2008 Woodie Awards
Clemson ranked No. 1 jock school
But luckily, we aren't the No. 1 party school.
By: Liz Hunter
Issue date: 6/13/08 Section: TimeOut
The results are in, ladies and gentlemen. That's right, the time has come. We can all stop waiting with bated breath for the 2008 Princeton Review's "Best 366 Colleges," their annual report on how the nation's universities are stacking up.
Here at Clemson, obsessed with numerical rankings as we are, we pride ourselves with small numbers (just think - how many times have you heard the number 27 so far this semester?).
And we got them this year, placing in the top 20 on eight lists in six categories, including our No. 1 spot in the Jock School category.
The annual report, which is made up of 62 rankings across 8 categories, is compiled completely through current student participation.
This year's report includes input from over 120,000 students nation-wide, according to the Princeton Review's website. The categories - Academics, Demographics, Parties, Schools by Type, Politics, Quality of Life, Extracurricular and Social - attempt to provide an insider's insight into the aspects of college life that you won't see reflected in the U.S. News and World Report's annual mecca of all that is worthy in higher education, their "America's Best Colleges" report (did I mention the number 27?).
This year Clemson ranked in some predictable categories; including our matching No. 12 spots in both "Students Pack the Stadium" and "Everyone Plays Intramural Sports" categories.
We also ranked expectedly in the categories reflecting our proud college-town tradition: No. 11 in "Best Quality of Life," No. 6 in "Gown-Town Relations are Great" and No. 3 in "Happiest Students."
There is also my personal favorite: our No. 14 ranking in "Students Most Nostalgic for Ronald Reagan." Clemson? Conservative? You don't say!
While the rankings paint a utopian portrait of Clemson as the happy-go-lucky jock school, the omissions in rankings seem to be more telling about what Clemson lacks than anything else.
We were only ranked in one academic category, taking the No. 4 spot for "Best Career/Placement Services," which, while nice (mad props to Michelin), reflects what I consider the sad march away from traditional and important liberal arts education and towards the university as job training, complete with corporate partnerships.
Especially for our obsession with becoming a Top 20 school, we're going to have to figure out how to rank in some other academic categories like "Best Classroom Experience" or "Professors Get High Marks."
Clemson was completely void of recognition in two entire categories, which can be considered a mixed blessing. We - not surprisingly and quite unfortunately - failed to rank in the "Demographics" category, which mainly reflects racial diversity and acceptance of sexual orientation.
The good news, though, is that we also failed to rank in the Parties category. This is a good thing, because if we had, I'm afraid they would have had to create a category for us called "Most Culturally Insensitive and Offensive Theme Parties."
And a heads up to freshmen: when people try to tell you that Clemson is the No. 1 party school in the nation, you'll know better. According to the report, we aren't even in the top 20. It's okay, though. We've got another "Top 20" to worry about.
Here at Clemson, obsessed with numerical rankings as we are, we pride ourselves with small numbers (just think - how many times have you heard the number 27 so far this semester?).
And we got them this year, placing in the top 20 on eight lists in six categories, including our No. 1 spot in the Jock School category.
The annual report, which is made up of 62 rankings across 8 categories, is compiled completely through current student participation.
This year's report includes input from over 120,000 students nation-wide, according to the Princeton Review's website. The categories - Academics, Demographics, Parties, Schools by Type, Politics, Quality of Life, Extracurricular and Social - attempt to provide an insider's insight into the aspects of college life that you won't see reflected in the U.S. News and World Report's annual mecca of all that is worthy in higher education, their "America's Best Colleges" report (did I mention the number 27?).
This year Clemson ranked in some predictable categories; including our matching No. 12 spots in both "Students Pack the Stadium" and "Everyone Plays Intramural Sports" categories.
We also ranked expectedly in the categories reflecting our proud college-town tradition: No. 11 in "Best Quality of Life," No. 6 in "Gown-Town Relations are Great" and No. 3 in "Happiest Students."
There is also my personal favorite: our No. 14 ranking in "Students Most Nostalgic for Ronald Reagan." Clemson? Conservative? You don't say!
While the rankings paint a utopian portrait of Clemson as the happy-go-lucky jock school, the omissions in rankings seem to be more telling about what Clemson lacks than anything else.
We were only ranked in one academic category, taking the No. 4 spot for "Best Career/Placement Services," which, while nice (mad props to Michelin), reflects what I consider the sad march away from traditional and important liberal arts education and towards the university as job training, complete with corporate partnerships.
Especially for our obsession with becoming a Top 20 school, we're going to have to figure out how to rank in some other academic categories like "Best Classroom Experience" or "Professors Get High Marks."
Clemson was completely void of recognition in two entire categories, which can be considered a mixed blessing. We - not surprisingly and quite unfortunately - failed to rank in the "Demographics" category, which mainly reflects racial diversity and acceptance of sexual orientation.
The good news, though, is that we also failed to rank in the Parties category. This is a good thing, because if we had, I'm afraid they would have had to create a category for us called "Most Culturally Insensitive and Offensive Theme Parties."
And a heads up to freshmen: when people try to tell you that Clemson is the No. 1 party school in the nation, you'll know better. According to the report, we aren't even in the top 20. It's okay, though. We've got another "Top 20" to worry about.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 3
Jeanne Krier
posted 6/16/08 @ 8:59 PM EST
This rankings info is not new: it's almost a year old. It's great that Liz Hunter just discovered them, but these rankings have been public since Aug 2007 when the Princeton Review posted them at www. (Continued…)
Boris
posted 6/20/08 @ 9:04 PM EST
The article is a rerun for an orientation issue; the original was run months ago.
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