University of Tennessee Ranked Top 'Party School'

[superjoint]

Knoxville, Tenn., will soon be under siege by men in mirrored sunglasses lugging beer kegs and yelling "Wassup!" — the University of Tennessee was declared the No. 1 "party school" in a survey released Monday.


It's an honor the 28,000-student school definitely didn't want. Leaders at the school have been seeking to reverse a decade of weak funding from the state and are searching for a new president. The ranking from the Princeton Review doesn't help.

"We've always wanted to be on somebody's short list," joked Richard Rhoda, executive director of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission. "Will there be fallout? I would imagine we will be ridiculed by some over the ranking. But I would hope not in serious circles."

The Review draws up the lists based on a 70-question survey given randomly to some 65,000 students. Students rate their own schools, based on consumption of alcohol and marijuana, and other criteria.

"There are some students here who do party very hard," UT-Knoxville student president Bradford Bricken said. "But there are some students that study all the time, too."

Tennessee, ranked No. 6 on last year's party school list, supplanted Louisiana State University, which dropped to No. 2. Nine of the 20 top party schools were in the South, including Southern Methodist University in Dallas and the University of Texas at Austin.

The Princeton Review is a division of New York-based Random House publishers. It is not affiliated with Princeton University.

The top 20 party schools, according the Review:

1. University of Tennessee

2. Louisiana State University

3. University of California-Santa Cruz

4. Florida State University

5. University of Colorado

6. University of Alabama

7. St. Bonaventure University

8. Ohio State University

9. University of Wisconsin

10. University of Florida

11. University of New Hampshire

12. University of Georgia

13. University of Texas

14. Tulane University

15. Lehigh University

16. New York University

17. Colgate University

18. University of Vermont

19. Southern Methodist University

20. University of California-Santa Barbara

The Associated Press contributed to this report