Is Ole Miss a party school? Myth busted.
March 22, 2009Today is the beginning of a holiday that Ole Miss students look forward to almost as much as Christmas: Spring Break.
Every year on the Friday before the holiday “officially” begins, cars line up outside the residence halls where students can be seen stuffing suitcases and beach items in their trunks.
This year my friends and I have decided to take a trip down to Destin, Florida for the week. Why Destin? Well, it’s a popular Spring Break location and it doesn’t hurt that we were offered a free condo for the week either.
Just because it’s Spring Break doesn’t mean that the work stops, though. Along with our swimwear and sunscreen, my friends and me will be taking along our laptops, books, and study guides.
Hey, Ole Miss may be referred to as one of the top party schools in the nation, but the people who make those statistics obviously aren’t students here.
Almost every year the Princeton Review ranks Ole Miss in the top three party schools in the nation. A lot of people who don’t go to Ole Miss always ask me, “Is it really true that Ole Miss is just a party school?” Well, I’m here to tell you that statement is purely a myth. The Princeton Review bases their statistics off surveys and the opinions of others – most of whom do not attend school at Ole Miss.
Yes, students like to gather before and after sporting events, like in the Grove during football weekends. Yes, there are bars in Oxford and students do throw parties. The amount of partying that goes on at Ole Miss, however, is the same amount that goes on at any other college in America. No more.
If Ole Miss is primarily a “party school,” then how is it that U.S. News & World Report ranked the UM School of Business in the nation’s top 100 business schools in the most recent “America’s Best Colleges” rankings? The Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College also ranks in the top three honors colleges in the nation. Furthermore, the School of Law and the University of Mississippi Medical Center hold prestige on a national level.
In fact, many of the departments around campus are of high quality – like the journalism department for example. Through the training and advising I received from the journalism classes and faculty at Ole Miss, I landed a job at MTV in New York City and a three month internship with Smithsonian Magazine in Washington D.C. – as an undergrad!
Ole Miss students know how to have fun, but they also know how to be academically competitive.
So while I’m on the beach I’ll also be studying for my international relations class, and on the way to Destin my friends will take turns driving so others can study.
Ole Miss a party school? Myth busted.
Just a few rankings/achievements that stand out:
1) Ole Miss was ranked in the nation’s top 25 public universities by Forbes magazine.
2) U.S. News & World Report ranked the UM School of Business in the nation’s top 100 business schools in the most recent “America’s Best Colleges” rankings.
3) The UM School of Education recently earned a perfect score from the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education.
4) This year, the UM School of Accountancy’s undergraduate program was ranked 18th in the nation and both the master’s and doctoral programs were ranked 15th, marking the first time all three of our programs were ranked among the top twenty in the nation.
5) UM has the only chapter of Phi Beta Kappa at any public institution in Mississippi
6) UM just graduated our 25th Rhodes Scholar and announced our 13th Truman Scholar.
wow,this is such a great blog post! I have really enjoyed your videos and blogs which have defiantly made a difference in where I hope to be attending school in the fall! My top priority in choosing a school was going somewhere with a strong academic reputation and I concerned with Ole Miss’s reputation as a party school, but now I see how great of a school it actually is academically, the people just seem to know how to have fun too, lol!
look forward to seeing you in the fall