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Does Joining a Fraternity or Sorority Actually Improve Grades and Earnings After Grad

Quote:

It’s a talking point at many fraternity and sorority recruitment tables, rush events, and chapter house tours: Recruiters for Greek student organizations say their members have higher GPAs compared with their non-Greek-life counterparts.
Promises of finding career success through connections is another talking point.

But the results of a study released this month are challenging such assurances. Written by two researchers from Miami University, the paper, “Greek Life, Academics, and Earnings,” found that Greek affiliation is correlated with lower grade-point averages.

The researchers also studied the starting salary of recent graduates through a postgraduation survey. They found that students who joined the Greek system in their second semester had 15-percent higher salaries than those who didn’t. But there was no evidence to support the contention that Greek affiliation was the cause of higher earnings, according to the report.

The study cited data from a survey distributed at an unnamed “large public university located in the midwestern United States.”

William E. Even, an economics professor at Miami University, spoke with The Chronicle on Tuesday about his findings, and whether they might disprove the theory that Greek-life organizations develop high-achieving leaders.

https://www.chronicle.com/article/Do...nity-or/244890

Interesting. The GPA info contrasts with info circulated by most college Panhellenic associations, which shows Greek Women GPAs higher than non-affiliated women.

In the interview, the researcher doesn't dispute the fact that Greek GPAs are higher than the larger campus community's, just the notion that joining a GLO "raises your GPA." I don't ever remember rushing or being rushed on that promise, though. The point was always "good students will likely remain good students in the Greek system" because getting in and staying in good standing required good grades. At my school, we all entered with 4.0+++ so that's all the assurance our parents needed re GLOs and grades.

The professor says that he found grades dropped pledging semester, and in general, after joining, but I'm pretty sure you could illustrate the same phenomenon for just about any student who goes from doing nothing first semester to very active the next in any demanding extracurricular. Especially when you're dealing with freshmen whose academic record is basically high school, or in the case of this institution, high school plus frosh fall. That's not a lot of college work to set a strong trend unless you're talking huge swaths of membership going from straight As first semester to failing the next, and that's not what's going on here.

I know that the study we all quote was done by an outfit commissioned by organization of Greeks but I don't remember the name of the outfit nor the organization. But the NPC office ought to have copies of those pamphlets that have that information.
And it wasn't that "joining a GLO raises your GPA." It was more like those who are Greek are more likely to have a higher GPA.
This study was done at ONE university? Then it doesn't mean all universities and colleges follow suit.