IU gets No. 2 top school in Collegehumor.com rankings

IU might not have beaten Purdue at football, but the Hoosiers beat the Boilermakers and nearly every university in the country in a recent Collegehumor.com poll. \nThe site's 2006-07 Power Rankings, or "America's Top Colleges, According to Us," criteria were "having the maximum amount of fun while putting forth the least amount of effort," and IU took second place overall. Only Michigan State outranked IU; Wisconsin came in third.\nSchools were ranked based on Princeton Review data and information students listed on Facebook.com. Points were given for what Collegehumor.com deemed positive categories, including percentage of greek population, percentage of single women, "boobie pics" posted on Collegehumor.com, free condom availability at health centers and how many students listed drugs as an interest on Facebook. \nAfter looking at the survey, IU students' reactions ranged from disappointment at being No. 2 to calling the survey sexist, inaccurate and not comprehensive enough. \n"Michigan State got it over us? That's bullshit," freshman Lauren Hipshear said. "I think that's a stupid way to rank universities."\nWhile IU took second in the survey with an adjusted score of 99.8 percent, some said they think looking at the data makes it hard to draw a connection between the numbers and the ranking. Bars staying open until 3 a.m., 17 percent greek population and free condoms were IU's strong suits, but the University was low in a number of categories.\n"Looking at this, you wouldn't think we're No. 2," senior Kate MacQueen said. \nIU ranked extremely low on the chart with 70 percent of women being in relationships compared with 20 percent at the other top three schools. IU women had posted only five "boobie" pictures while many more have been posted by women at other schools. When it came to live music, colleges were rated on the highest Billboard chart ranking of bands that played there. IU's highest was a 96 compared to all the other top-10 finishers, which had a top-three band rock their schools.\n"I disagree with the band thing," Hipshear said. "I just saw Ben Folds and got to meet Method Man a month ago."\nPart of the discrepancy is that IU's overall rankings have at least one factual error. The survey takes 25 points off a school's score if it has a male vocal group, and despite the active Straight No Chaser group, IU is listed as not having a male vocal group.\nHipshear said she would add categories such as amount of bars and things to do close to campus and get rid of "boobie" pictures and SAT scores. \nA number of students said they found the survey sexist and said it wasn't representative of all lifestyles. While the rankings list the percentage of women in relationships and percentage of female students, they ignore the desires of female students.\n"They should have the percentage of hot guys," MacQueen said. "What good does this do me?"\nSenior Julieta Beverido agreed the survey was sexist and said the techniques to find information weren't reliable.\n"It's not credible to use Facebook," she said. "A bunch of people lie on Facebook. I know I do."\nNot only do the rankings ignore women's interests, they do not look at alternative lifestyles. Senior Matt Brunner said he thought the rankings failed to have enough categories to represent everyone. He said more categories like major programs the school is known for, grade point average and more diverse sexual categories were needed.\n"It should have something gay on it," he said. "I don't care what percentage of girls are single." \nFreshmen Bethany Rojanasupya and Amy Hungerford, who were taking a quiz out of Cosmopolitan magazine in the Indiana Memorial Union, took a few minutes to analyze the rankings. Rojanasupya said she supposes the survey is accurate but didn't see how the amount of "boobie" pictures posted on Collegehumor.com was relevant. The fact that the health center offers free condoms was news to her.\nTracy Crowe, office manager of the IU Health Center, said the health center has baskets of condoms on the third and fourth floor with a limit of four per student.\nThe general consensus from students interviewed is that while it is nice to be ranked second in the country in anything, they question the research techniques, categories used and overall effectiveness of the rankings.\n"It's interesting overall," sophomore Scott Berenstein said. "Some of the categories make sense, but some are thrown in randomly. I like that we're No. 2, so I'm not going to complain too much"