Survey ranks University of Wisconsin-Madison top party school

<p>The University of Wisconsin-Madison topped a list of the nation's best party schools released Monday, despite a decade-long effort by the school to reduce its reputation for heavy drinking.</p><p>The University of Georgia was ranked 12th.</p><p>Meanwhile, Brigham Young University led "stone cold sober" schools for the eighth straight year.</p><p>The rankings are based on survey responses regarding alcohol and drug use, hours of study each day, and the number of students in fraternities and sororities.</p><p>Schools often criticize the list, while the American Medical Association has urged Princeton Review to stop putting it out, saying it legitimizes students' drinking.</p><p>UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley dismissed the report as "junk science that results in a day of national media coverage."</p><p>The chairman of the campus student government, though, said many students would take pride in the ranking considering the university's other reputation as a top academic institution.</p><p>U.S. News and World Report ranked UW-Madison No. 34 among national universities in its annual survey last week.</p><p>"It just shows that we work hard but we play hard also," said Eric Varney, chair of the Associated Students of Madison.</p><p>The list _ which is not affiliated with Princeton University _ is based on online surveys of more than 110,000 college students and is included in the Princeton Review's "Best 361 Colleges."</p><p>Robert Franek, who authored the report, said students are looking for more than just a classroom experience when they pick a college.</p><p>"The mission is very simple _ to provide information to make the college search palatable for a student and all of them to find a school that's the best fit for them," he said.</p><p>Other universities listed in the Top 10 party schools were Ohio University-Athens, Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, University of California-Santa Barbara, State University of New York at Albany, Indiana University-Bloomington, University of Mississippi, University of Iowa, University of Massachusetts-Amherst and Loyola University New Orleans.</p><p>___</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>HASH(0x1cd815c)</p><p>HASH(0x1d021b0)</p>