TheDailyBeast.com has ranked the University of New Hampshire first on its list of America’s “50 Druggiest Colleges.” The list was released Monday.
New England universities took the top four places. UNH was followed by Northeastern University, Bryant University, and the University of Maine. The University of Vermont was ranked 18th.
The site used “drug scene” grades from College Prowler, a student review database, along with data on illicit drug, marijuana, and cocaine use by state for 18-25 year olds and U.S. Department of Education data for the number of on-campus arrests for 2009 for drug-law violations for each school.
According to the website: “The College Prowler grades were assigned a numerical value according to the letter grade assigned, which was weighted one-third of each school’s final score; the arrests-per-capita rank and drug use ranks were also ranked one-third of the final rank.”
UNH spokeswoman Erika Mantz told the Boston Herald: “This does not accurately reflect the campus environment at the University of New Hampshire. It is not clear how this unscientific ranking was determined.”
The data given for UNH is below:
Drug use grade: C-
Percentage of 18-25s statewide using drugs regularly: 29.21
Percentage of 18-25s statewide using marijuana regularly: 41.54
Percentage of 18-25s statewide using cocaine regularly: 7.23
2009 on-campus arrests for drug law violations: 106
Student population: 15,253
This article originally appeared in The New Hampshire on Monday, December 13, 2010.