The Princeton Review has continued to release its list of university “honors” this week in an effort to promote its annual college guide. Most notorious of these is the “Top Party School” list which no university wants to find itself on.
This year, West Virginia University found itself in the unfortunate position of topping the list for the third time.
The ranking is based on non-scientific surveys of students who often take delight in trying to make their school come out high in the party rankings.
WVU has long experience in dealing with the publicity about its party reputation. Its basic strategy is making sure the school has good relations with the press at all times and engaging in search engine optimization to make sure that other, more positive stories show up high in the searches about the university.
Apparently we’re number two on that list, as one of my undergraduate students thoughtfully mentioned in class yesterday. http://thegazette.com/2012/08/20/princeton-review-ranks-university-of-iowa-second-best-party-school/