Just in time to horrify parents delivering the class of 2016 to campus in Orono, the Princeton Review ranked the University of Maine 19th on its list of the biggest party schools in the country.
The Princeton Review issues an annual report that rates what it deems to be the nation’s best 377 colleges and universities in 62 categories. Reviewers formulate top 20 lists for such diverse topics as “most liberal,” “best library” and “happiest students,” based on data collected from surveying 122,000 students at all 377 colleges and universities.
Other Maine schools that earned mention on this year’s top 20 lists include Bowdoin College, which ranked first for best campus food and sixth for best dorms; the College of the Atlantic, which placed seventh for best campus food and 14th for encouraging class discussions; Colby College, which earned the 13th spot for best study abroad programs and 14th for “lots of beer;” and Bates College, where the food ranks 11th and the radio station ranks 12th. All four of these private schools also won “best value” designations.
The University of Maine joins DePauw University in Indiana, which stumbled into 12th place for the 2012 rankings, as the only schools on the party list with enrollments of less than 15,000. Perhaps finding motivation from a fight song that begins “Fill the steins to dear old Maine” positions the university’s students to rival much larger universities when it comes to revelry.
The University of Maine also placed in the top 20 for “least happy students” (9) and “least accessible professors” (6).
The ratings all are subjective and do more to raise questions than answer them. But the image of unhappy students partying instead of meeting with their instructors does warrant scrutiny from university officials.The survey results indicate a heightened level of student dissatisfaction and lack of focus at a time when institutions of higher education must ensure that they deliver the best return on increasingly steep investments in tuition and related costs.
With University of Maine graduates walking away from Orono with an average of $29,143 in student loan debt, the stakes are elevated. Even if the students don’t consider themselves happy, they must be prepared.
An Aug. 22 Gallup poll indicates growing doubt about whether college graduates are ready to enter the workforce, which also points to the need to consider greater emphasis on career development as part of the university experience.
Five-figure student loan debt and an unwelcoming economy threatens to undermine the “go to college and get a good job” maxim that motivated generations of Americans since the end of World War II to pursue post-secondary education.
In addition to helping students “develop their creative abilities, communication and critical thinking skills, and understanding of traditions in ethics and rationality within the arts, sciences and professions,” the university’s mission must expand to include ensuring that the value of a University of Maine education translates directly into career opportunities that give graduates a reasonable return on tuition and borrowing costs.
And, if the party ranking is accurate, students also might reconsider the “party now, pay later” mentality. The notion that college life should allow young adults to experiment socially and make a playful transition from childhood to the pressures of grownup life doesn’t hold up under an unpaid $30,000 tab.
The changing cost-benefit dynamic for a college education in Maine offers sobering evidence that it might be better to postpone the party until the first paycheck arrives.
A very good editorial, but one that acknowledges the subjectivity of this ranking–as with all such rankings of things that can’t really be quantified. No doubt the UME System Trustees will use this ranking to punish further the Orono campus even as it enlarges its own staff and its own salaries and perks.
It’s “Fill the Steins to Dear Old Maine”. Besides, the Stein Song is the school song with For Maine as the fight song. Get your facts straight.
And as a result of this some politically correct puke will go on a campaign to drop the Stein Song as
the school song. Maybe Gov. LePlump will wight in and save it as he’s been known to raise a glass from
time to time to time…………………
If it wasn’t so easy to get an unsecured loan, guaranteed by the federal government, then colleges/universities wouldn’t be able to charge as much. The easy loans encourage rising tuition rates and they encourage young people to go into debt for something that has dubious worth for many. The real winners are the employees of the colleges and universities, from the Chancellors and Presidents to the maintenance staff. Kids go into debt to pay their salaries and benefits.
If it was the Government then it would be the banks, except the banks would require a Co signer. Now you would have two people on the hook instead of one, making it potentially even worst.
A co-signer isn’t likely to give his home away so a child or relative can fritter it away at a too-high priced college or university.
You would be surprised what a parent would do for there children. Also there a many cases of kids going to great affordable colleges but run into hardship and do not finish. Now if they can’t pay back the loan Mom or dad has to. It can get bad.
Some parents are even generous enough to send their kids to a school which will teach them how to spell their and there and they’re!
oh yes, because you had no idea what I was saying. Grammar is absolutely no indication of ones intelligence. I I have meet wonderfully smart and intelligent people that can’t spell for anything. Or they start sentences, Me and my friend went…., So please get off your high horse.
I wasn’t questioning your intelligence or your ability to make yourself understood, just the school that failed to teach you how to spell some of the most commonly used words in the English language. When “that’s close enough, I can tell what you meant” is more and more becoming the accepted standard in our primary schools, how can we expect kids to excel at higher levels?
Excellent point Brightmeadows. Now these same people who benefit from this scam want to vilify and discontinue athletics so they can keep getting more and more.
My feeling is that unless the sports program can generate enough income to cover expenses, it should NOT be covered by student tuition.
The title IX sports would all be gone and the same ones who hate football would blame it on that. My thoughts are if people don’t want any tuition money going to athletics they should select other schools. If there were NO athletics at UMaine there would be many fewer students which most likely would result in higher tuition. You are right though, easy government loans creates higher tuition costs.
I don’t believe a word of it…they go for Maine to get demographics, up in the NE. I transferred from a Catholic School to UMaine, the change was remarkable. Maine was so quiet compared to the liberal arts school.
UMaine System custodians and other maintenance persons do not exactly get big salaries. Nor do most faculty. Contrary to the statistics provided by the highly paid System finance bigwigs, statistics that the four unions have repeatedly shown to be utter distortions, ordinary System employees, for the most part, are paid far less than their counterparts at UMaine’s peer institutions.
I do recall the comment made not long by that the brilliant US Rep and would-be Republican Senator from Missouri that has nothing to do with his equally brilliant comment re “legitimate” rape: that is, that federal aid to education is “stage three cancer.” Great analogy, no?
Of course he happily takes his $175,000 annual salary and the best govt. medical plan available without hesitation. For in his case, small govt. can’t apply to his job.
Peace studies, women’s studies, ethnic studies, empathy studies, social justice studies…not quite the arena to sharpen one’s potential job credentials or employment skills.