Playboy: WVU No. 2 party school

West Virginia University moved second place on Playboy magazine's Top Party Schools list Friday.

WVU, which was 10th last year, was beaten only by the University of Texas at Austin.

The University is no stranger to the party school reputation. WVU has appeared on Playboy Magazine and The Princeton Review lists of top party schools in recent years.

WVU ranked sixth on the Princeton Review's Top Party Schools list in 2008.

"There's not much to do in Morgantown except party, study and ignite furniture," according to the magazine's website. "Please put down the lighters and step away from the Barcalounger."

Students at WVU drink "2 percent of all the world's beer," one WVU student claimed on the website.

A survey on the website asked participants which school they support, why it's the best party school, what was the "best party" they attended, and who are the "hottest group of girls" on campus.

Recommendations were submitted to the Playboy editors for review.

John Bolt, interim director of WVU News and Information Services, believes the rankings are not as important to the University's reputation as its list of Rhodes Scholars, Truman Scholars and other academic statistics.

"Those are the sort of things people pay attention to," Bolt said. "Being ranked (on the Playboy list) with the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Wisconsin-Madison is not bad."

Bolt said both schools are of high academic reputation, despite being ranked party schools.

Playboy's study was not done in a "particularly scientific manner," Bolt added.

Some students believe the lists help to promote WVU's reputation as a party school.

"No matter where people at WVU are from, we are all united under the age-old activity of boozing," said Ben Jones, a junior multidisciplinary studies major. "Since we're known as a party school, people who decide to come to WVU often hold to that expectation."

Tyler LaVay, a sophomore marketing major, believes the University of Texas was ranked No. 1 "because we've been ranked number one too many times, and that's the God-honest truth."

A representative from Playboy could not be reached by press-time.