Penn students 'too smart' to make rankings

Lots of free condoms and bars may be more important than low acceptance rates and high SAT scores when it comes to being a top school - at least when CollegeHumor.com is doing the ranking.

CollegeHumor - a site that features funny tidbits and links from around the higher-education realm - released a parody of the traditional U.S. News & World Report rankings today.

But Penn didn't make the cut.

"It's not that [Penn] is not a fun school - it's that the kids there are too smart," said Ricky Van Veen, editor-in-chief and co-founder of the site.

Unlike the U.S. News rankings - which often determine a college's prestige and tend to be led by the Ivies and their peers - CollegeHumor's Power Rankings award those schools where students have the most fun and do the least work.

These schools are "perfect if you're lazy or if you have a trust fund," Van Veen said.

"It's where Ferris Bueller would go to school," he added.

Michigan State University, Indiana University and the University of Wisconsin topped the list.

None of the Ivies made it, however.

At the top-performing schools on his list, there is no "constant, competitive rat race with everyone else who wants an investment-banking job," he said.

CollegeHumor rankers considered factors like how many free condoms the school gives out, what proportion of the female students are in relationships and how many students list marijuana as an interest on their Facebook.com profiles.

The site used a "highly scientific but silly equation," Van Veen said. "I think it's a badge of honor to be on the list."

Students at the site's top-ranked schools seem to agree.

Mariel Yohe, a freshman at Indiana University, said characterizing her school as a place where students have a lot of fun is accurate.

"There's always a party somewhere," she said.

She added that there is a local pizza-delivery place that drives around campus and randomly throws condoms out onto the streets.

Nevertheless, she said most people are able to balance their partying with getting their schoolwork done.

University of Wisconsin freshman Devra Cohen said that, while she enjoys her school, it shouldn't be labeled as completely focused on partying.

"Students here certainly have a lot of fun. But to say that students don't work hard is not accurate. It's very much a work-hard-play-hard attitude," Cohen said.

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