There is a huge stigma that has followed the students of Ohio University for quite some time now. Come on, Bobcats, we have all been in this type of situation before:

People: “Where are do you go to school?”

Bobcats: “Ohio University!”

People: 1. "Oh, so you must really know how to party!”

2. "Ohhhh, that must be so fun ;)!”

3. “I bet you don’t get much studying done there, haha.”

We are the “Number One Party School In The Nation," which apparently means that all we do is party. It apparently means that people look at us like we are less of a school and that our degrees mean less than any other institutions. Damn, right? I can assure that just because we know how to have fun, means nothing negative to our work ethic.

I would argue that it means we work all that harder. You probably have some crooked neck confused face going on right now, huh? In the simplest of terms, we work hard, so we can play hard. We know that there are times that we need to avoid the party life to get our work finished. It’s as if everyone else thinks we never go to class, do our homework, study, and instead just wake up, go out, sleep and repeat.

Our degrees mean something to us, perhaps more than other schools' students. Amidst the eagerness to blow off our responsibilities and just go out with our fellow Bobcats, we don’t. Being the biggest party school in the nation makes it hard to resist just saying “screw it” to schoolwork and heading uptown for a fun time. What we accomplish in the “Best Small Town College In America” should just prove to the outside world that we know how to manage our time and prioritize our schedules.

We've learned how to balance our lives so that we can work to be the best in our fields but also be well rounded enough to cut loose and have a good time.

We are proud of all our many rankings including the ones some deem less than desirable because it all comes together to make OU what it is today -- not only one of the most beautiful places, but one of the most hardworking and fun you could ever hope to attend.