Top Greek Schools

[Peaches-n-Cream]

According to MSN and the Princeton Review, these are the top 20 colleges for fraternity and sorority life.

1 Washington and Lee University
2 DePauw University
3 Centre College
4 Pennsylvania State University
5 University of Michigan
6 Michigan State University
7 Ohio University-Athens
8 University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa
9 Florida State University
10 University of Texas-Austin
11 Louisiana State University-Baton Rouge
12 University of Colorado-Boulder
13 University of Florida
14 University of Tennessee-Knoxville
15 University of Georgia
16 Lafayette College
17 Vanderbilt University
18 University of Mississippi
19 Colgate University
20 Southern Methodist University

[VT Tri-D]

Washington and Lee (#1) has only a little over a thousand student. Almost 80% of their campus is Greek because you can have little to no social life if you are not. I wonder if this is why they are ranked first-- because such a large majority of people are Greek?

[ladybug1116]

I don't know that it's strictly percentages...because I know at FSU we only had like 12-15% of the campus represented in the Greek system.

[33girl]

Originally posted by VT Tri-D
Washington and Lee (#1) has only a little over a thousand student. Almost 80% of their campus is Greek because you can have little to no social life if you are not. I wonder if this is why they are ranked first-- because such a large majority of people are Greek?

I think that is what they are going by - % involved and influence of the system on campus, because DePauw doesn't have a lot of students either. Penn State doesn't have a giant %age but from what I understand the influence on campus is large.

[DeltAlum]

My Alma Mater, Ohio University is a very nice school with a good Greek System, but I don't know about being in the top twenty.

The thing to remember is that the Princeton Review is somewhat suspect in its survey methods and methodology -- and, it has nothing whatsoever to do with Princeton University -- except that I think its' founders may have graduated from there.

[Kevin]

I'm REALLY surprised how a lot of Big 12 schools with HUGE Greek Systems were completely omitted. I guess the top 20 has to omit some deserving people though...

[ladybug1116]

I'm going to agree with DeltAlum's opinion on the Princeton Review. Because while FSU is a fun school,I don't think we deserve to be that high on the list. We have over 30,000 students with 12-15% Greek....and the Greek System is not completely dominant or influential...at least that's not how I saw it (from both the Independent and then Greek perspective). We also have had quite a few fraternities in serious trouble over the past couple of years and 2 sororities have left campus (due to low numbers) since 1999.

I'm sure the university president is having a fit if he's seen this latest statistic. He is very anti-Greek and has been imposing a lot of rules to try and squelch the Greek System. It is his #1 priority to try and make FSU a "research" university and to change the party school image. From the time I got there (1997) to the time I graduated (2001) you could tell a change in the atmosphere. Don't even get me started....

[FuzzieAlum]

That article was a little dumb, I thought, because it was all about the party stereotype. With pretty much every school there was a comment about the Greek parties - not much about friendship or philanthropy or enhancing the college experience. Not that parties aren't a part of Greek life, but they're certainly not all there is to it!

And there are lots of schools not on that list that have Greek membership much higher than 15%.

[DeltAlum]

Ohio University was on Princeton Review's Top Party Schools list for years as well. I'm sure the university administration breathed a sigh of relief when OU didn't make that list this year.

The real question in my mind is how do you quantify things for either list?

There's no logic that I can find.

[KappaStargirl]

It's always been my understanding that DePauw's Greek system comprises such a huge percentage of the student population because they don't provide housing after freshman year, and it's easier to get a space in a Greek house than an apartment in town. Anyone from DePauw know if this is true??

[Mystic Cat32]

I know that most all of the students at TCU in Ft. Worth are Greek. Being a private school the numbers still don't compare to something like UT Austin per say.

[dzsaigirl]

Saying that almost all of the TCU students are greek is completely untrue. They do have a strong greek system, but it is nowhere near "almost all".

I went to SMU (#20) for a year and a half and you could have a life without being greek, but you would still get invited to crush parties, etc. So greek life really did play a big part there.

[xp2k]

I guess I had to reply

I am VERY shocked that neither Indiana University or Purdue University made the list. Both schools have decent greek percetanges (20% of IU's 37,000 students are greek) and very stronge systems. True the university officials have been cracking down but that doesnt necessarily make a greek system/life weaker does it?

I wonder what the criteria was for ranking the schools.

XP2k

[Mystic Cat32]

This is what I heard from the grapevine dzsaigirl. My apologies.

[dzandiloo]

Originally posted by Mystic Cat32
This is what I heard from the grapevine dzsaigirl. My apologies.

I think you are both right...just depends on how you look at it. I thought I had seen stats for TCU's Greek system somewhere, but all I could find was the following (from their DG chapter site):

Facts about TCU's Greek Community:

39% of TCU's student body is Greek
67% of the Orientation staff is Greek
66% of Frog Camp Staff is Greek
63% of the Chancellor's Leadership program is Greek
70% of the House of Representatives is Greek
76% of Student Foundation is Greek
65% of Mortar Board is Greek

So, even though Greek's at TCU are not the majority, they seem to be pretty darn visible! Also, TCU has a pretty large commuter population, so it's quite possible that Greeks are the majority when it comes to traditional students. Would be interesting to see more of a breakdown.

A highschool acquaintance went through rush at TCU (over 10 years ago, mind you), and she said with few exceptions, almost everyone in her dorm rushed. That would be nice if it were true everywhere....