Key Quote: "The guide's rankings are based on email surveys voluntarily filled out by 122,000 students at more than 370 colleges across the country. On average, about 325 students from each campus respond, and university administrators often call the rankings unscientific and say they glorify dangerous behavior."

I wonder how many students from Ohio typically respond?  These guys make Richard Vetter look like a pro in terms of survey research methodology expertise. 

inthehouse!

I know.  We want nothing to do with the dangerous activity.  But having a spirited, involved campus community should be celebrated for the good parts of what's said here.  There's an awful lot of pride.

Try this test:  For those of us who attended, would you let your kids attend?

"Besides the party list, Ohio also lands in the top 20 in several other Princeton Review categories this year, including lots of beer and lots of hard liquor, as well as best athletic facilities, most beautiful campus and major fraternity and sorority scene."

However unscientific the methodology, one thing is for sure: Ohio is a party school and a damn good one. We might as well embrace it because that reputation isn't going anywhere.

It's not a town full of stumbling drunks like you or administration seems to make it out to be.

I have never met an Ohio University alumnus who regretted his/her decision to attend OU. This includes young alumni my age and older, highly successful professionanals. At the Cincinnati Greek Festival a couple weeks ago, I met a high ranking manager at General Electric because I wore a Junction tee shirt and she said that was her favorite bar when she was a student.

On August 31^st we drop off the next generation from my family. He will be number six since the 1940s and number 5 since 1989. I am hoping to get a few more to attend over the next decade. 

325 students from a population of 20,000 is accurate to within 5 percentage points, the same as most any other survey conducted.

You should probably stop talking.

I would hope anyone sending their kid to college would be looking at everything the school represents, not just the party school ranking.  If they can't look past that they're an idiot. 

You, Sir, should probably stop talking   325 COULD be representative IF this was a random sample, which it most certainly is not.  Have you ever heard of the phenomenon known as "self-selection into the sample"? 

Your parents are the exception, at least in today's culture.   And if I'm not mistaken, our applications have dipped in the past couple of years, as has our yield among applications.  Other state schools have seen significant gains. Bottom line, we're accepting somewhat less qualified candidates to keep our numbers up.  I have a feeling the incessant news stories about fests, party school rankings, etc. aren't helping matters.

Though I'm often on the opposite side of issues from SBH, I find myself in essential agreement with what he has said in this thread.  This is not a good thing for our overall student recruitment efforts, and it's a shame that most folks in the state know more about our "party school reputation" than about our fine medical, engineering and journalism programs.  My sense is that given the number of years that we've been ranked in this survey, an actual legitimate, methodologically sound survey might rank us pretty high simply because students across the country have seen our name multiple times in the news stories always generated by surveys like the Princeton Review.  This puts us in the realm of the self-fullfilling prophecy.  It's a crying shame, IMHO. 

Thank you Tyler!

Good Lawd...

First...To answer Monroe...ABSOLUTELY!  Mine are 13 and 11 and I hope I'm not influencing them TOO much every time I talk about it or every time we roll into town for a game.

Second...Anyone that puts credence in these rankings is both lazy and gullible.  These things are no different than anything media driven.  It was probably a deserved title long ago but Athens is no different than 90% of other schools it's size.  Well actually it is...It's not only gorgeous but small enough to feel like home and rural enough to be SO much safer than so many other schools.

Like Tyler said, your child is going to get out of school what he / she is capable of.  Anyone fresh out of the nest is going to be drunk on the freedom (yes that was a pun) at first...But the way he / she has been raised is what dictates the long term experience / critical choices.

The Walter's (along with the other notable alumni detailed at the link below) somehow managed to wade through the mountains of beer cans and emerge with diplomas.  I don't think their contributions to society can be questioned...

http://www.ohioalumni.org/notable-alumni

As far as I'm concerned...All I need to see is the way fellow Alum's faces light up when Ohio comes up in conversation.  You don't see that reaction from many Alumni bases and there's a reason for that...

Great smash, 36.

There's no need to get nasty here folks so cool the attack stuff. 

But we do need to be able to differentiate between the headlines and the reality.  Is there more partying at The Ohio University than any other school in the nation?  Could be.  (Animal House wink, here.)  But is that all there is to Athens?  Is every moment of every day nothing but a drunken, lawless brawl?  Are there other campuses with similar partying activity?

Parents who don't investigate the reality, well, that's their missed fortune.  For those of you who'd not let their own offspring attend OHIO, I'll pay for the FedEx charges to return your degree to Athens.

By the way, I graduated in '77 (well, left school then...longer story).  It was the same then as I'm sure it is now:  A fabulOUs place to get an academic and real-life education.

Yes, mention OHIO or see someone wearing OHIO gear any where you go--and how do you feel?  I know how you feel.  That's why you hang OUt on this board.