<p>Probably already been mentioned but, Georgetown and Boston College.</p>
<p>Tufts, Carnegie Mellon and U of Chicago are all less than 15% Greek.</p>
<p>Grinnell college in Iowa and Bates College in Maine are Greek free</p>
<p>If you are shying away from Greek life over concerns about hazing, binge drinking or even cliques, you might want to also avoid schools that have sports teams, bands, theater troops, and even clubs to a certain extent.</p>
<p>Brandeis University has no officially sanctioned fraternities and although there are definitely frats and sororities, Greek life is not a major part of campus social life.</p>
<p>That would be silly to avoid schools with bands, teams </p>
<p>What does that even mean? The op and d interested in schools that have a large greekmlife footprint on the campus. Canāt say I blame them.</p>
<p>Seahorserock, it means that Greeks arenāt the only organizations guilty of hazing and drinking on campuses. </p>
<p>It seemed OPs reason for not wanting Greek life was because of the recent story in Rolling Stone about Dartmouth and the hazing etc. in their Greek life. There was also a recent story about the hazing death of a band member. Sports teams are also notorious for hazing as well as military organizations. I am just saying that avoiding a school with Greek life may not remove the problem.</p>
<p>Donāt have a large footprint!!! Egad stupid I pad</p>
<p>But a marching band and a sports team or not truly the social life of a college student. When a campus has a big Greek scene, the gdis often have few options.</p>
<p>Loyola Chicago has Greek life, but itās very small</p>
<p>Just wanted to add that at Purdue neither my sorority nor my husbands fraternity were involved in any form of hazing. I know I canāt speak for all the greek organizations on campus, but I knew many others from other fraternities and sororities, and they did not come across any hazing either. Purdue University highly frowned upon any form of hazing, to the point where the greek organizations could lose their charter on campus. The greek organizations did do team building activities for their pledge classes such as weekend retreats and scavenger hunts and things of that nature, but in terms of hazing, no. I graduated from Purdue in 1989 and my first year on campus the fraternities had a lot of parties. All their recruitment revolved around big keg parties, and if you were a girl you could basically get into any party because the fraternity was trying to impress potential new members. By either my sophomore or Junior year, fraternities went to dry rush where they were not allowed to have any alcohol around any sort of recruitment activities. Also, by the time of my senior year, with all fraternity parties you had to have a ticket to get in, so if you didnāt know somebody from that fraternity, you would never get into a party there. This really cut down on those wild out of control parties though. By junior year though, when most kids turn 21, people just went out to the bars if they wanted to party and drink. There were also some apartment parties where alcohol was served, but those tended to be very small and included a small group of people that knew each other well.</p>
<p>In some schools the sports teams absolutely are the social life. Many teams have āhousesā and host parties and socials just like frats do. Maybe it is just in schools where there is a big greek life, that the team acts as the āhouseā.</p>
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<p>Especially when that article isnāt even really accurate about the school in question.</p>
<p>Most glaring example of desperate reaching for a slur, any slur: characterizing the pre-freshman year Outing Club trips as occasions of brainwashing/hazing. Simply unbelievable.</p>
<p>Colllege campuses are multi-faceted the choice to partcipate rests with your daughter regardless of activity.Be aware however that many LAC have āsocietiesā or other clubs that essentially replace Greeks.Ultimately she will make a good choice.</p>
<p>I am not now, nor have I ever been, a fan of greek organizations. I was happy my college had none when I went there. But experience has taught that some people who are just as nice, moral, and intelligent as I have enjoyed fraternities and sororities thoroughly, and believe (as I do not) that their lives would have been poorer without those organizations. </p>
<p>Experience has also taught that a complete ban on fraternities, etc.: (1) Is not necessary to having a campus where they do not dominate social life or oppress anyone but whoever has to clean their houses (if they have houses). (2) Is nowhere near effective to keep students, especially students in preppy, rural, residential colleges, from excessive drinking.</p>
<p>Union College does have Greek life: [Fraternity</a> & Sorority Life - Fraternity and Sorority Life - Union College](<a href=āhttp://www.union.edu/offices/fraternity-sorority/]Fraternityā>Fraternity and Sorority Life | Union College)</p>
<p>I agree that the best distinction is between campuses where Greek Life is a huge part of the undergrad social scene and those where it is not, as opposed to those with and without greek-letter groups at all. For example, Iād classify U Chicago, with its small Greek community, as very similar to Rice (0% participation) and quite different from Duke (close to 50% participation), even though Duke and UC are both technically Greek campuses.</p>
<p>My son was not interested in colleges that had a large Greek presence either. He now attends Northeastern in Boston.</p>
<p>I think eliminating schools with Greek life is foolish (and I hate Greek life) but I do know that Ithaca College has none.</p>
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<p>The beauty of Big 10 schools is that many of them are large enough that the Greek presence is merely a blip on the radar. </p>
<p>Iāve spent plenty of time at two Big 10 schools (MSU and U of M). I donāt know whether they have a large Greek scene (I guess you could argue that they do), but I donāt know anyone in Greek life at either school and yet we all seem to get along just fine. Even those of us who party have never really been to a Greek party so itās really not a big deal. Especially at a school like MSU with 40k+ students. Even if 75% of the students were involved in Greek life, which theyāre not, that would still leave 10k students to socialize with. </p>
<p>IMO, as someone who is not a fan of the stereotypical Greek life, itās really quite silly to eliminate a school just because they have Greek āpresenceā. However, I did eliminate a few small schools because Greek life absolutely dominated the social scene. </p>
<p>As long as you go to a big school, there really shouldnāt be any issue whatsoever.</p>
<p>To the OP, I am with you on this. Just like not all schools even have football teams anymore (!), I guess some schools emphasize Greek system a lot less than at others. And those arenāt all alike. Check it all out in advance. Thatās the #1 message.
Some people will try to make you feel like you canāt be a "campus leader " (!) or sought-after socialite if you are not part of the Greek system. I was always uncomfortable with the whole Greek thing. I was at a smallish, semi-Greek school.
The whole thing about the ālifetime advantageā of a frat is not to my liking, I have read posts and stories asserting that so and so was hired by frat brotherās Daddy for significant employment - ick. Way to go.
I never did the Greek thing - I am a real individual - and it did take excited friends away from me a bit as some joined sororities (though tempered - as it was the āugly girl sororityā - which monikers still existā¦, which I regret, since all of this is a contrived formula for social exclusivity.
Also, as a female, the teddy bears and hearts which I have seen on various occasions are just not stuff I related to - I was more grownup than that.
Then, about frats, just by being a newspaper reader since my teens I well know there has been flat-out trouble over the years off and on at the major university near us (currently things are pretty much held in check by current administration) and I also have read and heard all about behavior that troubles me with regards to how women are viewed by these dudesā¦I have female college students (the ones I know are all top academic types who want some social life) recount witnessing stuff to me. Not surprisingly, sooner or later, many of these get over the thrill of visiting frat parties and - then what - better be at a university with other social opportunities.
Hearing about some rushing in recent years gives me personally the thought that Greek life, while it apparently varies quite a bit around the U.S. from what I have learned on this forum and elsewhere ā I hasten to mention this to Greek supporters yet I AM recounting knowledge/experiences recounted to ME personally by MY contacts ā STILL gives me a reaction it is outdated and we really should have moved beyond that as a society.
Just an fyi, though, having one of my students now attending a major university with more Greek presence than is to our studentās interest, really, there are some āfratsā and āsororitiesā that are NOT Greek but are Professional (AND may have houses) and this may offer a more suitable option.</p>
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<p>Itās no more foolish than eliminating schools that are rural, suburban or city. Or eliminating schools that either have or donāt have a football team.</p>
<p>Itās all about fit. If Greek life is not appealing to a student, then thatās just one more factor they can weigh in an effort to find a good fit.</p>
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