A survey that ranks BYU first for smart and hot students nationally continues to gain media attention.
Jennifer Polland, a lists editor for Business Insider and writer of “25 Colleges Where Students are Both Hot & Smart,” has received an overwhelming amount of feedback since publishing her article on Wednesday.
“Students and alumni of the schools included on the list seem to be very excited about it,” Polland said. “Also, the list went viral overnight, receiving 5.5 million views in less than 24 hours.”
College Prowler, a website creating college ranking based on student reviews, composed the top 25 hottest and smartest college list. According to Polland’s article, College Powler has more than 700,000 student reviews at nearly 7,000 colleges.
To simplify the many student reviews submitted to the website, College Prowler created four categories: hottest girls, hottest guys, smartest girls and smartest guys. The website takes these ratings, finds the overall average and then compiles a list of top 25 colleges that are the hottest and the smartest.
“I think college students are proud to say that their schools have students who are both smart and good looking, so I decided to create a list that addresses that issue,” Polland said.
Polland feels her article on the 25 hottest and smartest colleges is a fun piece, but its main purpose is not to improve college rankings.
“It certainly can’t hurt,” Polland said. “However, my intention wasn’t to improve the rankings of the schools but to create a fun list that people would be excited about.”
Austin Taylor, a BYU health science major, was proud to see that BYU ranked No. 1. “I think BYU got this ranking because we as students are generally happier than most college students due to our high moral values,” Taylor said. “There are a lot of smart universities, but our righteous beauty is just untouchable.”
Kerissa Poulson, an actuarial science major, wasn’t surprised by BYU’s ranking.
“BYU is a competitive school and has many programs, such as accounting and law, that have placed good rankings nationally,” Poulson said. “Combine BYU’s competitiveness and students’ good looks, and I can see why we received the rating we did.”
One aspect Poulson noticed about the article’s discussion on BYU was its focus on the honor code.
“I felt that the article focused primarily on BYU’s honor code and how boys are well groomed and students dress modestly,” Poulson said. “This article has brought even more attention to the honor code, which already, I feel, receives a lot of attention already on campus and everywhere.”
A quote from the story on the Business Insider’s website describes a little bit about BYU’s honor code.
“Everyone at BYU is very attractive; I’ve yet to see an ugly person here. Thanks to the honor code, every guy is clean shaven and well groomed (no super long hair), and every girl is dressed modestly (not too much skin).”
BYU–Idaho ranked 16th in the top 25 list.
A quote from the article on the Business Insider website mentions the high standards BYU–Idaho upholds.
“Both girls and boys, for the most part, are respectful to other classmates and the teachers. They hold themselves up high and seem to be very smart in their schooling.”
