largest "Greek" campuses

Hey GreekUSA, here's the scoop on Tennessee. According to the Panhellenic homepage, 17%, of the UT student body is greek (about 3000). UT has 18 sororities, 4 are NPHC, the rest are NPC. We have 25 fraternities (26 until last fall) and I think only one of those is NPHC and the rest are NPC. For any more info, go to www.utk.edu, then go to students, then to division of student affairs, and you'll find the links to greek life!

oops, I meant the rest of the fraternities were NIC, not NPC.

Okay, here are the stats from the Robert Egan book "From Here to Fraternity" (1985)

The Schools with the Largest No. of Greek Chapters:
1. U. Illinois 77 chapters - 51 frat, 26 sor
2. Penn State 70 chapters - 51 frat, 19 sor
3. Ohio State 62 chapters - 41 frat, 21 sor
4. Cornell 61 chapters - 48 frat, 13 sor
5. Purdue 61 chapters - 45 frat, 16 sor
6. U. Michigan 55 chapters - 36 frat, 19 sor
7. U. Virginia 54 chapters - 37 frat, 17 sor
8. Indiana U. 53 chapters - 31 frat, 22 sor
9. UC-Berkeley 52 chapters - 38 frat, 14 sor
10.U. Missouri 51 chapters - 34 frat, 17 sor
(They list the top 50, but I refuse to type them all out! So there is 10 for you!)


Also:
Small schools with large percentages of Greeks (en=enrollment):
1. DePauw University 75% Greek, 2312 en.
2. Wabash College 75% Greek, 774 en.
3. Brenau College 70% Greek, 609 en.
4. Westminster Coll. 68% Greek, 647 en.
5. Transylvania U. 65% Greek, 701 en.

Yes, these stats are a bit old, but hope that it helps anyway!

The Schools with the Largest No. of Greek Chapters:
Okay, here is 11-20 since you are doing a project....
11. U. Florida
12. U. Texas
13. Auburn
14. Iowa State
15. Miami U. (Ohio)
16. U. Maryland
17. Michigan State
18. U. Alabama
19. U. Washington
20. U. Tennessee

By the way, I picked up the Robert Egan book at a 2nd hand book store, since it is out of print (and believe me, I tried everything...a year long search with a bookstore, and contacting BANTAM books directly...nothing worked). Then by some miracle, I saw it in a 2nd hand bookstore and snapped it up!

[prospectiverushee]

GreekUSA,

I'll be happy to supply you with information here at LSU. Give me a few days to get the information for you since I'm working 2 jobs right now(about to start a 3rd one soon) and atending summer school all at the same time.

For now go to www.lsu.edu and click on departments and organizations. From that page,scroll down till you get to student services. You'll see the link for Greek Affairs. Click on it and you'll see all what Greek Life at LSU is all about. We have 10 NPC sororites, 19 IFC fratenities, 5 BGLO fraternities (with Iota Phi Theta coming this fall. They are already having their informational), 4 BGLO sororites(with Sigma Gamma Rho having just been charted this past spring) and 2 local. Not to mention all honorary and professional ones.

This is an interesting side note, LSU has had a chapter of 21 of the 26 NPC sororites on campus at one time or another.

[This message has been edited by prospectiverushee (edited June 14, 2000).]

[prospectiverushee]

GreekUSA,

I got some more information for you about the greek systen here at LSU.

LSU has an enrollment of about 30,000 students. 12-14% of those enrolled are involved in the greek system here. That doesn't sound very high. How does LSU compare to other schools? I think I read somewhere that the University of Minneisota(or maybe it was Wisconsion) also had a huge greek system.

[GreekUSA]

Thanks to everybody for their "nominations"

I found a good source of information and while it took about 8 hours of pulling data and making estimates I think I have the definitive list.

I am posting it so everybody can comment. If you think it is wrong, tell me why.

Here it is...The 20 largest Greek Systems in the USA measured by total number of members.

1. U. of Florida 8857 members
2. U. of Illinois 6890
3. Penn State 6448
4. Missouri 6272
5. Auburn 6147
6. Ohio State 5652
7. Purdue 5600
8. Michigan State 5313
9. U. of Washington 5116
10. Arizona State 4858
11. Indiana 4761
12. Texas 4644
13. Washington State 4589
14. Wisconsin 4546
15. Georgia 4456
16. Minnesota 4438
17. Maryland 4297
18. Michigan 4296
19. Florida State 4274
20. Virginia Tech 3978

I checked out about 50 schools to get this top 20 so if you are curious how your school did in the rankings e-mail me.

[SigPiTiliDi]

hey michelle_azd now that you are one of the few who have actually seen the book "From Here to Fraternity", how was it? Was it worth the effort? What is it about(briefly)?
Thanks
andrew@dhsigmapi.com

[Siobhan]

Here's a crazy percentage.... there our 40,000 students at UBC only 600 are greek, which means the percentage of students belonging to GLO's at UBC is 0.015%

[GreekUSA]

localsorority:

I already know you are probably right. To confirm those numbers I e-mailed the Greek Advisor at U of F and he briefly told me the numbers were wrong.

He is getting back to me with the correct numbers.

But in my defense I used Princeton Review and they said that 28% of 31,000+ students are greek. For other schools there were no percentages listed so I used some averages to get their numbers.

Thanks for breaking it down for me.

[LXAAlum]

If you can, get your hands on a Baird's Manual, or, I recall seeing this in From Here to Fraternity (out of publication for some time now) - but U Illinois and Illinois State had the largest number of chapters for a single campus (if I remember numbers right, something like 50+ fraternity chapters at each school, not sure of sorority numbers).

From personal observation, Cal Berkeley has a large greek system in number of chapters as well, as does UCLA and USC.

If you're looking for a percentage of students at a campus who are greek, the best way to determine that would be to contact campus Greek Life Directors for specifics.

[GreekUSA]

Here are some updated numbers from the office of Greek Affairs at the U. of Florida....

4300 greeks.

I have no problem moving them down, however it calls into question every other assumption on the list.

Finding out the largest schools in terms of number of chapters is pretty easy but that does not always translate to number of members.

One example is Auburn has 47 chapters and 6147 greek. Purdue has 66 chapters but only 5600 greeks.

If anybody can e-mail their Greek Affairs office and get the accurate numbers on these schools, it would be cool to know...Who really is the biggest.

Originally posted by SigPiTiliDi:
hey michelle_azd now that you are one of the few who have actually seen the book "From Here to Fraternity", how was it? Was it worth the effort? What is it about(briefly)?

I really enjoy it. Perhaps what you could do is go to the library and if they don't have it, ask them to do an inter-library loan for you. It may take a while, but surely they should be able to turn up a copy. I really enjoy it and I still refer to it even though my college days are over. Part of it is serious, part of it is funny. I don't know what more to say, but if you can get your hands on it (even if only on loan), then DO!!

[aja1223]

I think you are totally right to have UF as the largest Greek system. Some people think that our Greek system isnt that large because there are not that many soorities and frats, but they fail to recognize that in a school of 50,000 undergrads, over 16% are Greek. And although there might only be 16 sororites, most houses (including mine) have a quota of well over 100 members. Also there are anywhere from 2000-3000 girls that rush each fall. Anyone who attends UF who doesnt believe that only needs to attend the open meeting for rushees at the beginning of the rush rounds. Held in the University Auditorium, I have never seen so many young women in one place at one time.

[SilverTurtle]

What is an "alternative lifestyle" fraternity? Does this refer to gay/lesbian/bisexual organizations? (I know of at least 1 "gay" fraterniy... meaning they officially support gays and their needs/causes/etc.)

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SilverTurtle@greekchat.com
Phi Beta Fraternity
Phi chapter