Penn State had a lot of buzz on the Internet today for an accolade recently awarded by the Princeton Review in its yearly survey of 122,000 students.

For the first time, Penn State was ranked the #1 party school. Before this year, the best (or worst?) we achieved was #3. Though, to be fair, we also did well in other categories… we were also ranked #1 in beer drinking!

Here’s the full list of our accolades:

#2 in Students Dissatisfied with Financial Aid
#3 in Jock Schools
#3 in Major Frat and Sorority Scene
#3 in Best Athletic Facilities
#6 in Best Career Services
#6 in Everyone Plays Intramural Sports
#6 in Best College Newspaper
#9 in Lots of Hard Liquor
#11 in Students Study the Least
#17 in Least Politically Active Students

This quote from the spokesman of last year’s #1 school, the University of Florida, sums up the situation nicely,

“All I can say is ‘Go Nittany Lions!’ This is every university’s headache each year.”

Penn State’s official response seems to be in line with that as well. Said one of the soldiers from the Department of Public Information,

The rankings are nothing more than popularity contests.

But is that true? If we take the statement at face value, it’s simply false, as there’s no reason to equate popularity with a school’s proclivity to partying; however, the survey is decidedly unscientific.

In any case, they said it and the press has picked up on it. Both we the students and the administration’s vocal box can agree that there is one most important question: is this good or bad for the University?

We conducted an informal poll on Twitter today. The answers ranged from, “If we are going to be on the list, we might as well be on top of it” to “not too proud of it. Shadows the academia merits.” In my opinion, the most satsifying answer was that the ranking is just “appropriate.”

Some say that having an institutional reputation fitting of Animal House hurts us down the line when applying for jobs– but can 500,000 alumni be wrong?