Ohio State is progressing toward its goal of being one of the top-ranked public schools in the nation, and despite losing most south campus bars, has also increased its party rankings … riots anyone?

U.S. News and World Report has ranked Ohio State 21st among the nations public institutions (tying with Purdue University and The University of Maryland), a large positive step forward from 28th place in the 2000 ranking. OSU’s academic ranking was the highest among all Ohio Institutions, the report said.

“We are pleased to do well in these rankings, said Amy Murray, a University spokeswoman. “It certainly makes people take a closer look at us when particular departments get higher rankings,” Murray said.

These rankings are based on several key measures of quality including academic reputation, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, alumni giving and graduation rate performance.

The rise in rankings may be a product of the Selective Investment Plan that has been implemented in the last three years to help OSU’s reputation improve as an academic institution. The plan gave additional funds to certain programs in hopes to help the university compete with the top 20 public universities in the nation.

U.S. News and World Report isn’t the only college survey Ohio State has ranked in. The Princeton Review ranked Ohio State as the eighth party school in the nation, No. 3 in Teaching Assistants who teach too many upper level courses, No. 4 in professors who suck all life from materials, No. 4 in students who (almost) never study, and No. 17 for consuming lots of beer. The Princeton Review rankings are based on the opinions of about 65,000 students in 331 colleges nationwide.

When asked how OSU responds to the “party” ratings, Murray said there are too many rankings that come out annually to focus on all of them.

These rankings are targeted towards students planning to apply to colleges, but according to John Oyster, guidance counselor at Westerville North High School, students don’t rely on the university’s ranking as a whole.

“Students usually only accredit their reasons for attending certain schools to rankings when they are interested in a certain discipline and see a high rank in that discipline,” Oyster said.

The editors of U.S. News and World Report said rankings provide an excellent starting point for families in comparing colleges. They offer an opportunity to judge the relative quality of the educational experience at schools according to widely accepted indicators of excellence, the editors said. They also remind readers to consider other factors such as cost, availability of aid and the setting and geographical location.