Does the ringer have to be on for an iPhone alarm?

Okay, so I have an iPhone 4S and I have work tomorrow, which means I need an alarm to wake up with. I usually use my iPod's alarm, but it's not working at the moment. I have used my iPhone's alarm before, however, the ringer WAS turned on all the way up. I woke up at 3 in the morning to my ringtone because a friend texted me. My parents were mad as well, since the ringer went off so loudly. So to prevent this from happening again, please tell me if the ringer for an iPhone 4S has to be on for the alarm to go off.

I don't know start tower king

Just turn your volume all the way up and put your phone on vibrate. Or you can use the do not disturb feature.