Ranking Canadian universities in 2018 on how they work—and party

Maclean’s surveyed more than 23,384 undergraduate students across Canada in 2017, we asked them how much time they spent hitting the books—and how much time they spent hitting the bars. Using those results, we created a new ranking of schools where they know how to work and party hard.

We calculated the average number of hours students spent studying and partying for each school, using the total reported number of hours a week divided by the number of respondents. In order to find the schools with the best work-party balance, we ranked the average number of hours students spent hitting the books and separately ranked the number of hours they spent partying. Simply tallying up the number of hours between studying and partying would skew the results. So we devised another approach. We assigned a score to each ranking out of 10. Schools where students spent the most time studying received 10 points, while the school with the lowest ranking received zero. We applied the same scoring system to partying. The two scores were added together to form the basis of our ranking.

For the second year in a row, Queen’s University placed at the top of our ranking. Students at that school spend an average of six hours per week in bars, pubs or clubs and 20.2 hours at the library.