Athens —- Bulldogs everywhere hung their heads a little lower last week.

In a dramatic slip, the University of Georgia dropped from the No. 5 Top Party School in last year's Princeton Review to the No. 7 spot this year.

Even tiny Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va., outranked UGA as a party school. And RMC has a little more than a thousand students, many of whom wear pleated pants with braided belts and Sperry TopSiders on a regular basis.

Rebecca Lessem, an editor of The Princeton Review, tried to soften the blow by pointing out that UGA performed well in other categories on the list, including best college newspaper (No. 5) and having students known for packing the stadiums (No. 6).

"It shows the University of Georgia is a well-rounded place," she said.

Whatever.

UGA spokesman Tom Jackson altogether pooh-poohed the annual list of rankings in an article last week.

"The Princeton Review's goal is to get newspapers to write about their magazine, and they have succeeded once again," he said.

UGA has no plans, Jackson said in a later interview, to create a task force to look for ways to improve the school's ranking as a Top Party School next year.

"We don't pay a lot of attention to the Princeton Review," he said.

Liza Kay Pitts, the reigning Miss UGA, did not have plans to change her platform from fighting cancer to organizing efforts to party like it's 1999 on campus.

"Anything I throw tends to be charity events or fund-raisers," she said.

Amy Ross, a geography professor at the school, felt confident her department would host a number of opportunities for mingling this year, although she wasn't sure they would count with the officials who do the ranking.

"We have lots and lots of social events in my department, of course. After all, geography is where it's at," she said. "But we are more of a cookies-and-cartography crowd —- probably much tamer than what those wild folk at Princeton consider partying."

UGA students hoping to up the party ante this year took note that party-planning experts agree that the most festive bashes appeal to the senses; hosts should offer soft mood lighting, pleasant smells from flowers or candles and mellow sounds playing in the background.