While scores of DePauw students post articles about the university's recent rankings on their Facebook pages or tweet them to their friends, administrators and admissions officers await the day DePauw no longer holds such titles.
Both the Princeton Review and Forbes Magazine included DePauw in their annual collegiate rankings, but in very different categories. DePauw received Princeton Review's No. 15 ranking on the "Party School" list and also appeared as No. 50 on Forbes' ranking of "America's Top Colleges" — 14 spots higher than last year.
Some students publicized both rankings openly while administrators questioned the publications' means of determining the rankings.
Vice President for Admission and Financial Aid Dan Meyer said DePauw should work to get off of the party school list as soon as possible. He also mentioned that DePauw receives no benefit from being included on the "party school" scale.
"The only good news is that they usually only cite the top 10 and this year we're not in the top 10," Meyer said. "So I guess that's the only slight positive."
Ken Owen, executive director of media relations for the university, also expressed strong disagreement with the rankings. He said these publications often do not use appropriate sources or disclose their processes for acquiring information.
"If you really analyze the facts, the whole thing is vile," Owen said. "We're somewhat happy that we dropped five spots, but at the end of the day, we don't know if they collect data, if they analyze data, if they talk to our students, if there is a survey, if the people who fill it out really are students."
The Princeton Review's online list of top party schools explained the publication acquired its information through student surveys. According to the Princeton Review, students' answers from party school institutions demonstrated "low personal daily study hours (outside of class), high usages of alcohol and drugs on campus and high popularity on campus for frats/sororities."
Forbes elaborated more on its methodology behind the rankings of its best colleges list online. The business magazine says 25 percent of the ranking comes from student evaluation forms on RateMyProfessors.com, another 25 percent comes from the number of notable alumni listed in "Who's Who in America." The remaining half comes from three factors: "the average amount of student debt at graduation, …the percentage of students graduating in four years and the number of students or faculty…who have won nationally competitive awards."
Though both ratings received a defensive response from administrators, some DePauw students seem to have few questions about the methodology behind the rankings.
Though junior Anisha Yadav and senior Sam Spahn acknowledged the Princeton Review's methodology might not be completely fact-based, both smiled and displayed a sense of satisfaction at the mention of the rankings. Spahn said he felt partially responsible for the party school ranking as a No. 15 "party school" having shared drinks and good times with his friends on many occasions, but also mentioned the ability of DePauw students to work hard as well as to enjoy themselves on weekends.
"We multitask like it's our job," he said. "It gives more assurance to that whole work hard, play hard theory."
English professor Wayne Glausser said he felt slightly skeptical of the methodology of each rating, but as a professor and father he found no problem with a college having "an energetic social life.
"I always tell my students that it is a good idea to be able to work very hard and to have fun," Glausser said. "And if you can only do one and not the other you're destined not to have a very good life."
Tour guides and admissions officers portray DePauw's social life in a similar light to prospective students. Yadav, a student tour guide, said she addresses the "party school issue" as it arises in tours, but feels that now also having the Forbes ranking will help her arguments for strong academics in future conversations.
"We have really good academics, and I really focus on that," she said. "Students get really good grades and then on the weekends they let loose a little bit, they have a drink. But I never say that there's excessive amounts of drinking on campus, and I never bring up Monon or Little 5."
Yadav also said she avoids signing up for afternoon weekend tours so that she doesn't have to explain "Fraturdays," or daytime parties that often take place on fraternity lawns and include alcohol consumption.
Meyer said he instructs officers and tour guides to be open about the social environment at DePauw and to discover what it means for prospective students and parents to hear the term "party school."
"You kind of meet them in terms of what's their concept of a ‘party school.' Everybody has a different connotation of what it means," Meyer said. "But we are not instructing our tour guides to go out there and say ‘No, we're not No. 15.' We tell them to give an honest assessment of what goes on."
Meyer explained the party school ranking has generated some concern for students and parents interested in DePauw, and in some cases, prevented them from exploring the university altogether. He referenced a family from Minnesota that made it all the way to Cloverdale, Ind., about 10 miles from campus, before hearing about the ranking and then calling to cancel their interviews.
For other prospective families the rankings have less significance. Susan Kelleher and her daughter Jennifer Kelleher visited campus for a tour in August, and upon mention of the rankings both said they had not heard about them previously. Susan said the rankings had little value because they only represented one study among many, and Jennifer said knowing about the rankings now would not affect her college search.
"[The ranking is] a factor, but it's not a major yes-or-no factor," she said.
For Neal Lynch, editor-in-chief of COED Magazine, the juxtaposing rankings created an ideal story for the lifestyle and entertainment website targeting college men. Lynch remarked that receiving such high rankings in both categories seemed "unbelievable" to him.
"From COED's point of view, it's great to go to a party school because you get to be social and have a good time, but the tag or the negative connotation that goes along with that is that you don't get a good education," he said. "DePauw seems to get both."