Make that 50 years......we weren't exactly Otterbein in the 60's.

True, Doc, but we weren't exactly Miami (Fla.), either.  Back in the 1960s I remember that Florida school being cited most often by fellow Ohio students as the big nationally recognized "party school."  No survey data -- bad or otherwise -- to report, just "word of mouth."  I also remember that some of my student colleagues referred to Marshall as a party school.  By that they seemed to imply that you could party all the time there and still pass your classes because their academic rigor was not as great as ours. It was definitely meant as put down.  My wife recalls a high school government (political science, for you youngins) teacher who told his students in her senior year (1964) that "Miami (Ohio) is the party school, and Ohio University is the booze school."  He went on to prove his point by saying that there were "44 bars in Athens."  I think he counted all the bars in the county to come up with figure, or just plan made it up.  In the end, I'm not sure who sounded better in the comparison he made.  Not the kind of thing that parents want to hear either way.  However, we all know Miami is one of the two major vortexes of suckyness in the known universe.  The other is on a campus in Philadelphia.

Edit:  My wife just checked in her high school year book.  This teacher got his master's degree at Oxford Tech.  B.A. at OWU.

You know, too damn much is made of the party school image.  Yes, it's seen as a negative ... mainly by those schools whose students help contribute to OU's party school image.  90% of the kids who get into trouble at OU are from out of town, usually from O$U, Fiami, BGSUCKS, Toledo and the other schools that are quick to snicker at OU's image.  The fact is, the people from those schools would LOVE to have the kind of good time on their own campus that they have in Athens.  It's not so much that the other schools are better disciplined.  It's more that the atmosphere at those schools is staid and oppressive. 

As many others here have said, the ranking shows that OU offers a more rounded experience.  It shows that you can get a first-class education and still have a good time.  Nobody questions that other schools on the list -- Georgia, Ole Miss, Iowa, WVU, Penn State, Florida State and Florida -- offer nothing but the best in education.  OU gets put down largely because of the f-ing snobbery that exists in Cowtown and the Seven Mile Suburb.  It makes them feel better about their own shortcomings.

For what it's worth, Wabash College is one of the schools coming ahead of our 6th place rating for athletic facilities.

And also, while admitting that there are parents who will not allow their child to attend Ohio for a party image, there are others that may not allow their child to attend a host of other schools for a host of other, equally capricious and arbitrary reasons. For instance, my parents, who forbade going to Cincinnati because of all the rapes. Or myself in 10 years, who will forbid attending Miami because it sucks.

This pretty well sums it up:

http://www.athensnews.com/ohio/article-34505-ou-has-more-...

Just changed the OU parking hang tag on the car this morning and got a good chuckle.  As much as OU tries to disavow the party school image, what do they print on the hang tags for the next two years - Rufus with nine kids "partying" in a convertible.  Now they're not drinking or anything but this picture is very similar to the ones that depicted the top 20 party schools in various media reports.  Don't get me started on diversity either - 9 white kids in the photo.