Best Colleges For St. Patrick's Day Celebrations

For a holiday so totally identified with Ireland, it feels wrong to say that St. Patrick's Day is about as American as apple pie, but it's totally true. Almost nowhere in the world will you see such total love for the Irish and everything they've done. Break out all the green clothes you've got, and get ready for some of our favorite spots to celebrate St. Patty's day! And if you've got some of the luck of the Irish flowing through your veins, this should be especially fun for you.

Now, we should clarify right off the bat that we don't encourage underage drinking of any kind. It's both dangerous and illegal, so if you're under 21, sit out the pub crawls and keg stands this year. That said, there's still plenty of fun to be had on this festive celebration of Irish heritage even if drinks aren't on the menu, so without further ado, here are our favorite colleges for a fun St. Patrick's day.

The List: The Best Colleges For St. Patrick's Day

Boston College, Boston, MA

It seemed almost insulting to not begin our list with a school in the heart of America's Irish diaspora, so we had to start things off with Boston College. With by far the highest percentage of Irish ancestry of any large city in the country at over 20% of the population, Boston's undoubtedly the best place to get your green on. Every St. Patrick's day since 1901, Bostonians have proudly shown their Irish pride with one of the largest St. Patrick's day parades in the country, where attendees can travel down the city's historic Irish Heritage Trail and see a total of 16 different sites all commemorating the contributions of Boston's many Irish immigrants. And for those of age, there are plenty of fun and historic pubs where you can grab a pint of Guinness or just enjoy some of Ireland's hardiest and tastiest foods.

Now there are a lot of colleges in Boston, so we had a hard time picking just one. But because it's located right in the city, Boston College seemed like a natural choice. And don't let the name fool you: Boston College is really a sizable research university and only calls itself a college to reflect its founding as a small liberal arts school. With an admission rate of only 19%, it can be pretty selective, but there are plenty of other schools in Boston if you feel like you've gotta get out there for a fun St. Patrick's day.

University of Scranton, Scranton, PA

These days, Scranton, Pennsylvania is most known as the setting for NBC's smash sitcom The Office, but what you might not know is that this small town of only 75,000 people actually has the second largest St. Patrick's Day parade in the country (even bigger than Boston's!). You can expect live bands and bagpipes performing traditional Irish tunes as well as heaps of Irish food, handfuls of cabbage flying through the air, and of course, a whole lot of revelry. With a population that's over 30% Irish, you can bet that Scranton shows out for St. Patrick's day, and if the cold winter months don't get to you, this might be just the place for a fun day of shamrocks and bangers and mash. And it doesn't hurt to be a fan of The Office either.

The University of Scranton is the city's premier institution of higher education. Befitting of such a small town, this private research university has a liberal arts-sized student population of only around 3,500 undergraduate students, meaning you could get the best of both worlds out of your four years here. It's also got a more than accessible acceptance rate of 80%, so this resolutely Irish college is an achievable dream for almost any student.

New York University, New York City, NY

Bigger even than Boston's and Scranton's is New York City's St. Patrick's day parade, and that's no surprise. NYC is the biggest city in the country, and as an east coast metropolis it's got a hefty Irish population. Every St. Patrick's day, around 150,000 marchers pour into the streets of the Big Apple to celebrate the country's Irish heritage with live music, dancing, and-of course-pub-crawls. But let it be known that New York City also boasts a sober, family-friendly community of St. Patrick's day partiers, with the organization Sober St. Patrick's Day (who champion St. Patrick's day's history of celebrating the richness of Irish heritage and culture over binge drinking) basing themselves in NYC every year for performances of traditional Irish music, dancing, and even magicians.

Like Boston, NYC is also full to the teeth with great colleges, so we picked New York University as our representative here. This gargantuan university of nearly 30,000 undergraduate students is one of the city's most historic and praised schools, but with an acceptance rate of only 13%, it can be tough to get into, but once you're there, you're in for one of the finest educations in one of the best cities in the whole world. Outside of NYU, you're spoiled for choice. The New School, Columbia, and all of the various city colleges and private schools scattered throughout the city give you plenty of options for an undergraduate experience in the city that never sleeps.

The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

While we don't always think of Chicago as the most Irish city in the country (only 8% of the city claims Irish heritage), Chicago does something pretty fun for St. Patrick's day every year: they dye the Chicago river emerald green. It's also got an enormous parade that stretches out for days leading up to the big day, and it gets pretty wild. And who wouldn't want to be strutting down the busy streets of America's third largest city and see a big green river to remind them of the day? 

The University of Chicago is the city's most widely known university, and it's a tough one to get into with an acceptance rate of only 6%, putting it in league with Ivy Leagues like Yale and Dartmouth. But that acceptance rate comes with the promise that students will receive a world-class education within its walls in one of the most exciting cities in the country. Chicago also has plenty of other options from the Chicago branch of the public University of Illinois to the private Jesuit college Loyola University Chicago. If the Windy City is calling your name, you've got a good few options.

How College Rover Can Help

Rowdy St. Patrick's Day celebrations aren't usually advertised by universities as selling points (and for good reason), so we wanted to do you a favor with this one. That said, St. Patrick's Day celebrations probably aren't (and shouldn't be) your main consideration when applying to college, and that's where College Rover comes in. We aggregate data for everything you'd need to know about all the nation's colleges and let you compare them based only on the metrics that matter to you. No matter what you're looking for, we've got you covered, and of course, we do fun stuff like this as well. Head on over today to help make your college search a whole lot easier.