Our methodology for the 30 most fun colleges
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We recently released a list of the most fun colleges based on a compilation of several rankings from The Princeton Review's 2016 Best Colleges book.
In order to determine the lists that were included in our ranking, we looked for categories that would show a strong social life, high student investment in athletics, lots of alcohol, and a high quality of life.
Once we identified these Princeton Review categories, we inverted the lists in order to award a larger amount of points to the schools ranked higher. For example, 20 points went to the No. 1 school on a list, 19 points to the No. 2, 18 to the No. 3, and so on through No. 20, which received a single point.
We then added up all the points we designated to each school to determine an overall ranking. Although no school appeared in all the lists we surveyed, every college in our top 30 was featured in two or more Princeton Review rankings.
Our highest ranked school — University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign — received 90 overall points. Our lowest ranked school in the top 30 — Loyola Marymount University — received 23 points. We broke any ties in our list by giving the advantage to the school with the higher ranking in a common category, using our editorial discretion when rankings did not overlap.
Here are the Princeton Review rankings we compiled for our list:
- Their Students Love These Colleges
- Students Study the Least
- Everyone Plays Intramural Sports
- Best Athletic Facilities
- Students Pack The Stadiums
- Party Schools
- Lots of Hard Liquor
- Lots of Beer
- Lots of Greek Life
- College City Gets High Marks
- Happiest Students
- Best Quality of Life