<p>So according to the Princeton Review’s 2009 rankings, the schools that party the LEAST are:</p>
<li>Brigham Young University</li>
<li>Wheaton College</li>
<li>U.S. Coast Guard Academy</li>
<li>College of the Ozarks</li>
<li>Grove City College</li>
<li>U.S. Air Force Academy</li>
<li>U.S. Naval Academy</li>
<li>Wellesley College</li>
<li>Thomas Aquinas College</li>
<li>Calvin College</li>
</ol>
<p>So, does Wellesley’s social scene deserve to be in the league of BYU and the US Naval Academy? I mean, I know W is rigorous and its students aren’t known for getting wild every night, but being 8th at the low end of the party spectrum seems a little harsh (or do you feel it’s fair?).</p>
<p>FYI, the top 3 “party schools” are reputed to be:
<p>Ha, my mother called me to tell me that the other day. I think the ranking made the little puritan happy....</p>
<p>First of all, colleges with good academics typically do not have the best party scenes because the students often have a lot of work and care about it. Students at schools like Columbia and Swarthmore are notorious for the time they spend in the library. </p>
<p>I think the ranking has less to do with quality of school functions or how fun the students and more with the fact that most Wellesley students go off campus to party. While there are frequent room and pub parties, the societies and SBOG host only a handful of parties a year. Alcohol is served at the big parties, but the cops are there, so you have to be 21 to drink (people tend to get drunk beforehand). Dyke Ball is absolutely crazy, but it's a once a year event. Otherwise, the parties on campus are probably more tame than at other colleges where there are frats and sororities who can host private parties with booze.</p>
<p>I don't think the ranking is totally fair. Wellesley used to have a crazier scene (see Rolling Stones article): Dyke Ball used to be a 3,000 person rave, for instance. However, when students got out of control, campus police became more stringent with their supervision . I mean, we still have the Good Samaritan policy, so you won't get arrested for drinking or anything, but the cops are definitely a presence at official parties.</p>
<p>"First of all, colleges with good academics typically do not have the best party scenes because the students often have a lot of work and care about it." </p>
<p>Florida and Penn State both have good academics. The schools that made this top 10 just may be boring places to go to college. That's fine, if you are not a very social person and want a quite sit-in-your-dorm experience, but just because people go out and party in their free time does not make it academically any worse than the schools with the students that don't.</p>
<p>I definitely think JEC has a false idea of Wellesley. Because we don't party every wednesday-sunday night, doesn't mean that we don't know how to have a good time. I personally don't understand how you can get drunk for 4 or 5 nights a week and then claim to be invested in academics. Nobody I know went to Penn State for academics. They are all proud to be getting a degree while having a fabulous time, but never care about classes at all.</p>
<p>Well, all the girls that I know that went to Wellesley were the raging feminist, pseudo-intellectual, boring, and unattractive girls in high school that usually were considered on the verge of being lesbians. I likened them to wannabe Hillary Clintons. I guess we can't all get the full view of a school based on the limited group of people that we know that went there. Just as it is presumptuous to say that all people at Penn State get drunk 4-5 nights a week, I'm sure not all the girls at Wellesley are ugly, boring, or lesbians. People at Penn State drink hard, but they also study hard as well. I'm sure it's the same way at University of Texas, University of Florida, University of Wisconsin, UIUC, and all the other large public schools in the top 50 universities in the country. I wouldn't expect you to understand, as you obviously got a very different experience at a school that cracked the "top 10 party the least" list.</p>
<p>^Where do you come from?............?................? :s</p>
<p>
I personally don't understand how you can get drunk for 4 or 5 nights a week and then claim to be invested in academics. Nobody I know went to Penn State for academics.
<p>"^Where do you come from?............?................? :s"</p>
<p>I was about the ask the same of the two of you. Ok, it sounds like you knew some branch campus kids. It's a joke that you are trying to describe the entire student body of a school that has 38,000 undergrads. I could understand you trying to talk about Wellesley, with only 2300, but I doubt you know enough people to have a good sample size that would represent all 38,000 penn state university park students.</p>
<p>I wasn't surprised, though, that after reading the earlier posts in this thread that I saw that Wellesley's biggest parties of the year is the Dyke Ball. Coincidence?</p>
<p>Um Williams is known for having kids study hard (on list for that -- in top ten -- above Wellesley I think --) but kids are also known for a drinking scene, though with a son there I think that's exaggerated.</p>
<p>I think it stands to reason that a women's college would have a slightly quieter atmosphere, and I say that as a mother of a D at Barnard. I don't think that's a bad thing.</p>
<p>As for ugly lesbians -- shame on you. What an offensive stereotype.</p>
<p>But I agree that partying schools can have very rigorous academics, too, as I demonstrated above. Duke comes to mind also.</p>
<p>And I don't mean that there's anything wrong with being a lesbian or not physically attractive. It's just that here both of those things are being used to dis women students, and that's obnoxious.</p>
<p>I know some very beautiful lesbians.</p>
<p>And my D is straight and beautiful and at a women's college.</p>
<p>The way I see it, Wellesley for me is going to be like a refuge from all the parties. I can come home to a nice, quiet abode with no drunken bodies all over the floor. I think that a lot of students at Wellesley go off campus to party, whether it's in the city or by socializing with other schools.</p>
<p>Way to go, mythmom. :] I have known some very beautiful/sexy/etc lesbians in my time, too.</p>
<p>"Well, all the girls that I know that went to Wellesley were the raging feminist, pseudo-intellectual, boring, and unattractive girls in high school that usually were considered on the verge of being lesbians."</p>
<p>I'd like to point out a glaring idiosyncrasy in your argument. How could someone who was a raging feminist "on the verge of being a lesbian" (I find your entire statement glaringly obnoxious, and somewhat homophobic, just for the record) possibly be boring? That sounds like a very interesting, loud person to me.</p>
<p>In my post, I never specifically said I was talking about Penn State when I described party schools, though my good friend who went there just joined a group based on her school's party atmosphere. I simply described what I think many people perceive as the unacademic atmosphere of party schools.</p>
<p>So just to get this straight, you think I can't possibly understand your point of view because I have never experienced a party school, but you can clearly understand what you think of as my nun-like existence at Wellesley without being in my environment. In fact, you felt so certain of your superior ability to understand the school you have never attended, that you went out of your way to post on the wall for a school you do not attend. I frankly don't think you are remotely qualified to pass the judgment you have offered on this page. Perhaps in the future you could restrict your posts on this forum to things you truly know about? Or you could preface your statements to accurately reflect your complete obliviousness towards Wellesley College, not that your ignorant statements didn't clearly show that to anyone who has attended.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I wasn't surprised, though, that after reading the earlier posts in this thread that I saw that Wellesley's biggest parties of the year is the Dyke Ball. Coincidence?
[/quote]
I'm quite proud of the fact that students at Wellesley are secure enough with themselves and considerate enough to make sure that all groups are involved in our social scene. I think it's wonderful that members of the GLBT community feel safe in women's colleges and that Dyke Ball is such a huge event for gay and straight students in Boston.</p>
<p>True, people who do not go to your school shouldn't make generalizations about it. Similarly, you have no grounds on which to assess Wellesley. Unless you've actually attended Wellesley, your having known a few students here and there (you know, the pseudo-intellectual, lesbian, Hillary Clinton types you mentioned) doesn't exactly make you an expert on the subject. </p>
<p>I'm not sure why you happened upon this thread, but it seems you've just come here to make belligerent/homophobic comments about our student body without provocation. I'm not sure what the source of your grudge is, but I gather this forum doesn't need your input unless it's constructive, JEC.</p>
<p>Wow... homophobic slurs are uncalled for, jec7483.</p>
<p>So to summarize: I gather that the Wellesley students here feel that while not a lot of partying happens on campus, they still know how to go out and have a good time?</p>
<p>^ Yeah, most of us do. It's nice because there are parties, but it's still quiet enough during the week to get your work done.</p>
<p>Also, it's important to remember that each dorm has a distinct character. Some are known for being more festive than others. My dorm last year, Claflin, has a rep for being quiet during the week while having a lot of parties on weekends. The whole Tower Complex has a similar balance. East campus dorms are the quiet dorms. The quad is pretty noisy and lively. Lake House (sophomores and up) is the craziest---there are no RA's or RD's, so it tends to attract students who want to throw parties without having to worry about getting in trouble.</p>
<p>^ Yup. However, it is possible to apply to switch rooms after first semester. Usually people do so because they don't like their roomie, but I know two roommates who were able to relocate to West campus together, so it happens.</p>
<p>I think I'm going to be fine with my dorm/room, but out of curiousity, how are dorms assigned? I was surprised that most of the swimmers/divers were placed in the dorm that is furthest from the pool. Maybe they thought that we could use the warmup in the morning and that the dorm's rep for the best food is important to athletes?</p>
<p>I apologize for leading this thread's topic about ranking into a different direction.</p>
<p>I'm not sure if we know officially how first-years are assigned dorms. There is some speculation that even as a first-year, you have a lottery number like the rest of us, that they use to place you in dorms (although, I don't know how they rank the dorms...maybe based on the popularity of each dorm for the rest of the student body). I thought it seemed like a lot of sciency and mathy people were placed in the new dorms, but that may have just been me trying to fit a pattern to something versus the actual reality.</p>
<p>If you really hate your rooming situation you can switch after the freeze period in a couple of weeks. </p>
<p>I chatted recently with a student who was sticking people in their res halls this year. It sounds as if she's doing a little social experiment, and picked people's hall based on the music they like. Hip hop fans are in the new dorms. Good luck.</p>