Annual 'Best Colleges' List Released Along With 'Party School' Rankings
by Jim Brown
August 23, 2005
(AgapePress) - The University of Wisconsin-Madison has been named America's top "party school" in a survey of 110,000 college students across the nation. That dubious distinction is just one of the many to be discovered in The Princeton Review's newly released 2006 edition of U.S. college rankings, "The Best 361 Colleges." The Princeton Review survey ranks the top 20 colleges in 62 different categories, ranging from the best academic programs, the toughest schools to get into, to the most beautiful campuses. This year's top academic school is Reed College in Portland, Oregon -- which was, incidentally, also rated the least religious of all the schools surveyed. On the other hand, the most religious school was Brigham Young University, which is also the top "stone-cold sober" school for the eighth straight year.
Rob Franek, author of the "Best 361 Colleges" study, notes that five schools ranked highest for the most prevalent use of hard liquor, marijuana, and beer. He says, "Number one on our 'Party School' list this year is University of Wisconsin-Madison; number two, Ohio University, and that's in Athens, Ohio; number three, Lehigh University; four, University of California - Santa Barbara; and five is State University of New York at Albany." S.U.N.Y.-Albany's position represents a drop -- or an improvement, one might say -- since last year that school held the top spot on the Review's "Party School" list.
Asked about Brigham Young University's eight year reign on the other end of the spectrum, BYU public relations director Carri P. Jenkins explained that the "stone-cold sober" Mormon school in Utah simply requests of its students that they not partake in activities that may be common on many other college campuses. "We do ask our students to not drink, to not smoke, to not be involved with any type of illegal drugs," she says.
Students come to BYU for the positive learning environment that is offered there, Jenkins says. The Salt Lake City native is herself an alumna of the university and its graduate program as well as a former associate editor of Brigham Young Magazine, the school's alumni publication.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
