<p>FYI, Duke is NOT the ultimate party scene. A lot of Duke students end up going to Chapel Hill or Raleigh to party with UNC and NCState students.</p>
<p>Dartmouth as tons of big parties every weekend. What are you talking about? Hanover might be dead - Dartmouth is not at all. There are tons of dorm parties, house parties, and frat parties.</p>
<p>I'm surprised UCSB has only been mentioned once, I thought of it immediately when reading the title of this thread.</p>
<p>Princeton Review found these to be top party schools:
1 West Virginia University<br>
2 University of Mississippi<br>
3 The University of Texas at Austin<br>
4 University of Florida<br>
5 University of Georgia<br>
6 Penn State--University Park<br>
7 University of New Hampshire<br>
8 Indiana University at Bloomington<br>
9 Ohio University-Athens<br>
10 University of California-Santa Barbara<br>
11 Randolph-Macon College<br>
12 University of Iowa<br>
13 Louisiana State University<br>
14 University of Maryland-College Park<br>
15 University of Tennessee--Knoxville<br>
16 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign<br>
17 Arizona State University at the Tempe Campus<br>
18 Florida State University<br>
19 University of Alabama--Tuscaloosa </p>
<p>TheU.com found these to be the top:
Rutgers - New Brunswick
UW-Whitewater - UWW
LSU
Georgia Southern
CU Boulder</p>
<p>Depending on how "smart" you're going, and maybe looking beyond the norms. From the research I've done these all party pretty hard:
Vanderbilt
UNC-Chapel Hill
Tulane
CU-Boulder
Syracuse</p>
<p>BTW, also look at what type of partying they're into, especially considering drugs vs. drinking.</p>
<p>How the hell isn't Cornell on these lists? A Corenll alum currently at UCSD is regularly complaining to me that there isn't a Cornell-caliber party in sight.</p>
<p>Easy there. Using UCSD as a barometer for a party school atmosphere isn't the greatest idea.</p>
<p>
Are you a troll? You must be incredibly ignorant if you think Penn is more of a party school than Dartmouth or Duke. The best way to measure the strength of a "party atmosphere" is by the strength of the Greek scene. The Greek scenes at both Duke and Dartmouth are extremely strong and it is common for students to go out 3-4 times a week as long as schoolwork permits. Penn, and to an extent Princeton, are definitely social schools though, in relation to the rest of the Ivy League.</p>
<p>Yeah I have no idea how this kid thinks that Dartmouth/ Duke are less social and active than Penn.</p>
<p>Wesleyan. Between the houses of every description (Greek, Senior, and Theme), the weekends often start on Wednesday (which I believe is "bar night".)</p>
<p>To "party" in college generally means to hang out with people in a social setting(bar/apartment/frat house) and consume alcohol, have easygoing conversations with people, play drinking games, hook up, dance, etc. I don't see how they can be many different interpretations of this, even in different regions of the contry.</p>
<p>to be honest, Michigan kids don't really party, there's a small fraction/group that do, and can be seen at all the frats, but there's not a whole lot of partying, except maybe before a home football game.</p>
<p>the ann arbor bars are pretty packed but the traditional frat party is not very big at Michigan.</p>
<p>^Agreed. I went to a UMich to visit a couple of friends during my school's Spring Break and definitely noticed how only a few kids in my friends' hall for going out and partying even though it was St. Pattys Day Weekend. I thought everyone on campus was going to get hammered that night LOL.</p>
<p>Really surprised USC hasn't been mentioned so far.</p>
<p>For defining best party scene, u gotta also consider the attractiveness of the general student body, as well. well, let's be honest. many guys like to hit up the bars/clubs to drink and meet women. Also, I suspect women do that too. So, in considering all the variables, I think that best "smart" schools for best partying are: UCLA, Vanderbilt, USC, and UVA.</p>
<p>If one was to add USC, then you have to add UCLA. And i think UCSB needs to be added one more time, along with Madison</p>
<p>^That's the typical definition of party, yes, but it could really be used to describe other sorts of social events - dance parties, karaoke parties, etc also come to mind. "Party" implies but does not have to mean fratty, drunk and one-night stand-y.</p>
<p>"to be honest, Michigan kids don't really party"</p>
<p>Are you serious? I visited on the weekend of the home football game vs. Notre Dame...sheer party madness. Beirut games in front of every house, beer bongs off the roof, parking lots solid with drunk students. Trust me, you would not be hard pressed to find hard partiers at Michigan.</p>
<p>Also, I live in Evanston, and let me say that Northwestern is FAR from a party school. Sure, you could probably find people drinking any night of the week, and yes, I'm sure Northwestern students are more social than those at say, Harvard or Yale. But there is NOT a widespread party atmosphere on the Northwestern campus.</p>
<p>Also, I would add Claremont McKenna and Colorado College to the list.</p>
<p>in no order- umich duke(!!!!) penn colgate notre dame rice uw madison dartmouth vandy-ish? clemson(sorta smart...) ucla? uva uga ....alota schools in the south really-that culture and frat party thing is so valued there...
id say tops though is probably duke
then clemson, tulane, notre dame, uga, ...</p>
<p>usc as in u of south casrolina or south cali?</p>
<p>They mean Southern California. I would add that too. I visited three weeks ago--frat row was insane.</p>
<p>Lets put it this way: almost any mid-sized or large university is going to have plenty of people who party and plenty of people who don't.</p>
<p>I wouldn't worry so much about classifications. If you want parties, you'll find them at any school (unless you go to Bob Jones or some of the more alternative LACs). </p>
<p>That said, USC's party scene is intense. And LA is awesome. I was just there visiting friends the other weekend. :)
UCSB, Duke, and Vandy should be up there on the list too. As well as any school with a large Greek scene.</p>