<p>There have been a number of previous discussions about whether the social scene at various colleges was dominated by fraternities and sororities. I noted that the College Board info includes the percentages of men and women who join fraternities and soroities at schools. I wonder what level of involvement translates to "dominance?" Below are the percentages of men joining fraternities at a few schools:
Brown 11%
Columbia 15%
Cornell 28%
Dartmouth 38%
Davidson 40%
Duke 29%
Emory 27%
Johns Hopkins 21%
Northwestern 32%
Penn 30%
Swarthmore 7%
University of Maryland College Park 9%
University of Michigan 16%
Wake Forest 34%
Wash U 25%
(Harvard and Yale have virtually no Greeks, and Princeton has eating clubs; many of the leading LACs have no Greeks).
Does this mean that Dartmouth is "dominated" by Greeks, and Brown isn't?</p>
<p>For MIT, the percentage of men who join fraternities is 55% and the percentage of women who join sororities is 26%, according to College Board (which sounds about right to me). Just to add another data point.</p>
<p>I’m not sure that numbers are the be-all, end-all of “dominance”, especially since I would hardly call MIT “dominated” by the Greek scene. A school can have few Greeks, but the Greeks throw all the social events and everyone wants to be around them. A school can have many Greeks, but have many popular social events thrown by and social scenes dominated by non-Greeks. A school can have many Greeks, but not necessarily have a cohesive Greek community with a unified social scene. A school can have one major social scene - Greek or non-Greek - or it can have many vibrant ones.</p>
<p>If you just go by numbers, Northwestern would appear to be highly “dominated” by Greeks.</p>
<p>But the consensus among many students is that it’s really not big for people outside of it:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/northwestern-university/422951-northwestern-greek-life.html?highlight=northwestern[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/northwestern-university/422951-northwestern-greek-life.html?highlight=northwestern</a></p>
<p>One of the posters transferred from Purdue and according to him, the Greeks at NU are not nearly as visible despite the larger percentage.</p>
<p>Numbers don’t tell you everything. At Dartmouth, for example, freshman can’t join frats, and sororities aren’t nearly as popular as fraternities. So, if you look at the percentage of students in Greek life, you’re not getting the full story. The percentage of upperclassmen (only men) in Greek life would show a different story than the overall percentage of students in Greek life. I’m not sure about the percentage you gave, but my sister–who is a student at Dartmouth–says that a percentage the school often gives out, of the total % of students in Greek life, underestimates the actual presence on campus.</p>
<p>Further, as others have pointed out, the percentage isn’t everything. A school may have a large and active Greek culture but also have a population of students actively involved in other activities. On the other hand, a school may have few students who are members of fraternities and sororities, but they may be the only places students socialize on campus.</p>
<p>Remember that at larger schools, even if the campus seems to be dominated by Greek life, there are going to be many students who want to be involved in other activities. The hard part is for a new student to find those peers who have no interest in Greek life–but at large schools, they do exist.</p>
<p>The statistics I quoted were “% of men who join fraternities” from the College Board site. They have a separate number for women, which I didn’t copy down when I was looking at this (because it’s my S who is looking at schools now). Are there real examples of schools where low (say 10-15%) numbers of kids are Greek where nevertheless they dominate the social scene? (It’s easy enough to imagine the contrary, especially in a large school–if a third of the kids are Greek, that leaves an awful lot who aren’t.)</p>
<p>I wouldn’t be surprised if such schools exist, Hunt. Think about a college where most students live on campus and alcohol isn’t allowed in the dorms. This rule is strictly enforced. Now, alcohol is almost always served in frats. That means all under-21s who want to drink–so probably most students–will go to the frats to socialize. It’s very difficult to judge these things from an outside perspective. Asking current students is better, but then again all students have different experiences.</p>
<p>like the above posters have said, it’s pretty hard to tell. 25% of my school (myself included) is greek…but we have a really big greek scene. all sororities have houses, most fraternities do (i think only 2 or 3 do not), and all participate in some sort of philanthropy (ie, big fundraiser) that gets a lot of people involved.</p>
<p>i’ve found that typical frat parties and other big greek parties are a lot more popular for underclassmen than upperclassmen. underclassmen tend to live on campus and greek town is in walking distance from all the dorms. and it’s hard to turn down free beer (in cans, that are unopened…i’d rather not be drugged)!</p>
<p>if you want to know about a campus’ greek scene, here’s what i would do:</p>
<p>1-call admissions and ask to speak with greek life. they will probably direct you to an office. you can talk to whomever you get, but i would recommend leaving a message for the panhellenic president (a common sorority “governing board”) or the IFC president (interfraternity council, a common fraternity “governing board”) to get more information about that campus’ greek scene.</p>
<p>2-find total numbers of women and men in houses. are the houses on campus? what are some of their reputations? (good luck finding reputation information, but sometimes it really holds!)</p>
<p>3-how active are greeks within the school and town community?</p>
<p>4-do greeks participate in intramural sports?</p>
<p>5-is greek town pretty unified? are there any events all greek town puts on together? do they sponsor speakers, put up holiday lights, tailgate together…</p>
<p>6-how does the greek gpa compare to the non-greek gpa? is being greek something that is coveted? how many women that go through formal recruitment get a bid? how does rush for guys work?</p>
<p>i’d say you’ll get a pretty good view of a campus’ greek life if you can find answers to some or most of those questions. i’ll answer them for my school (with a pretty significant greek life) on the next post.</p>
<p>1-our panhel and IFC love to field questions.</p>
<p>2-sororities can be up to 207 members; most of our 13 are full. guys numbers are way smaller (29 fraternities) and usually range from 20s-80s+. as for girls, we have slutty houses, brainy houses, athletic houses, crazy-about-their-sisterhood houses, laid-back houses, houses that no one really wants to be in, stuck up houses, down to earth houses, rich kid houses… as for guys, we have athletic houses, brainy houses, girly houses, houses girls know to stay away from, alcoholic houses, druggy houses…
<em>disclaimer: i love the greek system. i am fully aware these are gross understatements of the good things greeks do.</em></p>
<p>3-greeks hold office, are in business fraternities, are TAs, and play sports. they have jobs on campus–some are tour guides, clerks, work in dining halls, etc. our greeks volunteer a lot and work within the community on a regular basis too.</p>
<p>4-yes! and win them most of the time too</p>
<p>5-somewhat. there is some animosity between certain houses, but for the most part we all superficially get along and get along well enough to have a good time at a party or other event even if other chapters are there. both fraternities and sororities have lots of underlying competition. however, we do have homecoming (a huge deal at my school–we invented it–where greeks donate blood, put on skits, decorate houses, participate in the parade, volunteer, etc) and greek week (way more competitive, lots of sports, etc) and frat pit (where everyone goes to pre-game and tailgate, but recently was shut down (we’re working to reverse that!))</p>
<p>6-all greek gpa is significantly higher than non-greek gpa. many people want to be greek! 700 out of 1200 received bids on bid day for women.</p>
<p>besides the % of kids who are Greek I would think the size of the school and the remoteness of the campus would also play into this … a small school in a small rural town with lots of frat kids sounds like a situation to check out.</p>