Colorado Barely Makes List of Top Party Schools in the Nation

Growing up in Colorado as a '90s kid, I have fond memories of visiting my grandmother at her job at the University of Colorado in Boulder and it was widely known that the institution was a notorious party school.

However, the latest list of top party schools in the nation shows that not only is CU-Boulder ranked lower now than in the past, but Colorado as a whole ranks pretty low on the list as well.

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The list of the top party schools in the country shows that the University of Colorado-Boulder barely qualifies as it lands at number 19 in 2024.

However, it wasn't always so low on the list. In fact, two decades ago in 2004, CU-Boulder was crowned the top party school in the entire country.

If we look at the last 20 years of rankings, CU-Boulder is typically the only school in Colorado that makes the top 20 at all, and there was a period between 2014 and 2016 in which no Colorado schools made the list.

This year's list sees the University of Southern California-Santa Barbara claim the top spot, with additional schools in California, New York, Florida, and even Mississippi ranking higher than the Centennial State.

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In addition, while CU-Boulder is widely known as the biggest party school in Colorado, other schools known locally as partiers like Colorado State University, the University of Northern Colorado, Fort Lewis College, and Adams State appear pretty tame compared to universities and colleges in a sizeable handful of other states.

Check out the full list here.