Texas Is A Party School – So Says The Princeton Review

By alcalde in Blog on August 2, 2010 at 7:09 pm | 1 Comment

Here’s one of those puzzling news items that’s news except that it isn’t.

The Princeton Review has come out with its party-school rankings, and UT came in sixth. Dang! Just missed the top five.

If the Princeton Review were an undergraduate in intro to statistics, it would fail. No one with even the slightest scientific training gives it one iota of credibility. It is, in essence, a publicity stunt. Even the BCS rankings are better than this.

And yet, year after year, we media types feel inclined to cover it, if for no other reason than people talk about it.

Earlier this year even, Playboy ranked UT the top party school in the nation. These Princeton Review folks must have inferior methodology!

Anyway, we like the Princeton Review when it tells us how great our astronomy department is or how great a buy UT is. We’re a bit more ambivalent when it comes to party-school rankings.

The fact of the matter is, UT is a party school — just like every other major public school in the country.

Should we be alarmed? No. Should we be proud? No. Is it news? No.

And yet, for your viewing pleasure, here it is, the full made-up list:

1. University of Georgia
2. Ohio University
3. Penn State
4. W
   
   est Virginia University
5. University of Mississippi
6. University of Texas at Austin
7. University of Florida
8. University of California – Santa Barbara
9. University of Iowa
10. DePauw University
11. Florida State University
12. University of Wisconsin – Madison
13. University of Alabama
14. Sewanee – The University of the South
15. Indiana University – Bloomington
16. University of Colorado – Boulder
17. University of Missouri
18. University of Illinois
19. University of Maryland
20. Michigan State University