August 2nd, 2011 at 12:19 PM ^
CEDARFEST
August 2nd, 2011 at 12:22 PM ^
A bunch of my buddies went to OU. It was #2 the year we graduated from highschool. I went to Miami (NTM) and trust me, I made my way down to OU as often as I could. Great parties.
August 2nd, 2011 at 12:23 PM ^
SUNY ALBANY
/lock the thread
I can tell you that partying is all there is to do. 50 inches of snow a weekend would drive anyone to drink and when you're in college, you do it right.
Job recently moved me to Upstate New York, I have been looking for Michigan friendly bars but none are on the map. Can anyone help?
My job makes me travel from SUNY- Oswego to Cornell and SUNY- Binghamton, so not opposed to traveling a bit to see the games this fall.
There is an official UofM Spirit Group that goes to a sports bar called Uncle Joe's. We meet for all football and a most big basketball and hockey games. They have a facebook page if you want to sign up for messages regarding events.
We have been known to have some fun at Uncle Joe's, come down sometime
August 2nd, 2011 at 12:25 PM ^
I've partied quite a few times in East Lansing since the late-'90s and I am disappointed they didn't make the cut.
I guess they just don't see the fun in getting tear-gassed while drinking in the main square, or the excitement that any party -- even your nerd group's in-dorm pot-luck -- may be the lucky one chosen to host 20% of the football team and their annual random-guy beatdown.
August 2nd, 2011 at 12:51 PM ^
I agree that they do have some great parties, but they've really gotten worse. They probably were great in the '90s, but the ELPD has seemingly cracked down a lot after the riots of '99 to the point where everyone is just scared of MIPs and noise violations and all that.
Of course, if you ask Sparties why they're not on the list and why their parties are not as good as they used to be, they'd probably say either that A)the list sucks, or B) It's harder to get into State then it was before, so smarter people are there and they have to study instead of party.
August 2nd, 2011 at 12:29 PM ^
If I lived there I would drink a lot, also.
August 2nd, 2011 at 12:47 PM ^
Says the guy from Lubbock TX
I went to high school in Iowa (just graduated from Michigan) and I can confirm this is true. Really nothing else to do in Iowa City.
Iowa has some good things about it... I mean, we got pigs... and corn.
Put them together and you get?
A delicious bbq?
August 2nd, 2011 at 12:30 PM ^
Lol Ohio university has legendary parties. If you never been to one of their halloween parties I suggest trying to make it down there.
August 2nd, 2011 at 12:38 PM ^
Agreed, Halloween at OU is insane, the best Halloween party I have ever been to
August 2nd, 2011 at 12:35 PM ^
Haha this doesn't surprise me after seeing their mascot take down brutus last year.
Those guys know how to have a good time!
August 2nd, 2011 at 12:37 PM ^
These lists change every time, and they are all kind of dumb.
Bottom line is if partying is what you want to do in your college years, you should be able to find a good one at ANY college. My years at WMU were filled with the stuff of legend, and that school will never make the list.
August 2nd, 2011 at 12:44 PM ^
1. Xavier (Cincinnati)
2. UC Stanislaus
3. Pittsburgh
4. Florida State
5. Vermont
6. Ole Miss
7. South Carolina
8. Colorado State
9. Central Florida
10. Texas A&M
11. North Dakota State
12. Washington State
13. North Carolina State
14. Virginia Commonwealth
15. Texas Tech
16. Houston
In conclusion, Texas wins this list with 3 out of 16 of the top party schools not on the other list. This accounts for 18.75% of the list.
August 2nd, 2011 at 12:48 PM ^
is #8.
August 2nd, 2011 at 12:57 PM ^
And Ole Miss is #3 (AKA University of Mississippi), Vermont is #19, and South Carolina is #20.
I'm most surprised UW-La Crosse didn't make it.
Big mistake. And I originally had UW La Crosse at number 18 so they should really be #15 on my list. Sorry for the mistake.
August 2nd, 2011 at 12:43 PM ^
the party scene is pretty crazy. Halloween, Palmerfest and pretty much any weekend is packed uptown. They've had riots when the bars didn't stay open when daylight savings time ends. They've tried to put police at the ramps to stop non-residents from entering Athens on Halloween weekend. They've used the locker room at the city pool for a drunk tank during busy weekends. Plus you're one county away from a good supply of Meigs County Gold. It's a good think I went to OU after transferring several times or I would have probably flunked out of school. The school really has a beautiful campus and good local art and music scene and a few decent academic programs. Unfortunately, we'll always be known as a party school. I guess there are worse things to be the best at though.
Really?
I could only find one story about it specifically, but the students were basically mad that the bars didn't stay open the extra hour. I think "riot" may be a bit extreme, but when you have a crowd this large in the street that won't disperse, there's really no better description. I was in school at the time but not there.
Edit: I guess this video is actually the second riot after the first year but still illustrates the point.
Who shall meet me at Ashley's then when DST ends this year?
The first riot was my freshman year at OU. I remember stumbling down Court St. and seeing everyone outside the bars on both sides of the street playing Red Rover. Everyone was pissed that the bars closed an hour early. I didn't realize it till the next day when we found out one of our friends had been arrested uptown. The following year, the city and the university made a huge deal out of it and so of couse we all had to be uptown waiting to see what happened. Police were everywhere. Ahhh good 'ol Athens! Such fun times!!!
Believe it or not this is a true story. I wouldn't call it a riot every year but when they kick you out an hour early the entire strip (Court Street which has 18 or so Bars) takes to the street and makes a scene at the very least. Nothing too crazy, just another reason to be drunk students.
Everyone for whatever reason knows of Halloween, but the spring festivals/block parties were always fun. I used to live on Congress and would always go to High Fest. Speaking of high, Meigs County Gold! Haven't head that in quite some time!!!! I truly do miss Athens! They have such good food and always had cheap drinks! Where there when the Greenery was around? They had quarter draft night on Wednesdays and a pitcher of Brain Stompers for two bucks! Then of course the Pub for aquariums, Junction for Quad night, Tony's for Hot Nuts, Pig Skin for the Black Widow....I really do need to get down there!!
Did you ever climb Bong Hill and watch the sunset/rise or go out to Radar Hill behind the Ridges? Those were always fun times too.
Go Bobacts!!!
Yes I was there when the Greenery was around.
August 2nd, 2011 at 12:45 PM ^
There's really something caled "UC Stanislaus". And they party?
Lets shift gears here: name some of your favorite "determined to party" memories from your own college years. Mine - putting a keg in a tuba case with straps and marching it on my back into a friend's dorm room (why?), right past night security. We didn't really think this one through.
It's actually CSU Stanislaus, which is in Stanislaus county. The CSU schools (California State University) are the lower-level four year state universities (though San Luis Obispo, aka "Cal Poly" has a pretty good reputation), whereas the UC schools (University of California) are the top-level schools. There are 23 CSU campuses (which include San Diego State and San Francisco State, even though they buck the "CSU-[name of location]" naming system). There are 10 UC campuses. And there are more than 100 community colleges. The California public university system is gigantic.
I've never been to CSU Stanislaus, but CSU Chico was consdiered a pretty serious party school during my college years (which were not spent at Chico, but I did make a trip or two up there).
August 2nd, 2011 at 12:48 PM ^
My name's Dave, and I like to party...
August 2nd, 2011 at 12:54 PM ^
No! Nobody parties except me!
Yeah, just Rod. And me.
As an Ohio U alum I'm proud to say I contributed to this honor. It was a great 5 years.
OU gets a lot of credit for big party weekends like Halloween but in my opinion the best way to experience it is to go on a "normal" weekend. Trust me you will have fun.
I will second this. Halloween is cool and fest is a blast, but some of my favorite memories were rolling up to my buddies house, getting blitzed and then heading to the bars on just any old weekend. Then the next morning we would get up and head to courtside at like eleven to eat pizza and start drinking again. Good times.
I go to IU and I can vouch that it deserves to be on the list. Depauw on the other hand has no business being on the list. I have friends there who hate it. And I have been to OU and I think it's a little overrated. But it's not a bad time
As an OU grad I can only tell my fellow MGobloggers that this ranking is well-deserved for better or worse. I had a blast the four years I was there and it is a great little college town with a perfect atmosphere for parties. That being said, I am not happy with the extra 20 lbs I still carry around because of it. For those who are still young enough to have an excuse to make college road trips on this board, I suggest you do your best to make it down there if you know anyone. Parties are great and girls aren't afraid to have fun.
Semi-Proud OU 2006 Alum.
Florida State finally beat Florida at something that means a lot to both schools. I can see Penn State being in the top ten: it's not like they have much else to do there. Iowa is a bit of a surprise at number four, though. So much for the myth of their clean-cut midwestern kids straight out of the cornfields.
What about Central?
Ohio University is pretty insane. I went there during Spring Term in between my sophmore and junior years and needless to say the place is a "shitshow." Met a girl called "Katie The Legend"... she was legendary indeed.
Back in the 80's Southern Illinois University (Salukis) in Carbondale had some of the best partys in the country and regular in Playboy's top ten...not so much today as the city cracked down.
Anyone else click through to see more about the methodology of the ratings?
Check out this gem: "The Review applies the ranking based on survey questions on the use of alcohol and drugs, hours of study each day, and the popularity of the Greek system."
They didn't asked them to rate the parties on a scale of 1 to Awesome. Basically, they looked at how much people drink/do drugs, how little they study, and how many frats are around.
Brilliant.
To me, the number of frats and awesomeness of parties are inversely proportional...
You have to party at frats at some schools. I went to the University of Missouri-Rolla my freshman year and there was NOTHING to do in that town so frats would host open parties for all students on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
That reminds me, has anybody been to St. Patrick's Day at Rolla? That is like Halloween in Athens on steroids for a week. Most of the students are engineering majors and apparently St. P was the patron saint of engineers. Everybody on campus has 2 or 3 extra people staying with them. Unfortunately, somebody died a year or two before I was there so they were on kind of a probation and had to use NA beer for the drinking olympics. These games were held on the intramural fields and included the 12 oz dash (which I competed in with my RA), bat races, boat races, etc. Good times, from what I can remember.
In case any of you pay attention to my posts, and I feel bad for you if you do, yes I have gone to a lot of different schools.