NCAAbbs

Quote:...the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

That's the word from the Princeton Review's annual college rankings based on a 70-question survey completed by 110,000 students on 361 campuses nationwide. And while all college administrators vie to have their school be considered the one with the best undergraduate academic experience--top honors go to Reed College in Portland, Oregon--or the happiest students--that would be Stanford University--none of them want the title of No. 1 party school. That designation is made based on the answers to questions about the amount of alcohol and drug consumption, the amount of time students spend studying and the popularity of fraternities and sororities.

Conscientious grown-ups, namely university presidents, medical experts and parents who pay hefty tuition bills to these schools, deride this particular ranking as irresponsible and unscientific. Meanwhile, students cheer when their school is recognized as a party-hearty place to be. That's exactly what happened at Wisconsin-Madison, especially since this dubious honor follows a 10-year effort by the school to reduce its reputation for heavy drinking.

UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley told The Associated Press that he has dismissed the report as "junk science that results in a day of national media coverage." Meanwhile, Eric Varney, chair of the Associated Students of Madison, said most students will take pride in the ranking, especially since U.S. News & World Report ranked UW-Madison No. 34 among national universities. "It just shows that we work hard, but we play hard also," Varney told AP.

The top 10 party schools for 2006 are:

University of Wisconsin-Madison
Ohio University-Athens
Lehigh University
University of California-Santa Barbara
SUNY at Albany
Indiana University-Bloomington
University of Mississippi
University of Iowa
University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Loyola University, New Orleans

On the opposite end of this scale are the top 10 stone-cold sober schools:

Brigham Young University
United States Air Force Academy
Wheaton College
College of the Ozarks
United States Naval Academy
United States Coast Guard Academy
Webb Institute
United States Military Academy
Grove City College
Wesleyan College

No. 1 schools in other categories you won't find on most lists:

Professors Rated Highest by Their Students: St. John's College, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Toughest College to Get Into: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Students Never Stop Studying: Reed College
Best College Library: Harvard College
Students Most Satisfied With Financial Aid: Princeton University
Most Beautiful Campus: Pepperdine University
Dorms Like Palaces: Loyola College, Baltimore, Maryland
Dorms Like Dungeons: United States Coast Guard Academy
Best Campus Food: Bowdoin College
Biggest Fraternity and Sorority Scene: DePauw University
Most Religious Students: Brigham Young University
Campus Race/Class Relations Friendliest: Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
Gay Community Most Accepted: New College of Florida
Students Lean Most to the Right (Politically): Hillsdale College
Students Lean Most to the Left: Mills College
Students Most Supportive of College's Sports Teams: University of Maryland, College Park