Illinois University Makes Top Party Schools List

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign apparently knows how to party, but not as much as last year.

The school ranked fifth on The Princeton Review's top party school list based on a nationwide survey of 130,000 students. The school grabbed No. 3 for party schools last year.

The winner? Syracuse University, followed by last year's winner, the University of Iowa; the University of California-Santa Barbara; and West Virginia University. (See the full list below.)

University officials had no immediate comment on the private university's showing in the 2015 edition of "The Best 379 Colleges." The book contains 62 top-20 lists gauging student satisfaction with professors, financial aid awards, athletic facilities, food and other factors.

Repeating at the top of the "stone-cold sober" schools was Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah and Illinois' Wheaton College.

Syracuse's central New York neighbor Colgate University topped the list of most beautiful campuses. The University of Chicago was found to have the best college library, and students voted Virginia Tech's dining hall offerings as the best campus food.

Other No. 1 spots: Stanford University in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender-friendly category; Elon University in North Carolina as best-run college; Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, for its dorms; and Yale University for best newspaper.

"Our purpose is not to crown one college 'best' overall or to rank these distinctive schools 1 to 379 on any single topic," said Princeton Review senior vice president Robert Franek. "We present our 62 ranking lists to give applicants the broader base of campus feedback to choose the college that's best for them."

Northeastern University in Boston took the No. 1 spot on the list of best career services. Oregon's Reed College topped the list of best professors, and the happiest students were found at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, according to the rankings.

An average of 343 students per campus were asked 80 questions about their schools and themselves during the 2013-14 and/or previous two school years. With no affiliation to Princeton University, the Natick, Massachusetts-based Princeton Review has published "The Best 379 Colleges" since 1992.

Top Party Schools

1. Syracuse University
2. University of Iowa
3. University of California-Santa Barbara
4. West Virginia University
5. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
6. Lehigh University
7. Penn State University
8. University of Wisconsin - Madison
9. Bucknell University
10. University of Florida

Top Sober Schools

1. Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
2. Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois
3. U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York
4. Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan
5. Thomas Aquinas College, Santa Paula, California
6. College of the Ozarks, Point Lookout, Missouri
7. Gordon College, Wenham, Massachusetts
8. Grove City College, Grove City, Pennsylvania
9. U.S. Coast Guard Academy, New London, Connecticut
10. City University of New York-Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, New York