No. 5 in “Lots of Beer.” No. 6 in “Party Schools.” No. 17 in “Lots of Hard Liquor.”
UF was repeatedly recognized in this year’s Princeton Review rankings. The university placed in nine of the 62 categories featured in the book “The Best 377 Colleges, 2013 Edition.”
The Princeton Review also ranked UF as No. 8 in “Best College Newspaper” and No. 19 for “Students Study the Least.”
The rankings derive from 122,000 student surveys, which averages to about 324 students per campus.
But UF takes its rankings with a grain of salt.
“We tend to focus on more objective measures,” UF spokesman Steve Orlando said, adding that the rankings do not represent the university’s hardworking and well-prepared students.
However, UF has a reputation, as evidenced by its No. 1 party school ranking in 2008. This year’s rankings share a similar theme.
“We’re aware there are issues that need to be addressed, and we are addressing those,” Orlando said.
UF came in with several sports-related rankings, including No. 2 in “Jock Schools,” No. 3 in “Students Pack the Stadiums” and No. 16 in “Everyone Plays Intramural Sports.”
Marty Dempsey, a coordinator for competitive sports at RecSports, said the organization takes pride in its ranking.
However, Dempsey said the ranking isn’t necessarily a good representation of UF’s intramural numbers. Between 12,000 and 15,000 students play intramural sports at UF each school year, a small sample size, he said.
Robert Franek, author of the book, said it is not uncommon for larger campuses like UF to generate thousands of survey responses.
The book and rankings reflect data collected throughout the past three years. Generally, the survey results remain consistent, Franek said. But there are fluctuations on the list.
For example, UF’s career resource services were ranked No. 6 this year. Last year, they pulled in the top spot, and in 2011 they were ranked No. 4, according to Alligator archives.
Although the university may not agree with these rankings, Franek maintained they are accurate.
“They are based on that expert opinion,” he said. “And that expert opinion being current college students.”
Contact Samantha Shavell at sshavell@alligator.org.
