UMD was named a top party school, but some students say the annual survey is out of touch with this now-stricter campus. 

This university is moving up in the world, Princeton Review says, one anything-but-clothes theme party at a time.

According to the annual “Party School List,” released late last month, the university ranked 17th in the nation for our rage scene, one spot better than last year. The standings are derived from student alcohol and drug use, popularity of Greek life and the average time students spend hitting the books. The schools that made the list scored high in the first two categories and low in the third category.

Freshman psychology Michaela Gallagher believes that the standings are flawed to due to the limited nature of the surveys used to determine the results. She added that many components were ignored that should have been considered in the formation of the list.

“I don’t think that this is a good way to rate party schools because there are lots of colleges that didn’t make the list that should have,” she said. “If things like location and local notoriety were factored in, I think the list would be more accurate.”

Students are split on whether this is a positive or negative outcome for the university, acknowledging that though the ranking may give the university a bad reputation, it could also attract more students to apply.

“All colleges have parties, so I don’t think our standing should necessarily be viewed as bad,” freshman computer science major Brandon Weber said. “If anything, it’ll promote the university and get our name out there.”

This isn’t the first time the university has cracked the top twenty of this list; its street cred has been increasing since the university was ranked 19th in 2010.

However, many students do not believe that the partying activities have increased at all over the years, but instead have decreased.

“The Princeton Review has really overlooked what President Loh has done for alcohol abuse on campus,” said senior psychology major Fernando Herrara. “If they actually came to UMD, they would see that it is very dry compared to other universities.”

West Virginia University topped the list this year for the third time in a row, with the University of Iowa and Ohio University in the following two positions. The Princeton Review also publishes a complementary list of “Stone Cold Party Schools”, in which the local US Naval Academy ranked number three.

Here’s the complete list of Princeton Review’s 2012 top party schools:

1. Ohio University, Athens, Ohio

2. University of Georgia, Athens, Ga.

3. University of Mississippi, Oxford, Miss.

4. University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa

5. University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, Calif.

6. West Virginia University, Morgantown, W. Va.

7. Penn State University, University Park, Pa.

8. Florida State University, Tallahassee, Fla.

9. University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla.

10. University of Texas, Austin, Texas

11. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

12. Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y.

13. Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, La.

14. University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wis.

15. DePauw University, Greencastle, Ind.

16. Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind.

17. Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz.

18. University of Maryland, College Park, Md.

19. University of Vermont, Burlington, Vt.

20. University of South Carolina, Columbia, S.C.

— Savannah Doane-Malotte is a staff writer for The Diamondback