The annual U.S. News & World Report Princeton Review rankings are out for the 2004-'05 school year, and UW-Madison again made the list, ranking third in the \Top Party School"" category, number two in ""Lots of Beer"" and number three in ""Lots of Hard Liquor.""
UW-Madison, ranked second in the ""Top Party School"" category last year, now sits behind State University of New York at Albany and Washington and Lee University, respectively.
Rankings are based on more than 110,000 voluntary student surveys at 357 of the top colleges in the nation. Some UW-Madison administrators question the validity of such Princeton Review rankings.
""I don't believe for a minute that UW-Madison has a problem that is third-worst in the country in terms of binge drinking,"" UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley said. ""I get on enough other college campuses to know that we're sort of typical in terms of the magnitude of the problem, and it's bad everywhere.""
""[The high ranking] certainly puts us in the news, and some people would argue that any publicity is good publicity,"" said Aaron Brower, UW-Madison professor of social work and integrated liberal studies. ""[But] I think the most damaging thing is it narrows people's view of what the university has to offer.""
Brower, who is also the principle investigator of the Policy Alternative Community Education Coalition, added the university knows it has a drinking problem and is working to address this problem through PACE, which is working to reduce the consequences of high-risk drinking.
Chancellor Wiley said he does not think the party and drinking-related rankings have much impact on potential students' decisions to attend UW-Madison, but he would not want to admit a student who chose UW-Madison for such rankings.
""I think most of our students ... have outstanding records of scholarship as high school students and presumably come here primarily to get a degree and a good academic background,"" he said.
The major concern with the amount of drinking on campus is not only the drinking itself, but also the consequences that potentially result from drinking such as violence, rape, school failure, etc., which PACE is working to reduce, Brower said.
Some, however, take a much lighter view of the ranking.
""I think it's great that UW-Madison is ranked so high in partying because we are still a very academic school and I figure if you're going to party, you might as well party with the smart ones,"" UW-Madison junior Nick Krebs said.
-Eric Reinert contributed to this report.
