Many of you ladies have probably read—or have been teased by someone—for which university made it to the top of the list of party schools in the U.S. this year. The Princeton Review released the results in early August, and if you haven’t heard already, The University of Iowa was ranked the number one party school of 2012-2013.
The data was gathered through voluntary surveys asking students about the lifestyle on campus. For this reason, I’m skeptical of the accuracy of the results and I’ll tell you why:
1. Are students answering honestly and accurately?
If students were answering the questions with friends around them, it’s more than likely that they didn’t take the survey very seriously or may have exaggerated the results. They might have also unintentionally provided inaccurate responses in general due to things like faulty memory. If you’re an Anthropology student, you already know this: survey results aren’t regarded as being definitive purely because the individuals answering the questions could have made mistakes.
2. High-risk drinking at UI is at its lowest level in 20 years
According to UI spokesman Tom Moore, alcohol consumption has lowered over the past four years. This reinforces my skepticism about reason #1 listed above.
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Many of my fellow Hawkeyes laugh at the title given to our university. If you’re a senior like me this year, however, you’re probably less than impressed by the results from this national survey. This spring, seniors will begin applying for jobs, and I am concerned that when employers see on my résumé that I graduated from “The #1 Party School in America” they might not take me as seriously as they should.
So if employers take The Princeton Review’s ranking into consideration, that could mean my chances—as well as every other job hunting senior’s chances—are lowered in terms of being hired, all because of a survey that might be based off of skewed data. Doesn’t seem like something to celebrate to me.
Photo source: Personal photography; Flickr Creative Commons