School and PARTYING

[asian persuasion]

I've just been thinking about this a lot and this seemed like the appropriate forum to discuss it.

So Princeton Review released their list of party schools for 2013.

1. University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa
2. University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, Calif.
3. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Ill.
4. West Virginia University, Morgantown W. Va.
5. Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y.
6. University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla.
7. Ohio University, Athens, Ohio
8. University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wis.
9. Penn State University, University Park, Pa.
10. Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa.
11. University of Georgia, Athens, Ga.
12. Florida State University, Tallahassee, Fla.
13. DePauw University, Greencastle, Ind.
14. University of Mississippi, University, Miss.
15. University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
16. Miami University of Ohio, Oxford, Ohio
17. University of Maryland, College Park, Md.
18. Tulane University, New Orleans, La.
19. University of Vermont, Burlington, Vt.
20. University of Oregon, Eugene, Ore.

I attend Iowa. We were ranked 2nd last year and now we're #1. Honestly, I don't feel it's accurate. I've been to UW Madison on weekends and it's way more wild. I feel like it's also not accurate because of the statistics they use to partially determine rankings. In Iowa City, we have an ordinance which states that no one under 21 may enter a bar after 10pm regardless of if you're drinking or not; obviously this means we're going to have more alcohol related arrests because of this than a city like Urbana where you can be in a bar at 19.

I also know a lot of people who hate when this list gets released because it gives people even more of a reason to get shitty drunk on weekends. "NUMBER 1 PARTY SCHOOL, GOTTA REPRESENT." And they say it gives us a bad rep. I suppose in some ways, it does. But I feel that our academic programs are still pretty awesome. Rankings like these probably do attract some undesirable folks to the university, but chances are they won't stay beyond freshman/sophomore year anyway. And if you can balance getting black-out drunk every night and still maintain a decent GPA, then more power to you. Part of me is really looking forward to syllabus week and how insane it's probably going to be because of this, but at the same time I don't really want to see all the freshmen puking on the sidewalks again.

Discuss
1. If you attend one of these schools, do you feel it's accurate? If you don't, would you still attend a school even if it had a rep as a party school?
2. Do you think lists like these influence students? If yes, how?
3. How do you personally balance your academic life with your social life?

[bitesize]

Kinda wish we had lists like this in my country, haha. To be honest I do think these lists might have an effect on students' choices, but like you said they probably wouldn't stay long.

I've never had a huge trouble trying to balance my academic and social lives... maybe my grades would have been a little better, yes, if I hadn't spent pretty much my whole first year of college in the student bar, but then again if they had maybe I wouldn't have improved so much for second year (and spent more time in the library than the bar....)

[Chuuya]

If you attend one of these schools, do you feel it's accurate? If you don't, would you still attend a school even if it had a rep as a party school?

I would still attend a party school if it had good programs that I was interested in, regardless of the partying. Personally, I really don't care about the partying (I probably wouldn't be doing much, if any) as long as i'm getting a good education.

Do you think lists like these influence students? If yes, how?

I believe they do. I know a lot of students who want to go to party schools, and I know a lot who don't want to attend one because of their beliefs.

How do you personally balance your academic life with your social life?

I don't really have a social life so it's not really that hard for me.

[PSY]

1. If you attend one of these schools, do you feel it's accurate? If you don't, would you still attend a school even if it had a rep as a party school?
I did not attend any of these schools, but I have a lot of friends who attended UCSB (the second school listed). In all honesty, I DID pass up on applying for UCSB several years ago due to its reputation; however, in hindsight, I feel it would have been more fair for me to spend a weekend in the vicinity to see how "partyish" it was. Both my undergraduate and graduate universities actually have the OPPOSITE reputations: being boring and lacking social environments. =P Turns out that just depended on who you hung out with, though. If you wanted to party, you could party, and if you wanted to study, you could study.

2. Do you think lists like these influence students? If yes, how?
As I stated above, it DID influence me at the time, because I didn't want to deal with late-night music and shouting while trying to get a good night's sleep. It wasn't that I thought the people at those schools were "dumb" or that the programs were "bad"... I just didn't want to deal with the campus-wide distractions (yes, my assumption at the time was that you wouldn't be able to go ANYWHERE, except for the library, if you wanted to study in peace).

3. How do you personally balance your academic life with your social life?
Time management. Get a giant calendar, hang it on your wall by your desk, and color-code all the things you want to do for the month (red for assignments that are due, green for bills that are due, blue for social events, etc.). I graduated from my Master's program in April, but that's what I did, and it allowed me to find a good balance between getting a 4.0 GPA, having fun with friends/family members/my boyfriend, and volunteering on TeenHelp. It takes practice and a great deal of self-discipline, but if you want to find that balance badly enough, you'll find a way. =)

[Nightblood.]

I feel like the list isn't quite fair, because obviously the universities with larger enrollment are going to probably have higher statistics for parties and alcohol etc.

I balance my social life and my academic life fairly easily. Each of my classes is only once a week, some of them are online. Typically, not much goes on during the day so I try to get as much done as possible so that I can go out at night. It's hard for me to plan in advance for social things, because most of it is spontaneous "hey lets hang out" kind of stuff. Or a mass text asking who wants to go get food etc. But if I have something that's due soon I know to decline if I have to use the time for something more important.

[Dark-and-Twisty]

Honestly, I'm not surprised that UoI is #1. I'm from Iowa, by the way, but I didn't go to the University of Iowa. I stuck to a small, private college. Personally, I'm not into the party scene and had absolutely no interest in it while I was in college. I graduated last year, and I really only went to one party - if you could consider it a party. We just sat around, drank, and played games. Nothing too crazy. There were parties on campus, yes, but I kept my distance from the wild ones. Those weren't the people I wanted to be around. I was more focused on school and getting good grades.

I've never been to a party at Iowa, but I've heard my share of stories. There were people from my college who used to frequently travel to Iowa City to party.

[Kate*]

1. I didn't go to any of these schools, I'm glad to see Ohio has moved down the list though. I didn't go to them because of the distance from home and the cost, but it did cross my mind that "party school" may have meant a lot of loud, drunk people late at night which would've driven me INSANE!

2. I have an interesting theory here. I think the schools developed this reputation and then the kids that wanted to avoid that atmosphere were influenced away and now the reputation is stronger because the "partiers" are most of who's left. So I think it does influence students, but if you want to party (or not) you'll find a way to do so no matter where you go.

3. I'm a serious introvert, I didn't have much of a social life, but I always had time for one. If you keep yourself organized, and budget your time you can fit most of, if not all the stuff in that you want to do.

[BECCALICIOUS!]

1. If you attend one of these schools, do you feel it's accurate? If you don't, would you still attend a school even if it had a rep as a party school?
I do not attend one of these schools. "Party schools" were a huge turnoff to me when I was applying, but after a few years in college it doesn't matter to me as much.
2. Do you think lists like these influence students? If yes, how?
Not really. I'm sure every school has a social life, so it doesn't matter as much to a "partier"... but I think good students who don't party will be turned off from it and would rather go to a smaller school.
3. How do you personally balance your academic life with your social life?
I bulk up my schedule so most of my classes fall on two days a week. I can study the other three days and still go out if I choose to, and then have weekends free. I'll get a lot done on Sundays and Wednesdays. I tend to avoid going out weekends before I have exams. It's all time management, but it really isn't at all impossible to have a social life in college.

[Coffee.]

[Edited]

1. If you attend one of these schools, do you feel it's accurate? If you don't, would you still attend a school even if it had a rep as a party school?
I attend a university that was rated high up on this list for many years (but isn't this year, horray!), so yes, I'd obviously attend a "party school." It's accurate in that my university has a lot of partiers, but it's most definitely not "most students."
2. Do you think lists like these influence students? If yes, how?
I think it influences students with these types of priorities to continue attending these schools along with distracting some good students from what is important about college, aka, academics. Also, I liked the points that others brought up about them not attending a college because of the amount of party rumors. I'm noticing that as the rumors about being a party school have gone down and the truth about the academics went out, my university's population increased, especially for out-of state-students.
3. How do you personally balance your academic life with your social life?
Social life? What's that? I'd say that I'm kidding, but I'm not. It's not because of college, I've never had a social life. I love my jobs, I have great coworkers, so my social life is within work. I also make time for myself for naps, volunteering, seeing my family every once in a while, etc. So that's "having a life," I suppose.