UW-Madison may be losing its reputation as a hard-partying school.
For the second-straight year, it didn't make the list of top party schools in the annual Princeton Review rankings.
While students might have less to celebrate, administrators are cheering that the school is shaking its rowdy rep.
The university was ranked No. 1 in the 2005 rankings, and in 2006, took the top party school spot in a Playboy Magazine ranking.
The University of Florida boasts the biggest partiers this year, followed by the University of Mississippi and Penn State.
UW-Madison was left off the list, but it did make the cut — No. 6 — for drinking lots of beer. And it ranked No. 9 for drinking lots of hard liquor.
The company developed the rankings by surveying 120,000 students at 368 colleges about social, political and academic environments.
Susan Crowley, director of prevention services at University Health Services, said she was pleased UW-Madison wasn't on the list this year, but said, "We know we still have a lot of hard work to do on high-risk drinking among our students."
She said when the school gets ranked highly, it perpetuates an environment sodden with drinking, revelry and hijinks.
"I was doing this work when we were listed as the No. 1 party school," Crowley said. "The general reaction of students is they want to maintain the party school ranking. Hopefully now that we're not in top 20, students will see the value of moderating behavior. They don't have a reputation to live up to."
In better news for administrators, UW-Madison ranked No. 9 for "best value public colleges" and No. 16 for "students pack the stadiums."

