So, for any school that’s on the top 20 list there will be a high consensus amongst students.”

Playboy Spokesman Steve Mazeika said the magazine’s rankings were based on a less technical approach. Instead of surveys, the magazine’s editors were asked a simple question: “Where would someone who wants to live the Playboy lifestyle want to go to school?”

“Basically, to put it more simply, we’re looking for universities where students can receive an excellent education and also have excellent social opportunities at their disposal, as well,” he continued. “It’s just sort of the full package, you could say.”

Neither Mazeika nor Mullarkey could specifically say why the University isn’t in their rankings, but most students think the University doesn’t make the list because of its emphasis on education.

“We party a lot on the weekends, but for the majority of the students here we work really hard during the week,” Business junior Jenny Nowierski said. “I think what categorizes a party school is a school that parties all week long and doesn’t really focus on school as much.”

LSA senior Kimberly McCraw, meanwhile, said the University’s party scene was “under the radar.”

“Academics, athletics and other things are so big at our school that maybe partying kind of takes a back seat to it,” she said. “Yes, everyone here probably does party, but there are things that are much better about our school that overshadow that.”

Engineering junior Russell Kretzschmar was prideful that the University is on rankings based on academics, not partying.

“We still have just as much fun as everyone else, but we’re not labeled as some crazy, wild, party school,” Kretzschar said. “We’re a respected university. We’re the 15th ranked university in the world by the (QS World University Rankings). I take pride in the fact that our school is ranked academically, and not by the amount of alcohol we can drink.”

Mary Jo Desprez, the Alcohol and Other Drug Policy and Prevention administrator at the University, whose job is to provide alcohol and drug awareness to a wide array of students, said it’s a good thing the University isn’t on any party school list because, she believes, the value of a degree earned from the University would diminish if it had the reputation of a party school.

Desprez added that the high level of academics is another reason the University doesn’t have a party reputation nationally.

“The academic challenges here are really, really, difficult," she said. “I think that puts another filter on that. People at the University of Michigan love to have fun, they love to be with each other, they love to be ‘Go Blue!’, but I think their academic pursuit is equally as passionate for them.”

Though the University does not make regular appearances on the best party school lists, it is not noted as one of the tamer universities either. In its two-page profile of the University, The Princeton Review’s “The Best 173 Colleges” notes the University’s lively party scene and abundance of school spirit.

“There is a robust party scene," the book reads. “Students tell us that ‘most students go to house parties [or] hit the bars.’ There’s also a vigorous social scene for the non-drinking crowd, with ‘great programs like UMix...phenomenal cultural opportunities in Ann Arbor especially music and movies,’ and ‘the hugely popular football Saturdays. The sense of school spirit here is impressive.’”

Still, in a survey of more than 100 randomly selected students from around campus conducted by the Daily, 60 percent said they would call the University a party school. Despite the fact that the University isn’t on any national party school rankings, a plurality of students who matriculate here feel that it is, indeed, a party school. And the school spirit evident in Ann Arbor contributes to that perception.

But not everyone takes part in the widespread drinking scene.