Ohio U rated top party school in student survey

By Associated Press

Published: Monday, August 01, 2011

 

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio University, set in an Appalachian town known for its rowdy Halloween bashes, has been named the nation's No. 1 party school, pushing the University of Georgia down a slot in the 2011 Princeton Review survey released Monday.

 

Ohio was No. 2 in last year's survey of students nationwide. The campus in Athens, about 65 miles southeast of Columbus, has made the party school list 12 times since 1997, but has never before reached the top.

 

Rounding out the top five this year were No. 3 University of Mississippi, No. 4 University of Iowa and No. 5 University of California Santa Barbara. The Princeton Review survey is part of its 2012 edition of "The Best 376 Colleges," which includes 61 other rankings in categories such as best professors (Wellesley College in Massachusetts), most beautiful campus (Florida Southern College) best campus food (Wheaton College in Illinois) and highest financial aid satisfaction (Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania).

 

Brigham Young University in Utah tops the list of stone-cold sober schools for the 14th straight year.

 

Ohio University's party reputation has long vexed administrators at the riverside school of about 20,000 students, and policies have been beefed up over the years in an attempt to reduce student drinking.

 

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/08/student_survey_calls_ohio_u_to.html

Playboy didn't even have them in their top 10 this past April.  Who do you trust more? ;)

USA! USA! USA!

How is this a good recruiting tool? 

 

I would think parents would be very leery of sending their kids to such a school. 

 

 

^OU's reputation is well know, I don't think the number 1 position this year will sway any parents minds.

 

My facebook feed has blown up with proud fellow Bobcats. I may have to pour some crappy beer in to my stolen Aquarium and have a drink to celebrate.

 

Edit: I even decided to change my avatar for a few days to celebrate....

 

 

 

If you're a student, I can understand misguidedly celebrating such a "distinction."  But if you're an alumnus, that's a different story...

Really surprised by Ole Miss, but I guess all I really know of that school is how they all dress up for the football games like they are going to a golf tournament or polo match.

 

USA! USA! USA!

 

Ahhh..... my dorm's (not OU) favorite chant when cheering on the the pukers.

^^ When you start every interview by having your resume looked over, followed by the comment "OU? I hear that's a real party school" you learn to take it in stride.

 

Hey, it sure beats being #1 (in Ohio) for STDs, Go Falcons!  (If I recall correctly BGSU was the only institution dumb enough to submit their STD data)

 

As far as OU Alumni are concerned they all know damn well what goes on at OU today and in the past and so does the rest of the state.

OU has had this reputation since at least the 1960's! Hell, the late Paul Newman was expelled for throwing a keg on the president's car. It is America's longest-standing party school and has always been out of hand compared to other places. The stories I hear from the 70's are every bit as bad as what I witnessed. The school has not changed at all. That's its big selling point. A lot of colleges aren't as fun as they used to be, but that's not the case at OU. OU just keep raging...

Jeers, jeers to OU and the frivolity of their students. I for one expect the students at my alma mater to be nerdy and bookish, so as to best exemplify the morals and values of the now dusty founders who's pictures I ignored when I was a student. Work hard so that the value of my degree is higher (not that at this stage of my career anyone gives a sh!t where I went to school anymore...).

 

"Suos Cultores Scientia Coronot"  :speech:

 

Signed

 

Alum of party school #12

^^ When you start every interview by having your resume looked over, followed by the comment "OU? I hear that's a real party school" you learn to take it in stride.

 

 

I've had interviews where this party school stuff has come up. One time in '08, a manager in Toledo (who graduated from Wisconsin mind you) just started laughing when he saw Ohio University on my resume. "Ohio University? What the hell is that, a party school?" I told him, "Dude, you went to Wisconsin. You have no room to talk." Needless to say, I didn't get the job. Other times, managers have liked the party school ranking. If you're being interviewed and a hiring manager says, "Well, at least you learned how to party," that's usually a sign you're getting the job. It all depends on the culture of the company.

 

If it's a place where people drink together after work, graduating from OU can be a good thing. I know I landed a few jobs (albeit crappy ones) because I went to OU and the other applicants were from more reserved schools like Michigan and Notre Dame. If the culture is more staid and conservative, this party school stuff can deep six your chances in no time. They'll always have that suspicion you're a raging drunk with no moral compass (no matter how untrue). Those Michigan and Notre Dame grads are going to beat you. It's a real double-edged sword. I think OU grads have to be more targeted than general university grads. Apply with the right people, and you can market the party school as "crisis management" or "social engineering".

 

The funniest interviews I've ever had have been with OU grads. I applied at a major newspaper where the interview quickly degenerated into stories about drunken college antics. The Photo Editor was an OU grad that obviously hadn't lost his Bobcat touch. Once he learned I graduated from OU, he started swearing profusely and took out a can of dip. Through the whole interview, he was spitting dip into his empty pop can and telling me about his glory days at OU before he got married and had kids. "Ah, man, OU! That school is great! Time of my life! I nailed so many hot chicks!" We talked about Halloween, Palmerfest, The Crystal “Casino”, The Junction, and "drunk sluts" (*his words, not mine). It was a nearly two-hour interview, and nothing business-related was discussed. It was a total waste of my time. At the end of the interview, he finally said, "We're firing, not hiring. Hell, I'm probably going to get fired. They're cleaning house. Why'd you apply at a newspaper? Do you have any idea what the news business has turned into?" I should mention this guy really had his chops (and he was well-paid due to an older contract). He was as good as a photojournalist can get, but none of that mattered. He was laid off two weeks after he interviewed me. He probably went out in a blaze of glory, which is always an entertaining/frightening thing to see in newsrooms. Other businesses don't have that. Newsrooms are so much more explosive than normal work environments.

 

I could fill a book with interview and work horror stories.

 

Lots of discussion on this here:

 

http://www.bobcatattack.com/messageboard/topic.asp?FromPage=1&ForumPID=6&PID=32570

 

Having lived in Athens for many years, I really don't see this being detrimental to the city or University.  Most people will yawn and say, "we/they weren't already?".

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

 

No.

 

*The extreme partying isn't the reason. College kids in America are drunken idiots at most major schools. The reason is location. OU doesn't have the networking opportunities of good schools in larger cities. I would want my kids to go to school in a city with tons of good jobs available at graduation. OU is cut off from the world.

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

 

No.

 

Yes. If they had to settle for a middle tier state school. I will push for better schools, but I have no problems sending my kids there.

 

Edit: Damn you C-dawg, editing while I am replying. You need to make your own connections at OU. I agree.

There is no denying the school is falling on academic ratings (particularly USN&WR). The school was getting "dumber" when I was there (lower ACT scores). When I left, they were taking kids with much lower scores than when I was accepted. Also, I should note that I was actively recruited by Ohio State and Michigan State, but turned them down to go to OU without scholarship since it seemed better for media majors. Scripps is tough to get into. I figured that meant something, but really, it doesn't.

 

Maybe I should rephrase it to I wouldn't let my kids get a media major at OU (or anywhere right now). Scripps is better than the norm, I'll attest to that having worked in the professional world, but the differences between schools are so minor. 90% of what you know is learned on the job. And OU's location is a huge problem. You need to be a rich parent if you send your kid to Scripps. Keep in mind their best shot is getting them an unpaid internship in New York, DC, or LA. You'll pay tuition, high rent, and living expenses for your kid to work for free outside of town. If you can't do that, you shouldn't send your kid to Scripps (or any media school outside major markets).

 

Location is OU's biggest problem, not partying. I'd argue the location is at least part of the reason OU's partying gets so out of hand. It's literally in the middle of nowhere in the Appalachian foothills, so you feel like you're in a different world where you can get away with anything. What happens in Athens stays in Athens. It just feeds on itself, and it has become this place where people go to make bad decisions that would hurt their reputations back home or get them fired from their jobs. Tons of graduates keep coming back for more, sometimes many years after they graduate. There is a constant stream from Columbus, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, etc.

 

Sure, Miami and BG are "cut off," but they're not far from major cities. They have decent nightlife, but it's more tame than OU, and way more quiet on weeknights.

For what it’s worth, didn’t Matt Lauer go to OU? Oops, never mind. He’s the worst case example of how mediocrity rises to the top. Or is that Katie Couric? Or Ann Curry...or...? or...?...

^Matt Lauer didn't graduate. I always heard he failed freshmen algebra or something like that. He left OU early for a job in West Virginia (which is the way to do it). They later gave him a degree. BTW, he lived above the old Baron's Men Shop on Court Street and supposedly was a party legend. That apartment is perfect for party kids. It has deck overlooking Court Street.

 

*The head of Fox News, Roger Ailes, was also known as a raging drunk when he was at OU.

I was down there last year for Ohio Beer week.  Definitely a sweet college town.  Didn't see too much of it as I mainly hung out in the bars.  It was very impressive how students and alumni came back into town to party at all the bars with the 30+ breweries beers.  It definitely feels like the metropolitan center for 100 miles in any direction which is kind of hard to do in Ohio for a small college town.  It seemed the bulk of the people I ran into were coming from Northeast Ohio if they weren't locals.  To me it reminded me of a hillier, more lush Kent but with many more nicer bars minus the ever vigilant riot police..

 

Driving along the fairly unused train tracks coming from the North through the hills, I couldn't help but think how sweet it would be to have a train connecting Akron/Canton to Athens one or 2 days a week.  Otherwise its close to a 2hr drive down 77 and then another half hour to hour into the hills.

What kind of parent sends their kid to OU? Here's one type: I was at a bar there (I don't know the names of the bars or streets there; it was across from that food court thing and had pool tables on an elevated section in the back) with a buddy of mine who was in school there. It was parent's weekend and this dad and daughter were in there. It's early afternoon and Dad's banging away on his own pitcher. Daughter starts hitting on my buddy who's got long hair, stroking him, asking him if he's in a band and all that. A lot of dads would be bent getting out of shape by this point, but this Dad's just sitting there egging 'em both on.

 

Man, when I tried to get into OU back in the late '90s, they told me that my grades, class rank and math ACT (19) was way too low even though the rest of my scores were in the high 20s. They told me that I could go to OU-Lancaster and transfer in. There, they said that I was supposed to take Calculus 163 the first quarter, but that since my math scores were too low that I had to take two more 100-level maths to get to 163. It would have taken forever to get into to regular OU. I wanted normal college instead of auto-dependent school so I transferred to Shawnee State. I didn't have to take the equivalent of Math 163 until I was a senior at SSU. OU was never MIT, but they didn't screw around academically back then.

 

I remember hearing Matt Lauer saying something about keeping a towel under the door at all times when he was at OU.

I remember hearing Matt Lauer saying something about keeping a towel under the door at all times when he was at OU.

 

No, in his commencement speech he said something along the lines of  "If you had told me when I was a student here that I would be the commencement speaker in 1997, I would have told you to get out of here and put that towel back under your door."

 

And that bar would have been the Crystal, and no, I wouldn't make any broad generalizations about the student body of OU or their parents from the clientele there. 

^ of course not, it's just an ancedote.