<p>My daughter chose Duke for a number of reasons, none of which was because of it’s “party” reputation. That really worried her, and I think she might have gone to Pepperdine if they had offered her merit money. Duke IS a studious school, but in a “work hard, play hard” way, and we felt they were known for their drinking, which is what I felt “party” school meant. I suppose it can also mean not taking academics seriously, which is absolutely not true about Duke. </p>
<p>Wikipeida says </p>
<p>“The term party school is used to refer to a college or university (usually in the United States) that has a reputation for heavy alcohol and drug use or a general culture of licentiousness.”</p>
<p>Under Pepperdine Wikipedia also says " The 2005 edition of the Fiske Guide to Colleges has also noted Pepperdine as being one of the nation’s largest conservative colleges. U.S. News & World Report (see “Pepperdine at Glance” in the external links section) has ranked Pepperdine as the 53rd best national university for undergraduate education. It is also ranked one of the 10 worst party schools in the country.[44]"</p>
<p>Anyway, she went to Duke, and it took awhile, but she found her peeps. I’m sure the same would have been true at Pepperdine. Both my kids were pretty “straight edge” (compared to me at least!) when they went to college, but they ultimately found their peeps. …I think. </p>
<p>Son is still a junior at Loyola Marymount. Not “top tier”, but he was a (barely) B student with similar SAT scores, so you might want to check that one out too. We learned about it on a “parents of B students, western version” thread on the parents forum. I can find it if you are interested.</p>