10 Universities Famous For Their Crazy Party Culture

It can be either the best or the worst day for parents who are sending their children away from home to attend college. Some might be thankful to have the house free to themselves for the first time in forever, while others can’t help but worry about what will happen to their beloved kids once they leave the nest and venture into the world alone. Luckily, many famous campuses have great reputations, you just won’t find those ones on this list. What you will find here are the names of campuses renowned for parties, alcohol, misbehaving and general crazy culture. It’s up to you if you want to avoid letting your children attend these places, or you could purposefully send them to one of these to teach them a lesson or two in rough living.

I’m sure that not everyone who attends these fine establishments are out-the-gate alcoholics, but you will need to know what to expect and prepare for what college life can do to a person.

10) University of Texas – Austin, Texas

The culture at UT is well known for having a somewhat unquenchable thirst. With a large part of the downtown area devoted to bars and night clubs, people still feel unsatisfied, and as a result house parties and fraternity parties are very common and very big.

One particular party, which occurred in 2015, turned a few heads simply for its theme. Hosted by the Fiji Fraternity who claimed the party was of an ol’ western theme, droves upon droves of people turned up wearing ponchos, sombreros or construction uniforms combined with name tags stating “Hi, I’m Pablo”.

Better described by party-goers as being a “border patrol” theme, things escalated during the party with guests getting somewhat boisterous, eventually ending with a women getting knocked out from a punch. Testimonials reveal that this is a regular occurrence.

9) Tulane University – New Orleans, Louisiana

Many places around the world go a little bit crazy during Mardi Gras celebrations, but Tulane University is known quite well for putting in that extra little bit of effort. If you plan on visiting or attending college here, just know that around that first week of February things may get somewhat crazy as the party moves into the streets with regular parades and events. With a ranking of #9 in the US for best party college (ranked by the Princeton Review), the Tulane University has some pretty wild students on their campus, so if the parades in the street don’t excite you then join the masses of students in the bars for some well needed inebriating.

8) Penn State University – University Park, Pennsylvania

Featuring the world’s 4th largest football stadium, it’s no surprise that Penn State has a very serious football culture. Well, you know what goes hand in hand with that don’t you? Alcohol! What separates this college from many other “party colleges” is its absolute commitment to the sport. Here, the parties are always cranking when there is a football game going on, often with the party moving into the street.

If you’re not the biggest fan of that, then Penn State has many other traditions, the best being “State Patty’s Day”. Rumored to have been off the chain back in the day, it is now banned from being celebrated on campus (as students tend to party a bit too hard) but everyone easily leaves class to go enjoy themselves in one of the bars.

7) University of Georgia – Athens, Georgia

Unfortunately UGA had a dark start to the year in 2015 with a number of student deaths, two of which were due to drugs and alcohol, highlighting the dangers of partying too hard but the University of Georgia was known for having a hardcore drinking culture before these events.

It has ranked within the top 15 of the Princeton Review Party Schools list, this year making it to number 8. An awesome story from November 2015 tells of a student from this particular University who got a little too drunk in one of the halls and fell out of a window. He landed well, survived and even walked back to his own room as if nothing happened, with that window being on the 9th level of the building!

6) University of Wisconsin – Madison, Wisconsin

Not only was UW ranked as number 1 on the Princeton Review list a few years ago, but in 2013 it was also ranked as the second best party college by Playboy Magazine.

Like the previous institutions, UW students enjoy throwing a few house parties, but in one instance police handed a frat house a $94,000 fine after one particular party. They ended up running their own bar, serving minors alcohol and also were able to cram 600 people into a building with a capacity for only 99 bodies. They had even hired bartenders for the night, who were apparently pouring anyone anything they asked for.

5) University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign, Illinois

According to the Princeton Review, this university ranked no.1 as the main party university in the U.S.A. The university is better known for having a crazy party culture than for having outstanding students known for academic achievement. Nevertheless if what you’re looking for is a university where you can have fun, then look no further, the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign is the place to be if you want to have fun. You might as well get a bachelors degree in between all of the partying while you’re there.

One of the highlights to the party scene at UI is the nightlife and bars. The campus alone has around 12 bars on site, but there are many more high quality places very close to the university as well, giving thirsty students better access to alcohol.

4) West Virginia University – Morgantown, West Virginia

I’ll start off by saying that WVU doesn’t have restrictions on students drinking in the stadium which is just the best idea ever, so if you wanted to be a spectator at one of the sporting games then you could park up with a box of beers. What other reason do you need to want to go there?

It’s definitely worth mentioning that these guys have been known to riot on the odd occasion, both when Osama Bin Laden was killed and when they beat the Texas Tech Red Raiders in 2012, so you should think of taking a spare couch or two for burning should you move there. Also, there is a thing here called “free drinks Thursdays”, and it is what you think it is. Apparently there are a small handful of bars who, every Thursday, provide alcohol to students free of charge. It is like they WANT everyone to drink.

3) Pi Kappa Alpha, Florida International

For our remaining three, we are also going to focus on specific frat houses who earned themselves very distinctive reputations which are a little more extreme to what you’ve read so far.

Now this frat house was suspended in 2013 following a scandal directly related to the party scene, where a Facebook page was discovered that was used by frat members for advertising and selling drugs, planning illegal drug parties and sending naked pictures of drunk or passed out classmates (it was also used to help members cheat on exams). On a positive note, the university has for some time had the tradition of providing a free concert for students every semester, and having a vibrant nightlife both on and off campus.

2) Alpha Delta, Dartmouth College

This frat house has been known to promote drinking like a fish and supplying minors with alcohol, but the straw that broke the camels back and caused their suspension was when they decided to brand a number of new pledges for initiation, which is a more extreme extension of the frat party culture.

They are also known for throwing rather controversially themed parties, with one being a “crips and bloods” party. Over 200 people went dressed as gangsters, using racial slurs and acting the part while playing with plastic toy guns. They received some bad publicity and were accused of being racist, but it didn’t stop the parties from happening.

1) Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Arizona State University

 

There exist many tales of irresponsible partying from ASU and in particular the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. A couple of years ago, during a party involving heavy spirits, one member began to throw up due to alcohol poisoning from the last twenty shots of tequila he had sunk. Once his friends took him to the hospital, they simply left him, passed out in a wheelchair and a post-it note.

The Epsilon frat was also infamous for their pool parties, hiring Djs and having regular events to keep everyone both entertained and drunk. In May they usually have their “Jungle Party”, a tropically themed pool party which they blow the most money on.