<p>Can any current students or parents give any insight into the impact fraternities and sororities have on the Willamette campus? Willamette is one of my son's top choices and I'm surprised by the large percentage of students involved in Greek life there. For a LAC, the percentage is quite high, 16% in 2011 and 19% in 2010 according to the common data set. This is the same as USC, which I have always felt has a very strong Greek presence. I just finished reading a very disturbing article in the latest issue of Rolling Stone Magazine on the fraternity culture at Dartmouth that got me curious about the fraternities and the role they may play at Willamette.</p>
<p>There’s an opinion piece in February’s Willamette Collegian on the historical relevance of fraternities: [Opinions</a> – Issue 15 - Willamette Collegian](<a href=“http://willamettecollegian.com/main/opinion-issue-15/]Opinions”>http://willamettecollegian.com/main/opinion-issue-15/). The author states that some schools like Willamette had 70% of students enrolled in Greek life 2 or 3 decades ago, which sounds right to me. Willamette’s percentage of 16% seems low for a LAC – I know it’s substantially lower than Whitman’s.</p>
<p>My son never wanted to join a fraternity, and neither did any of his friends. So from his perspective, they are not noticeable. Apparently a fraternity party at Willamette is open to everyone and dry, or so I’ve heard. My source is a student who prefers to live in a substance-free dorm, though. He has attended some fraternity fund-raising events – I get the sense that the fraternities are pretty involved in community service in Salem.</p>
<p>Thanks CalAlum for the link, although according to Rolling Stone, hazing is definitely not a thing of the past at Dartmouth, but good to hear it may be at Willamette. My feeling that Willamette’s Greek presence seemed strong for a LAC was only based on my informal survey of 22 LAC’s. Out of the 22, 12 had none (ex. Oberlin, St. Olaf, Williams, Reed, L&C, Claremont McKenna, Carleton, Pitzer etc), 6 had less (ex. Beloit, Pomona, Wesleyan, etc) and only 2 had significantly more (Bucknell and Davidson). Willamette does have a larger student involvement in Greek life than any of the other colleges S is still considering. </p>
<p>I just read that of all the colleges with Greek life that US News ranks, the average student involvement was 12% during the 2010/2011 year, when Willamette had 19%, so a bit above the overall average for all types of colleges. I also noted with interest, that 7 of the top 12 schools were actually LAC’s and not big U’s like I assumed. I had no idea Whitman had such a strong presence, just saw that 42.1% of males are in fraternities; S probably made the right decision not to apply there as he definitely isn’t interested in a frat. My S would also prefer a substance free dorm.</p>
<p>Just a point of information about Whitman: It is my understanding there is no fraternity/sorority housing at Whitman. It was quite impressive as when we first visited the school one of the kids did an activity that brought up his fraternity involvement. The Whitman student had just come back from a fraternity convention in California and was joking about the 'broishness" of the non-Whitman fraternity brothers from the region–how their idea for everything (such as fundraising) was, “Let’s have a party”. This particular student seemed to be annoyed by that attitude and the other students in class seemed to agree. Just a viewpoint from our visit…It will be interesting to see what my son does at Willamette in regards to frats. It doesn’t seem like something that would suit his personality, while being very social, really likes his solitude as well.</p>
<p>Here’s the US News list of colleges with the highest percentage of students in fraternities:
[Most</a> Students in Fraternities | Rankings | US News](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/most-frats]Most”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/most-frats)</p>
<p>According to this source, 46% of students at Dartmouth and 39% at Whitman are in fraternities.</p>
<p>Thanks CalAlum for the full list of 50. Interesting to see the full 50, as I had only been looking at an article about the top 10, which included the overall average statistic of 12% of men in fraternities for the colleges reporting fraternity data. </p>
<p>[10</a> Colleges With Most Students in Fraternities - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/2011/10/04/10-colleges-with-most-students-in-fraternities]10”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/2011/10/04/10-colleges-with-most-students-in-fraternities) </p>
<p>The article also had an interesting note that only two public colleges were in the top 50 which may explain why all my son’s other choices are lower since they are public schools. Also, I had no idea Whitman had the 26th largest fraternity presence (never researched that during our college search). Looks like I did list Whitman’s higher than it was, apparently looked at the pie chart above the fraternity pie chart on US News (42.1% of their students are males). However, their common data set for the 2011-2012 year reports the percentage of freshman in frats is 42% while the overall percentage of undergraduates in fraternities dropped to 36% from the previous years 39%. </p>
<p>@momsings - I didn’t know Whitman doesn’t have fraternity housing and interesting to hear the Whitman student’s opinion about the fraternity convention. I am hopeful that the frat culture can vary widely from campus to campus and that the article on Dartmouth is not representative of all fraternities.</p>
<p>I guess I had no idea that Greek life was still so prevalent in college today. When I went to UCSD there wasn’t any Greek life. I still would be interested in hearing more about Greek life at Willamette and its influence on campus. By the way, in case anyone was wondering, this is the article in Rolling Stone about Dartmouth’s fraternity culture that got me wondering. A friend of mines daughter is going there and I wonder if I should share it with her.</p>
<p>[Confessions</a> of an Ivy League Frat Boy: Inside Dartmouth’s Hazing Abuses | Culture News | Rolling Stone](<a href=“http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/confessions-of-an-ivy-league-frat-boy-inside-dartmouths-hazing-abuses-20120328]Confessions”>Dartmouth’s Hazing Abuses: Confessions of an Ivy League Frat Boy – Rolling Stone)</p>
<p>I only know two students at Willamette so my info is very narrow, greek life at Willamette is not like that on the east coast. That can actually be said for almost all west coast schools vs east coast schools. I am told by the two kids I know at Willamette that greek life is pretty inclusive. Many of their houses are not the typical fraternity guy or sorority girl type. Houses have a broader base of students. I would encourage your child to reach out to students at Willamette and ask. Also you can read on College ******* under the greek life section to get a rough idea.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I have a son who lives in his fraternity house at Whitman. Whitman’s Greek life is very inclusive, parties are open to all, grades are top priority and a lot of community service gets done. My son is the philanthropy chair and has to organize and oversee most of the community service commitments, it has been a great experience for him. Whitman students are pretty down to earth and friendly, just like Willamette students, so it’s easy for me to imagine that greek life at Willamette is just another activity that can be chosen by students who want some extra bonding and a different housing option. No big deal.</p>
<p>OOPS, I apologize for the mis-information of my earlier post. I know some school we visited did not have housing for the fraternities/sororities.</p>