This College Was Named #1 Party School in the State of Idaho

Even though Idaho is one of the fastest growing states in the country, we’re not exactly the biggest state in the nation. 

In fact, according to the latest Census Data, Idaho is the 13th smallest state by population. With that in mind, it’s not a big surprise that there’s not a lot of competition when it comes to the title of “Top Party School” in Idaho.

But let’s take a look at the contenders, ranked by how hard they are to get into.

Idaho's Top Party School Revealed

We hate to stereotype, but you know right away that the title isn’t going to BYU-Idaho. The school has an honor code stating that students are expected to “abstain from alcoholic beverages, tobacco, tea, coffee, vaping, and substance abuse.” There’s also a curfew of midnight Saturday-Thursday and 1 a.m. on Fridays. Based on our college experience (even if it was a small liberal arts college in an Amish town in Western Pennsylvania) parties typically don’t end that early in the night.

When Niche.com put together their list of the “Top Party Schools in Idaho” they looked at factors like student surveys about a school’s party scene that they conducted themselves, access to bars, the school’s athletics grade, the school’s Greek like grade and access to restaurants. It’s no surprise that it came down to Boise State vs University of Idaho.

When it comes to athletics (and the tailgate parties that come with it,) Boise State surely has the upper hand. Since becoming a FBS team, Boise State’s been to 20 bowl games, winning 12 of them including the Fiesta Bowl in 2007, 2010 and 2014. Even though Vandal fans were labeled “nasty and inebriated” by former Boise State president Bob Kustra, they don’t have nearly as much to celebrate. While they won them all, they’ve only been to three bowl games and had to play all of those games on their rival’s field. (The appearances were in the Humanitarian Bowl/Famous Idaho Potato Bowl held in Boise.) They actually voluntarily dropped out of the FBS program to go back to the FCS after they were dumped by the Sun Belt Conference in 2017.

But when it comes to Greek Life? Students say the Vandals have a better scene when it comes to sororities and fraternities. 21% of male students join fraternities and 22% of women join sororities. In a poll asking “what’s the biggest party event of the year,” frat parties ranked #2 behind Homecoming Weekend.

At Boise State? Well, Niche doesn’t actually have a breakdown about what percent of students decide to join the Greek system, but 51% of respondents in one of their polls said “Greek like is average and no one will treat you differently if you don’t join.” Frat parties didn’t even show up in the poll about the biggest party event on the year. Football games were leaps and bounds ahead of the #2 choice, which was the Boise Music Festival.

So, which school earned the “Party School” crown? Those “nasty and inebriated" Vandals! Based on Niche’s data, the party scene at U of I earned an “A” and 41% of the students that responded to Niche’s survey said there are lots of party options Wednesday-Saturday.

Boise State was #2, earning an A-. 32% of Boise State students responding to the survey about the party scene said “Parties? What parties?” In case you were wondering, the College of Idaho finished in third. 55% of the students who replied to the survey about their school said there are decent parties on weekends.