Biggest St. Paddy’s Day Celebrations for College Students

Best College St Patricks Day

Green Beer St. Patrick's Day Celebration 2010

Saint Patrick’s Day is here, which means it’s time to whip out your best green attire, celebrate with friends, and pride yourself on being Irish (even if you’re not!).  With all the social events and parties that come with St. Paddy’s Day, it’s no wonder why it’s particularly popular with the college crowd.  After midterms, students can let lose and celebrate in the name of Irish heritage.  Want to know what colleges do it the best?  Then check out some of the top biggest US St. Paddy’s Day celebrations for college students.

Missouri University of Science and Technology celebration
St. Paddy’s Day is the biggest social event of the school year for the students of Missouri University of Science and Technology. The campus participates in a festive 10-day celebration (with two days off from classes) that includes pageantry, games, and plenty of green beer. There is also an annual St. Paddy’s Day parade held downtown where the street is painted green!

St. Paddy’s at University of Dayton
The University of Dayton in Ohio might be a fairly small school, but they celebrate this holiday big time. Every year, the upperclassmen neighborhood that students refer to as the “Ghetto” fills with people (students and non-students alike) for a huge celebration. The population in this student area apparently more than doubles just for this occasion!

Scranton Parade Day
The St. Paddy’s Day parade in Scranton, Pennsylvania  is one of the largest in the country. The festivities attract thousands of people each year. College students, like those of the University of Scranton, have this huge celebration open to them, as well plenty of house parties. With so much going on, it is definitely a great destination for college students looking to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day festively.

St. Patrick’s Day at Five Points, South Carolina
In Columbia, South Carolina, the popular downtown area Five Points hosts one of the biggest St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in the Southeast. The roads get shut down to cars, so that people can pack into the area to enjoy the day. A parade, concerts, and green beer attract plenty of college students to this annual celebration.

Green Beer Day
The University of Miami in Oxford, Ohio celebrates St. Patrick’s Day with what they call Green Beer Day. The bars in town open as early as 5am to serve–you guessed it–green beer! This day-long celebration falls just before spring break, and has been celebrated annually for over 50 years!

Boston’s St. Paddy’s Parade
Boston is a city crawling with students, as its home to more than 50 colleges. Boston also happens to have the highest percentage of Irish-Americans out of all large US cities. Put these two facts together, and it’s easy to see why St. Paddy’s Day is always a big celebration in Beantown. The city holds the oldest St. Patrick’s Day celebration in the country–a parade that runs through the historically Irish neighborhood, “Southie.” In addition, there are concerts, pub crawls, and plenty of parties to keep college students occupied.