Predictably so, Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud is not thrilled with being named the Princeton Review's "Top Party School."

Predictably so, Syracuse University's student body was mostly thrilled.

"It is not a good thing for a school to be labeled as number one in partying. I've heard about this ranking in the last two days from all sorts of folks around the world," Syverud wrote in an open letter Tuesday. "To put it bluntly, the hundreds of thousands of alumni, students, faculty, and staff who have poured their lives into building Syracuse University did not do so primarily to create a party. Sure, they are social people. They are not pompous. They enjoy a good time. So do I.

"But more than anything else, we work hard to promote a University, which is to say a place that educates and empowers people and pursues truth. So many of you have worked hard to do that and have been successful at it."

But Carly Nevis, a rising senior at Syracuse, told USA Today the number one party school is not at all surprising. In fact, she said that many students work as hard as they party.

"For half the year, Syracuse is freezing and we still go out and just put on a coat, or run," she said. "Over the ears, Syracuse has been known as a party school... but it's also the number one communications school."

The Princeton Review releases dozens of different ranking lists every year and "Top Party School" is by far their most popular. It has been suggested in the past that the top schools on the list even get an admissions boost as a result.

However, the publication is quite extensive and includes surveys from 130,000 students at 379 schools all over the nation. Rankings range from social life, academics, politics and more. Syracuse ranked highly in several lists, but "Top Party School" was the only one they topped. For example, Syracuse had the second-best "College Newspaper," finished third in "Students Pack the Stadiums" and fifth for "Best College Radio Station."

The Princeton Review categorized Syracuse as "selective" due to its 49 percent admission rate and noted that undergraduates average a 3.6 GPA. 39 percent of the student body finished in the top 10 percent of their graduating high school class.

"It's very truthful, there is not one weekend where there's not something going on," Tijienene Gordon, a policy studies sophomore, told USA Today. "But I don't like that the school is being pushed as a party school because its such a prestigious university."

Related