BYU Ranks as Nation's Most Sober College

The Frat Boy News Daily Pause for the Cause

Brigham Young University (compiled by Tad Walch, DeseretNews.com)

Hey, everybody at Brigham Young University, it's time to party like it's 1998.

BYU style, that is — no beer, no liquor, no marijuana. Sprite and study hall, anyone?

For the 10th straight year, BYU is the nation's No. 1 stone-cold sober school, according to the Princeton Review's annual college guide "The Best 366 Colleges," released today.

Don't expect any campus parties to celebrate a solid decade of super-hyped sobriety. First, there are no fraternities or sororities at BYU. And second, the students are gone, replaced this week by their parents, alumni and other post-collegiate members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more than 20,000 of them, who have invaded the campus for the annual Education Week.

BYU has dominated the stone-cold category since 1998, when Bill Clinton was president, BYU-Idaho was still known as Ricks and Harry Potter was just 12 years old and in his second year at Hogwarts.

How does the Princeton Review come to this conclusion, a source of pride for alumni and students, about BYU?

The rankings come from BYU students themselves, said Robert Franek, editorial director of "The Best 366 Colleges." The Princeton Review surveys students at each school every three years. It last approached BYU students in 2005, Franek said, though students can go to www.princetonreview.com anytime and fill out a survey online. Over the past three years, the Princeton folks surveyed 120,000 college and university students.