Dear all,
My daughter is turned off by much of the elitism of the Greek system, sororities in particular. I can’t seem to find it here, but is there a list of top schools (say top 50 USNWR Natl Unis and LACs) somewhere which have no Greek life whatsoever (e.g, Boston College) or schools where it has been substantially deemphasised (e.g. Georgetown)? Thanks.
I didn’t see that list but I believe that many of the Jesuit colleges have little to no Greek Life. For example my S went to Fordham and there was no Greek Life. You can look at this list and check on the colleges that are appealing academically and geographically. http://www.ajcunet.edu/institutions/ There is also no Greek Life at Notre Dame.
In addition, this is an fairly old post but it might be a good start and your D can check to be sure that there is still no Greek Life for any schools listed on this post that she interested in. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/717962-top-schools-with-no-greek-scene.html
You may also want to give your D’s academic stats, as well as any financial/geographic/other limitations so people can provide schools that would fit your criteria.
Thanks. Her stats are good (all A-stars on GSCEs, all A’s on AS exams, low 1500’s on SATs and 3 760+ SAT Subjects tests) plus good leadership and excellent ECs by UK standards). We are focusing on East Coast and Midwest schools.
You can work in reverse by avoiding the top ~50 here:
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/most-frats
Colleges without residential fraternities and sororites may have substantially reduced Greek influenced social atmospheres…
Along with those previously mentioned, I don’t believe Rice University has a Greek system.
^ Thanks. What is interesting is that some schools with low-ish fraternity representation (Alabama 26% and UVA 33%) seem to have campus life dominated by fraternities, right?
In the above examples (#5), the absolute numbers, irrespective of percentages, would still appear to be large. This could be a factor.
In addition to BC, Fordham and Notre Dame which were mentioned previously, Williams, Middlebury, Bates, Connecticut College, College of the Holy Cross, Colby, Bowdoin are all top schools with no frats
The top midwestern LACs are greek-free or largely greek-free iirc. @suzy100 is correct, Rice has no Greek system.
The currently offline college search tool here used to let you select greek life as a filter, which turned out to be helpful for S. Hopefully the new version of the tool keeps that feature.
Vassar
Hampshire
Bryn Mawr
Smith
Mt. Holyoke
Agnes Scott
Haverford
Connecticut College
Sweet Briar
Hendrix
New College of Florida
Bennington
Bard
Marlboro
Earlham
Grinnell
Lewis and Clark in Portland
Mills
Those are actually fairly high percentages, even though they are not majorities. That the schools are large also means that the number of sorority and fraternity members is high in absolute terms.
The campus life tab of a college’s entry at http://www.collegedata.com should show the percentages in sororities and fraternities, if the school reports that in its common data set.
^^Sometimes colleges report Greek % and leave out the freshman class, thereby deflating the numbers
No Greeks at Williams (since 1962!)
Amherst, Williams, Pomona, Bowdoin, Swarthmore, Middlebury, Hamilton, Colby, Carleton, Haverford, CMC, Harvey Mudd, Reed… most of the best LACs have gotten rid of frats.
Pretty sure Swat has greek life, though low key. In contrast, Haverford (and BMC) do not. Many of the formerly all-women’s colleges, such as Vassar, Conn and Skidmore, do not. Amherst banned them recently, but had a history of underground fraternities, I’ve heard.
Grinnell, Kalamazoo, Earlham, Bates are other schools with no history of greek life. Other LACs, such as Wooster, Knox, Centre, self-describe as having non-traditional greek life. Schools like Kenyon, Franklin & Marshall, St Lawrence, Dickinson, Denison have greek life, in varying degrees of influence. Questions to consider might include, is greek life residential – are there dedicated greek life houses or dorms for members, or are members fully integrated into the residential life of the college; is rush in the fall of freshman year, or deferred to second semester, or even until sophomore year. Many LACs defer rush until at least second semester to give freshman the opportunity to develop friendships and connections before deciding whether to participate in greek life. We also ran into sports programs on campus (my kid was looking at recruiting) where coaches don’t allow team members to rush until sophomore year, regardless of what the school allows – meaning that most of the team did not in fact rush, because by then, they were deeply connected with their team and school.
Surprised no one has mentioned Clark U in MA. That has no Greek life. I applied there a couple years back.
Common data set for each college contains percentage of students in frats at each school. Info is also available through US News college rankings links. And in Princeton Review guide and other college guides.
Many LACs do not, including these among others: Williams, Amherst, Haverford, Middlebury, Bowdoin, Bates, Colby, Vassar, Bard, Connecticut College, Skidmore.
Very minimal frat presence: Swarthmore, Wesleyan
Also no frats at Clark, and officially at Brandeis (except small unrecognized off campus frat).
Be careful about assuming that a campus without a Greek system does not have an alternate system of equal or greater elitism like secret societies, eating clubs, or final clubs.
Rice’s “residential colleges” system
Thanks everybody. Good points about alternative elite groups such as finals clubs or eating clubs. We are less concerned about residential colleges such as Yale or Rice as everybody is put into one which mitigates the exclusivity issue.