I am sure some students choose their schools based on their 'Party rating' but those students either grow up, get mediocre marks, or fail... If your goal at college is to 'party' then you just dont exceed- I have seen it many times. As an undergrad we had a physics major in our study group who let his fraternity events come first- he became useless and ended up becoming a business major... (was that a redundant statement?) Joining a fraternity and being a physics major is almost impossible to do successfully

When I was a grad student there was a guy in my class that wanted to shedule study sessions around when his favorite football team was playing- he lasted less than two semesters.

My undergrad school probably made the top ten party schools list a few times- UT Austin is a GREAT place to party- 6th street in Austin is a wild and fun place... but students that want to actually succeed study... UT Austin had a DAMN good physics program... several nobel prize winners and several more that deserved to be nobel prize winners taught there. Those that went to school to party, partied... Those that went there to learn recieved a great education.

So yeah, there may be a 'LIST OF PARTY SCHOOLS'- that really doesnt change the fact that our schools attract the best an brightest from other countries and that a LOT of those people stay here. The US invests more in science and research than any other country, and I think the benifits from that investment are obvious...

I dont think ridiculing the US because some asinine group puts out a list of 'party schools' even earns a giggle...

(I am tempted to go into detail about the work ethic I saw in some people I have seen when working at foreign national labs, but that would be inflammatory)