This year, DePauw University dropped one spot, from 13 to 14, on The Princeton Review’s list of top 20 party colleges in the United States. DePauw has been slowly decreasing on the list—ranked as number 12 in 2012.
Discussion around this topic has been a regular thing for past, current and future students, parents and faculty alike. However, as two administrators stated in an email sent out last year to alumni, this ranking hurts the reputation of our school and is simply not true.
They added, “The Princeton Review does not offer a public explanation of how they develop their rankings, though they state they base these rankings on student surveys. It is not clear when, or if, they have surveyed our students in the last four years…”
President Brian Casey agrees, and this year is nothing different.
“The Princeton Review posits that they base their rankings on surveying students, and they have not surveyed our students in seven years,” said President Casey. “I have no idea why things go up or down, because I have no idea where their information is coming from.”
An email has not yet been sent out regarding DePauw's current spot on the party schools list this year.
Students agree that this list causes people to look at DePauw in a certain way.
“I think that the list has affected the quality and amount of students that have decided to come here,” said sophomore Grace Coburn.
Alumna Jonathan Coffin, who also works in a Communications and Strategic Initiatives office at DePauw, agrees that regardless of the list, the party scene at DePauw is nothing unlike any other college in the United States.
“I had fun but I also know that I worked really hard and that’s kind of how most students are here,” Coffin said.
Although this is one ranking that doesn’t show DePauw in the strongest light, this is one of many that we have to accept but not necessarily agree with.
Forbes ranked DePauw as 91 on the “Best Colleges in America” list. This list includes private, public and Ivy League schools.
“There are a lot of rankings out there, and this is one of many. We feel pretty strongly that our students are active, they are smart, they’re engaged. They’re doing the kinds of things that we want to see students do. Sure they’re going to have fun sometimes but that’s the thing about being in college,” Coffin said.