I have read on this site in a while. I have been to Cedar Falls many times on a weekend during the school year and it's not even close to Ames.

ISU is definitely above UNI.

 

[Cyched]

UNI is not ahead of ISU.

Half of their students go home every damn weekend

 

[xboxfever]

Things have changed since I was in school than.

 

[CyBroncos]

Half of their students go home every damn weekend

Or go to Iowa City so they can be in Hawkeye paradise because they're all Iowa fans

 

[Klubber]

To each there own I guess.

Hey, we did make a couple of Playboy's lists of top party schools some years back. The last one I could find was 2002 when ISU checked in at a respectable #13. Now Playboy does only a top ten list. But really, how exactly does one quantify a party school ranking in the first place?

Playboy 2002 Top Party Schools:

01. Arizona State
02. California State University, Chico
03. Rollins
04. Louisiana State
05. West Virginia
06. Colorado
07. Wisconsin
08. Connecticut
09. Kansas
10. San Diego State
11. Georgia
12. Ohio State
13. Iowa State
14. Florida State
15. Colorado State
16. Florida
17. Tulane
18. Washington State
19. East Carolina
20. Michigan State
21. Mississippi
22. University of California, Santa Barbara
23. Lehigh
24. Vanderbilt
25. James Madison

Honorable Mentions: Miami of Ohio, Ohio University, Colgate, Penn State, Pitt, Southern Illinois, Slippery Rock, Tennessee, Texas, and Dayton.

 

[Al_4_State]

Things have changed since I was in school than.

When did you go to school?

My dad went to ISU from '77-'81 and when he'd come down and visit my brother and I when we were at ISU, he always commented on how much more lively, and more of a party school it seemed like ISU was than when he was there.

A lot of this is subjective and based on your own experience. If you didn't party much, you probably wouldn't see it as a party school based on the crowd you ran with. I liked to party, and so did all my friends. When you spend a lot of time partying in school, you're probably going to see your college as a party school.

In '03-'07 it was pretty damn easy to just walk around Ames and find parties, or a lively bar.

 

[Stumpy]

ISU will probably never make a list like this because it's hard to quantify a house party scene in a numerical sense.

These lists don't actually show how much partying is going on, especially if the partying is being done in off-campus housing.

House parties have nothing to do with the Princeton Review ranking.

You're half right on the second quoted sentence; these lists don't indicate how much partying is going on. That's because the methodology for Princeton Review is very subject to response bias, as it is based on student surveys.

For example, at Ohio University, students have actively been trying to top the rankings for over a decade now (in my opinion, because there isn't much else that school does well). As a result, their Princeton Review statistics for binge drinking, Greek popularity, and study hours are greatly skewed compared to data collected by Institutional Research. OU tops the list because students believe they are the top party school and have a twisted sense of pride in that, not because they actually are (which, yes, would be difficult to quantify, but could be more accurately divined through IR data).

 

[Al_4_State]

House parties have nothing to do with the Princeton Review ranking.

You're half right on the second quoted sentence; these lists don't indicate how much partying is going on. That's because the methodology for Princeton Review is very subject to response bias, as it is based on student surveys.

For example, at Ohio University, students have actively been trying to top the rankings for over a decade now (in my opinion, because there isn't much else that school does well). As a result, their Princeton Review statistics for binge drinking, Greek popularity, and study hours are greatly skewed compared to data collected by Institutional Research. OU tops the list because students believe they are the top party school and have a twisted sense of pride in that, not because they actually are (which, yes, would be difficult to quantify, but could be more accurately divined through IR data).

I know. That was kind of my point.

 

[Stumpy]

I know. That was kind of my point.

But location of the parties doesn't have any influence in the ranking, so how can you purport that an institution is ranked lower if a greater percentage of its partying takes place off campus? At least that's how I read your comments about why ISU is low and why Iowa might drop in ranking with the changes to bars.

 

[Al_4_State]

But location of the parties doesn't have any influence in the ranking, so how can you purport that an institution is ranked lower if a greater percentage of its partying takes place off campus? At least that's how I read your comments about why ISU is low and why Iowa might drop in ranking with the changes to bars.

Isn't bars per capita an important part of many of these rankings? Also, having a lot of bars tends to result in more arrests. The physical area in which the drunks interact is smaller and easier to patrol. Also, when you have lots of drunk people in a single small area, you're going to have more incidents and more arrests as such.

 

[CysRage]

Half of their students go home every damn weekend

This. No way in hell UNI is ahead of ISU.

 

[Stumpy]

Isn't bars per capita an important part of many of these rankings? Also, having a lot of bars tends to result in more arrests. The physical area in which the drunks interact is smaller and easier to patrol. Also, when you have lots of drunk people in a single small area, you're going to have more incidents and more arrests as such.

Nope, as I mentioned, the Princeton Review is incredibly subjective. Instead of looking at hard data such as bars or arrests per capita, it relies on student responses to questions such as “How widely is beer used at your school?â€￾ and “How popular are fraternities/sororities at your school?â€￾ It measures perception more than reality.

 

[ISUCyclones2015]

I always told my friends (many of whom are going to Ohio University) when talking about partying and how they are the top party school in the nation, that it just means that more of their parties get busted, that's how they are known.

Ohio U loves their rating because half the people go there because it is a party school.