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  #1  
Old 07-25-2010, 09:29 AM
Senusret I Senusret I is offline
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"Best" Colleges and their Greek Systems

This morning, I was thinking about a few things. Prior to coming to GC, I had my own notions on what a "good" school was. I generally believed that to be the highest ranked schools in US News and World Report. I many ways, I still believe this to be true.

But coming to GC and seeing how people go apeshit over rush at a whole bunch of schools I had either never heard of or never heard much prestige about, I thought wow, I'm in some bizzaro world where state schools are considered "good" -- clutch the pearls.

I have also read studies which suggest that boys choose a school based on perceived prestige, and if that's true, then I definitely fit in that number.

That said, in the list compiling spirit of naraht and the subtle snobbery of oldu, I have compiled a list of the "best" colleges and what their Greek scene is like, with NPC, NIC, and NPHC data.

Feel free to chime in with your anecdotal data about the schools listed.

Do I have any particular objective here? I don't know. I am curious as to which of the highest ranked schools has the most robust and thriving Greek experience.

But we all know that the best school is the one which is best for the student who chooses it, just as the best fraternity or sorority is the one which the members choose for themselves.











gag barf, yeah right

Last edited by Senusret I; 07-25-2010 at 09:32 AM.
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  #2  
Old 07-25-2010, 09:32 AM
Senusret I Senusret I is offline
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Harvard
Princeton
Yale
Cal Tech
MIT
Stanford
U Penn
Colombia
Chicago
Duke
Dartmouth
Northwestern
Wash U
Johns Hopkins
Cornell
Brown
Emory
Rice
Vanderbilt
Notre Dame
Berkeley
Carnegie Mellon
Georgetown
UCLA
UVA

Those are the colleges as ranked by US News and World Report in 2010. Rather than me going back and forth editing information about them (which I will quickly get annoyed with), let's just have free discussion on the topic at hand, which is the Greek systems at the aforementioned schools.

Last edited by Senusret I; 07-25-2010 at 03:19 PM.
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  #3  
Old 07-25-2010, 09:41 AM
Senusret I Senusret I is offline
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So as you all know, Georgetown has no NPC organizations.

As far as NIC organizations, there was a chapter of Delta Chi there in 1903 when it was a professional law fraternity. Wikipedia says that chapter existed until 1944, 22 years after the org switched to being a general social fraternity.

In 2001, Alpha Epsilon Pi came to Georgetown. In 2007 came Sigma Phi Epsilon, and in 2009, Zeta Psi. I knew the founding group of AEPi and they seemed like cool guys. I don't know the Sig Eps or Zeta Psi members, but it seems like they are all filling a niche.

None of them are officially recognized by the university but are recognized by the fraternities themselves.

NPHC organizations have had representation on campus since at least the 70s. Black fraternal life at Georgetown is a story with various twists and turns because not only are they all city-wide or core chapters, but sometimes Georgetown students would be moved from one core chapter to another. Example -- Georgetown girls used to be included with girls from American's AKA chapter, but later Georgetown, Catholic, and Trinity spun off into their own city-wide chapter.

Georgetown has Alphas, Kappas, Ques, AKAs, Deltas, and a Zeta. There was a brief Sigma presence in the 70s.

La Unidad Latina/Lambda Upsilon Lambda and Latinas Promiviendo Comunidad, Lambda Pi Chi also have chapters including Georgetown.

All in all, I would not recommend Georgetown for people who are looking for a large, diverse, and strong Greek experience, but it is fine for a small one to enhance your overall experience at the school.

Last edited by Senusret I; 07-25-2010 at 09:44 AM.
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  #4  
Old 07-25-2010, 09:42 AM
33girl 33girl is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Senusret I View Post
But coming to GC and seeing how people go apeshit over rush at a whole bunch of schools I had either never heard of or never heard much prestige about, I thought wow, I'm in some bizzaro world where state schools are considered "good" -- clutch the pearls.
I don't think anyone is saying that the academics etc are super turbo awesome, more that these are the places w/ the most competitive rushes (and therefore the most fun for rush-crazy women to talk about).

It's like if this was a basketball forum we'd actually use the word Gonzaga on a regular basis.

As of those ones you listed, I'd say UVA, Vanderbilt, Penn and Dartmouth have the most prominent (rather than thriving) Greek life. You have to realize that at a lot of the schools mentioned, there's a club system within the schools that is the true elite and the Greeks are second-class. Not sure if you have a subscription to Highbeam but if so you can read this:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...7/ai_n5561049/

Even at Dartmouth, I don't think that whether a GLO is local or not matters as far as its place in the pecking order is concerned, which is an offshoot of that sort of thing.
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  #5  
Old 07-25-2010, 10:58 AM
AOII Angel AOII Angel is offline
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Things are different in the North vs the South for schools because people respond in say Baltimore to hearing that you graduated from Hopkins for medicine the same way that people in Louisiana respond to hearing that you graduated form LSU. The familiarity of the system and pride in the local university is very strong across the south. I can't tell you how many residents that I worked with who were very proud to say they graduated from UAB or UT-Southwestern. All the state schools in the south have a very good name in the south. In the north, state schools don't have a good name, and the thought of a state school doesn't reassure the public. Harvard, Hopkins, Yale, etc carry more weight. They're impressive names in the south, as well, but you just don't have that many people running off to those schools to try and impress the locals.
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Last edited by AOII Angel; 07-25-2010 at 11:16 AM.
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  #6  
Old 07-25-2010, 11:08 AM
Senusret I Senusret I is offline
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Yeah, even though the educational aspect of the schools is interesting, I'm really just curious about what Greek life is like at USN&WR's highest ranked universities and how it works.
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  #7  
Old 07-25-2010, 12:35 PM
Miriverite Miriverite is offline
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Harvard University doesn't officially recognize fraternities and sororities, so any organizations on its campus does not get funding or a house, etc. However, there are three sororities (if I remember corrently, they are Kappa Alpha Theta, Delta Gamma, and Kappa Kappa Gamma). They function pretty much the same as any sorority anywhere else; all recruitment, parties, etc. are done in the dorms or on other common areas on campus. I also know some Harvard girls who participate in city-wide sororities, like our Boston chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha or the community-based sorority Delta Psi Sigma.

Greek life at MIT is surprisingly huge for a technology-heavy and northern school. We have 6 sororities and 26 (last I checked) fraternities. According to statistics, about 50% of men and 40% of women will pledge a GLO during their time here. We only have NIC/NPC organizations here, along with a service fraternity (APO) and a professional fraternity (AKPsi). There are no Christian, music, or MCGO's... nor do I ever recall an interest being present for any of them. I think most of our frats/sororities are diverse enough to begin with. Everyone is super loyal to their GLO, and while we don't host a ton of Greek events (think Cyprus-Rhodes Greek life), we do have many opportunities to show our support. Most of the GLOs on campus, in fact, are known for two things: 1) their parties, and 2) their annual philanthropic events. I definitely know that the sororities (aside from very blatant stereotypes that are tossed around) are best known for their annual events - AXO has Lipsync; APhi has the King of Hearts male beauty pageant; AEPhi has their Spaghetti Dinner; Theta has their KATwalk fashion show (clever); Sigma Kappa (which is NEVER called SigKap up here) has Late Night; and Pi Phi has their Pie Sale and Read-a-thon. As for frats, they are mainly known for their parties There are definitely a lot of trends and "stereotypes" within each GLO, but I think that everyone accepts that and ignores it.
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  #8  
Old 07-25-2010, 02:15 PM
ta kala ta kala is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AOII Angel View Post
In the north, state schools don't have a good name, and the thought of a state school doesn't reassure the public.
As a northerner, I would have to disagree. You have some very good public schools (some with honors programs/majors rivaling the great privates) and will draw the same level of pride.
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Old 07-25-2010, 02:27 PM
fantASTic fantASTic is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AOII Angel View Post
Things are different in the North vs the South for schools because people respond in say Baltimore to hearing that you graduated from Hopkins for medicine the same way that people in Louisiana respond to hearing that you graduated form LSU. The familiarity of the system and pride in the local university is very strong across the south. I can't tell you how many residents that I worked with who were very proud to say they graduated from UAB or UT-Southwestern. All the state schools in the south have a very good name in the south. In the north, state schools don't have a good name, and the thought of a state school doesn't reassure the public. Harvard, Hopkins, Yale, etc carry more weight. They're impressive names in the south, as well, but you just don't have that many people running off to those schools to try and impress the locals.
You kidding?

Let me throw some names from the Midwest at you:

University of Michigan
UMN
Northwestern
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Ohio State
University of Illinois
Indiana University


Any of those would be an EXTREMELY hard school to turn down. They're great schools, and getting into a school like UMich makes a LOT of people stand up and take notice. The vast majority of state schools in the North are extremely well respected.
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  #10  
Old 07-25-2010, 02:32 PM
AOII Angel AOII Angel is offline
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Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm not slamming state schools, just defending southern state schools against a Northeastern mentality. Different regions have a different way of looking at their higher education systems, and my post by no means was all inclusive.
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  #11  
Old 07-25-2010, 02:47 PM
agzg agzg is offline
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Penn State and Pitt come to mind for Northeastern State schools that carry a huge alumni following and for many programs are considered "one of the best" in the Northeast.

Of course, I like to think Penn State alumni are also some of the most annoying college grads on the planet, but that's just because I went to Pitt.

The VP and one of the directors of my department have degrees from Ivy League colleges (Harvard and Yale). I don't feel like it carries that much weight, particularly not in my field.

Now that I'm in the midwest, University of Michigan and University of Illinois carry a lot of weight around here.
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  #12  
Old 07-25-2010, 03:22 PM
Senusret I Senusret I is offline
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Originally Posted by Miriverite View Post
Harvard University doesn't officially recognize fraternities and sororities, so any organizations on its campus does not get funding or a house, etc. However, there are three sororities (if I remember corrently, they are Kappa Alpha Theta, Delta Gamma, and Kappa Kappa Gamma). They function pretty much the same as any sorority anywhere else; all recruitment, parties, etc. are done in the dorms or on other common areas on campus. I also know some Harvard girls who participate in city-wide sororities, like our Boston chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha or the community-based sorority Delta Psi Sigma.

Greek life at MIT is surprisingly huge for a technology-heavy and northern school. We have 6 sororities and 26 (last I checked) fraternities. According to statistics, about 50% of men and 40% of women will pledge a GLO during their time here. We only have NIC/NPC organizations here, along with a service fraternity (APO) and a professional fraternity (AKPsi). There are no Christian, music, or MCGO's... nor do I ever recall an interest being present for any of them. I think most of our frats/sororities are diverse enough to begin with. Everyone is super loyal to their GLO, and while we don't host a ton of Greek events (think Cyprus-Rhodes Greek life), we do have many opportunities to show our support. Most of the GLOs on campus, in fact, are known for two things: 1) their parties, and 2) their annual philanthropic events. I definitely know that the sororities (aside from very blatant stereotypes that are tossed around) are best known for their annual events - AXO has Lipsync; APhi has the King of Hearts male beauty pageant; AEPhi has their Spaghetti Dinner; Theta has their KATwalk fashion show (clever); Sigma Kappa (which is NEVER called SigKap up here) has Late Night; and Pi Phi has their Pie Sale and Read-a-thon. As for frats, they are mainly known for their parties There are definitely a lot of trends and "stereotypes" within each GLO, but I think that everyone accepts that and ignores it.

Thank you for responding!

Although I am not sure if there are any members currently on campus, I know for sure that the Alphas (MIT, Tufts, Harvard) and AKAs (MIT, Harvard, Wellesley) have had members from there in recent memory.
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  #13  
Old 07-25-2010, 03:28 PM
littleowl33 littleowl33 is offline
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I think I'm the only regular poster from Johns Hopkins on here so I'll chime in. The Greek system at JHU is pretty different depending on whether you're NPC, IFC, NPHC or MCGLO.

This is a ridiculously long post. But in a nutshell, the Greek scene tends to be dominated by the NPC and IFC groups. MCGLO and NPHC groups are smaller and tend not to be well-known on campus. The NPC groups are very large and pretty social with each other whereas the IFC groups are smaller and more clannish. About 25-30% of the campus is Greek, and those who aren't Greek usually don't care much about those who are. I wouldn't say it's an anti-Greek campus - just indifferent. And they usually won't go to events thrown by Greeks unless they involve alcohol!

If you want (a lot) more detail, read on.

There are currently 3 NPCs, Phi Mu, Alpha Phi and Kappa Kappa Gamma. Kappa Alpha Theta formed from a local in 1997 and was closed for RMF in 2009. Delta Gamma was around from 1990-1995, and I think it closed due to low numbers. There are no locals (at least not any well-known or University-recognized ones...). Both Alpha Phi and Phi Mu were founded in the early 80's and though I've heard Alpha Phi was reorganized once or twice, I can't say whether or not that's 100% correct. Kappa was installed in 1999, and Pi Beta Phi is colonizing this fall. I can tell you from personal experience that new groups have it tough here - even nearly 10 years after our founding, Kappa was still on somewhat shaky ground (doing much better now, though). Alpha Phi, Phi Mu and Theta (which was a local for quite some time before going national) were/are very well-established groups with high numbers, strong alum support and strong presence on campus. Kappa has gotten there, but not without a lot of work. Pi Phi will have a challenge in becoming well-established, but their extension team knows it and I think they'll do just fine. In any event, none of the sororities are housed and they are all pretty large - this spring the largest was 144 and the smallest was 123. There is a lot of crossover in terms of groups of friends, so Panhellenic unity is pretty good except for during Recruitment (where everyone just gets super-competitive) and Greek Week, specifically Powderpuff Football (ditto). There are some big events, but chapters aren't necessarily known for their events since they don't always do the same thing every year. Alpha Phi used to do King of Hearts, but they've done a Casino Night for the last few years. Phi Mu did a very successful Pastathon this year, but I don't think they did it last year. Kappa has done a cook-off and a charity fashion show in the past. All in all, the groups all have fantastic women in them and a lot of pride. Every group has their own lettered tote bag and you see them all over campus!

IFC fraternities differ in a few big ways: there are much more of them (11), they're smaller (last spring the smallest was 13 and the largest was 104, with most around 50) and they're housed. The University doesn't provide housing, and most of them have row houses that 5 or 6 brothers rent and live in, but the whole fraternity uses. Alpha Delta Phi and Pi Kappa Alpha, two of the largest groups, have small apartment buildings that they exclusively rent which house the whole chapter. Sigma Phi Epsilon and Sigma Alpha Epsilon have their own large houses that usually don't house everyone, but fit many of the brothers. My gut feeling is that the fraternities are more clannish than the sororities due to these three factors. There is some crossover in terms of groups of friends, but it's much more of a sense of once you rush, these are your brothers and this is where you go to hang out. Most of them do not have a big signature event, but there are some - FIJI Islander, Phi Psi Beach Party and SAE Paddy Murphy come to mind.

To be honest, I don't know a ton about the NPHC scene. A lot of NPC/IFC greeks don't even know there is one, which is unfortunate. The Alpha Kappa Alpha and Delta Sigma Theta city-wide chapters recruit at JHU but they're not recognized by the Office of Greek Life because they include non-JHU students and there are insurance issues(?). The Office does recognize a chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho and Alpha Phi Alpha, but they're small - 6 and 3 members last spring, respectively. There really aren't any events where the NPHC community and the rest of the Greek community come together. They really tend to do their own thing. A friend of mine in APhiA told me about step shows and events his chapter was involved with, and they were all Baltimore city-wide events or at other schools, like University of Maryland.

There are a few Multicultural GLOs and they also tend to do their own thing. They don't participate in formal recruitment - they do their own COB-style recruitment. There is only one fraternity in this category, Iota Nu Delta, which is South-Asian interest and very small (6 members). There are two Asian-interest groups, aKDPhi and SOPi, which are smaller (19 and 6 members last spring, respectively) and tend to be all-Asian and pretty exclusive. The most widely known MCGLO is Delta Xi Phi, which is multicultural-interest and usually has around 15 members. They've had the highest female greek GPA for years now and do a ton of community service. They also participate in Greek Week events (the other MCGLO groups are invited to but don't usually get into it). In general, the MCGLO groups tend to be small and not well-known on campus.

If you have any more questions, PM me!

ETA: I meant to add something about how Johns Hopkins as a school relates to the greeks there. I think the biggest thing is that there's definitely an atmosphere of "work ALWAYS comes first." In the past we've had some well-meaning LCs who had trouble with this - for example, one wanted us to go sit in the cafeteria for hours, wearing our letters, to promote the group. Sisters were pretty incredulous because they had too many other things to do, like research, lab work, studying, jobs, etc. In all the NPC groups here it's very much an attitude of school first, everything else (including my sorority) second. I've seen girls disaffiliate (in all 3 groups on campus) because they felt the sorority was demanding too much of them and it was interfering with their workload. And we don't even have that many required events, for that reason specifically! I don't know how much of all this is typical of greeks at other universities (regardless of US News ranking), but it's definitely something I've noticed here that differs from the attitudes of greeks I've met at some other schools.

Last edited by littleowl33; 07-25-2010 at 03:41 PM.
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  #14  
Old 07-25-2010, 03:30 PM
Psi U MC Vito Psi U MC Vito is offline
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Penn State and Pitt come to mind for Northeastern State schools that carry a huge alumni following and for many programs are considered "one of the best" in the Northeast.

Of course, I like to think Penn State alumni are also some of the most annoying college grads on the planet, but that's just because I went to Pitt.

The VP and one of the directors of my department have degrees from Ivy League colleges (Harvard and Yale). I don't feel like it carries that much weight, particularly not in my field.

Now that I'm in the midwest, University of Michigan and University of Illinois carry a lot of weight around here.

Also the Northeast is the home of most of the "elite" old money institutions. But even at those institutions, which historically have been the bastion of Greek Life, less and less students are going Greek, with some exceptions of course.
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Old 07-25-2010, 03:36 PM
agzg agzg is offline
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Originally Posted by Psi U MC Vito View Post
Also the Northeast is the home of most of the "elite" old money institutions. But even at those institutions, which historically have been the bastion of Greek Life, less and less students are going Greek, with some exceptions of course.
Right but I'm talking more specifically about public institutions.

In terms of private, not-for-profit institutions (outside of the Ivy League), I can think of a handful more, including Syracuse University, University of Rochester, and a crap ton of the schools already on Sen's list.
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