A school press in the United States has released the annual list of most importance to many prospective college-goers, The Princeton Review’s Top 20 Party Schools.

The winner of the dubiously-relevant title this year is the University of Iowa, after the list was decided by submissions from 126,000 current students. The other four in the top five count-down were: University of California, Santa Barbara; the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; West Virginia University and Syracuse University.

Officials in the city of Iowa are less than thrilled; the award comes just weeks after the local municipality introduced tough new laws to crack down on underage drinking, which they say is largely fuelled by college students.

A spokesperson from the University gave a more optimistic reading, saying the prize “indicates they are balancing their academic responsibilities with their social pursuits.”

It is almost impossible to determine the quantifiable criteria for assessing the party-readiness of a university. The Princeton Review’s Top 20 list is often rubbished by institutions as a non-scientific and ultimately useless ranking, but the free advertising is welcomed.