UW-Madison is the No. 10 party school in the nation, dropping from ninth last year, according to a survey released Aug. 19 by The Princeton Review.
The survey is based primarily on the size of the fraternity/sorority scene, amount of study time and amount of drinking on campus, as reported in student surveys. This year, an average of 300 students from each college were surveyed online and on-campus to total 100,000 students nationwide. The guidebook lists the top 345 schools in the nation along with 63 additional lists including the \best party school"" list.
While the top 10 ranking did not go completely unnoticed by school officials, the high standing on such a controversial list in the Review does not seem to bother some UW-Madison administrators.
""The whole process is not a scientific or valid survey instrument, so from a project perspective we don't really put much weight on the ranking,"" said Susan Crowley, director of prevention services at University Health Services and Robert Wood Johnson Project program director.
""I think they're more arbitrary and anecdotal kinds of observations rather than indicative of the whole student body,"" she said.
Both students and administrators believe that UW-Madison's place on the party school list will have little influence on current or prospective students.
""I knew it was a party school but I think its academics make it stand out,"" said UW-Madison freshman, Brian Becker.
Despite this, UW-Madison officials support an effort with nine other schools and the American Medical Association to rid the Review of the party school list.
Erik Olson, senior editor of The Princeton Review, said the claims brought against the party list are biased since six out of the 10 schools involved in the case have appeared on the list 22 times collectively.
""We don't promote or condone binge drinking, but we do promote information,"" he said. ""All we're doing is reporting on conditions that students are reporting to us about their own campuses right now.""
UW-Madison's slight drop in the list is encouraging for administrators who have introduced a number of programs to discourage binge and high-risk drinking on campus.
""I like to think that it's because of a lot of the efforts going on in the campus and community and particularly the chancellor's strong position on high risk drinking,"" Crowley said.
