A new study claims Rutgers is the 2nd most sexually active school in America

Rutgers students are the second most sexually active college students in the United States, according to a study conducted by collegestats.org.

Collegestats.org is a website that uses data collected from United States Department of Education to provide prospective students information about the schools they are applying to, including national ranking, ranking for individual degree programs and ranking for affordability. 

Rutgers' position as the second most sexually active campus was determined by DrEd.com, a free medical counseling website, used by collegestat.org to help students track their sexual exposure. The website ranked Temple University as the most sexually active campus, with Texas A&M coming in third behind Rutgers. 

The University is well above the national average in terms of student sexual exposure. The study averages that Rutgers students will have around 10 sexual partners during their four years at the University, well above the national average of five. The study used an algorithm to calculate the sexual exposure of 2,000 former and current college students that were surveyed.

Rutgers has long had a reputation for its sexual proclivity, earning the nickname “Slutgers." But, according to Rutgers Health Outreach, Promotion and Education (H.O.P.E.) the rumors are not valid. 

Research indicates the rumors of the “Rut” — a fictional STI presumed to originate at Rutgers — began in the early 1990s, when a study found that of a non-random sample of students that represented 3 percent of the female student population, 26 percent of the participants were infected with the HPV virus and an additional 43 percent became infected over the next three years. 

But, HOPE makes it clear that Rutgers “most likely has the same prevalence of STIs as other colleges/universities nationwide.” On its website, HOPE also offers students advisement on safe sex practices, where students can receive contraceptives, prophylactics and STI testing, as well as information about common STIs. 

While Rutgers may have a higher rate of sexual exposure, a new report featured in Cosmopolitan from New York Magazine found that college students were not as sexually active as popular culture makes them out to be. The survey found that 39 percent of enrolled college students had never had sexual intercourse before, while 41 percent of women and 49 percent of men said that they were not sexually active. 

That being said, research conducted by sociologist Lisa Wade for her book "American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus" found that no matter the amount of sex had by an individual student or their university, hookup culture — a desire among college students to have casual sex with minimal emotional attachment — is very real and has swept campuses all across the United States. 

In an interview with The Guardian, Wade said, “It can’t be measured in sexual activity — whether high or low — because it’s not a behavior, it’s an ethos, an atmosphere, a milieu. A hookup culture is an environment that idealizes and promotes casual sexual encounters over other kinds, regardless of what students actually want or are doing."