UW-Madison revelers sipped and smoked their way to the top, claiming the title of number No. 1 party school in a survey conducted by The Princeton Review.
The ranking raised the ire of UW-Madison officials who said the results of The Princeton Review are skewed and do not reflect the true character of the university.
The Princeton Review's findings do nothing to solve the campus' drinking problem, officials said.
\Junk science that results in a day of national media coverage does not do this issue justice,"" Chancellor John Wiley said in a press release. ""At Wisconsin, we will continue our multi-faceted approach to the problem.""
The Princeton Review obtains its results by surveying 110,000 total students at 361 different universities.
Robert Franek, author of the book ""The Best 361 Colleges,"" said that The Princeton Review survey was e-mailed to 24,000 undergraduates at UW-Madison and they received over 3,000 responses, proving its accuracy.
""I have to say that it is amazing the consistency that I hear from school administrators that once a school gets onto a less-than-coveted list, then generally speaking an administrator comes out and tries to discredit the survey,"" he said.
Despite the results of The Princeton Review, UW-Madison's drinking problem is steadily decreasing, according to Susan Crowley, director of Policy, Alternatives, Community and Education.
Crowley provided information in a news release that shows overall binge drinking at the university fell from 54 percent in 1999 to 47 percent in 2004.
The study also shows the number of underage students who said it was easy to obtain alcohol dropped from 59 percent in 1997 to 45 percent in 2004.
PACE is working hand-in-hand with the city of Madison in an effort to curb UW-Madison's atmosphere of binge drinking even further.
These suggestions include eliminating late-night drink specials and conducting more rigorous ID checks when selling alcohol.
Franek said despite UW-Madison's spot as top party school, the university should be proud of its general status on The Princeton Review.
""[Prospective students] should also know that [UW-Madison] is part of the 12 percent of schools in this country that we put in this book. It is an excellent school academically. It's an excellent school for many reasons,"" he said.
Other categories in which UW-Madison finished highly in recent years include Students Pack the Stadium, Happiest Students, Great College Library and Great College Town.
