<p>I’m pretty sure even social frats have GPA requirements to join and stay a member.</p>
<p>Probably from the fact that they have a built in support system. An underclassman in a frat will probably have an upperclassman brother who has taken the same class or is in the same major and he’ll be able to help him out. Other people might not be so close with older students and might not receive this sort of help</p>
<p>I find this hard to believe. Maybe some brothers do have really good GPA’s. But if they do, there’s no way in hell you can attribute that to their being in a Fraternity. That’s just ridiculous. They spend half their time drinking, and a good portion of the rest of it planning some “well-rounded” activities as lots of you have put it. Neither of those give you a good GPA, they actually drain your study time. Whether what they’re doing is purely social or for good causes, a lot of Greek kids commit their school lives to their Frat and that drains study time, period.</p>
<p>Nongreek kids - surprise - have friends, or make friends in their classes, that can fill the roles of study partner. This isn’t some exclusive privilege of the Frats. So don’t join a Frat to boost your GPA, that’s a crazy inference for the Greek Office to draw. And it’s clearly just a gimmick to get you to join.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Dude-the facts don’t lie. Greeks tend to have better GPAs than non-Greeks.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Ohhh. Good point. /sarcasm</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You want the truth?</p>
<p>You can’t handle the truth.</p>
<p>yeah I’ve come to the conclusion that I will be fine without a fraternity, I just will have to find something else to take leadership in</p>
<p>There are several possible reasons for why Greek GPA is higher than non-Greek GPA on average, but I think neither “well-roundedness” nor “leadership” explains much of the difference. Based on my experience, I’m inclined to believe that Greeks’ easier access to sample homeworks, quizzes, and exams plays a big role in accounting for the difference.</p>
<p>Unless the professor says otherwise, there’s nothing wrong with such a practice. So I don’t see why Cuse0507 is whitewashing this very real aspect of Greek life. It’s nothing to be ashamed of; hell, it’s a perk of membership for crying out loud!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It would depend on which College you attend but on some campuses the fraternities/sororities might be more mature and they will enforce laws that will make the members study. So throughout the week(Or Daily) study hours will be enforced. While a non-greek member who is a Freshman and is relatively lazy won’t stick to the same schedule and might not study as much.</p>
<p>Although this would probably pertain much more to academically-inclined fraternities. If you go to a party school chances are that the intellectual level of the fraternities will not be very high. Hence, you see all the stereotypes of Greek life on television which may or may not to pertain to the certain fraternity that you want to join.</p>
<p>I would have joined a Fraternity as a Freshman but I value my own independence more than joining a social group so I opted to say no.</p>
<p>If the Fraternity has a good reputation(Say they don’t get hammered every Thursday night and try to impregnate Freshman girls) then joining an academic one might be a good idea if the GPA is what you are most concerned about.</p>
<p>Fraternities/Sororities also create people which would probably be viewed as the American idea of the “Well-Rounded” person or Role Model. So some of the people in these groups get into high careers status later down the road; although I rather be researching/teaching than leading a company.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You don’t post the statistics or a link but this wouldn’t surprise me. About 60% of succeeding in the Business world is based on people skills(How well you can BS) and these people have probably became masters at the task.</p>
<p>There are lots of reasons why Greeks at a particular school will have higher GPA’s. The first rule of Greek Life though is that every campus is different, and for every great Greek community there’s one somewhere else that is upholding all the negative stereotypes of Greek Life.</p>
<p>The first thing that matters is looking at the types of people the greek system on your campus tends to attract. To a certain extent, it’s a self perpetuating cycle…good greek systems attract talented students who in turn do well in class and on campus, further enhancing the Greeks reputations and attracting the next group of talented leaders. Alternatively, party hard systems do the opposite, and attract people who care less about grades, success is limited, and those students who care about academics are turned away from the system.</p>
<p>Second, good chapters work extremely hard to help their new members adjust to campus life. Yes, being a pledge is busy, but having required study hours or asking pledges to go visit their profs during office hours to get signed grade updates fosters an environment where it’s clear that excelling academically matters. Further, while some systems may attract the busy bodies, good chapters also push members who wouldn’t normally be involved to get involved.</p>
<p>Third, chapters take ownership of their new members in ways that groups of non-greeks will never do. This ownership extends from the upperclassmen on up to the alumni. In chapters where academics matter, where the chapter wants members involved on campus, etc, the older members are checking in on the younger members to make sure they’re going to class, to make sure they’re not having any problems, and intervening if necessary. My fraternity definitely put members on social probation if they weren’t meeting their academic priorities. And now, as an alumni, one of my first questions every time I get back to my chapter is how was the chapter GPA last semester.</p>
<p>Fourth, yes there are test banks, but it goes beyond that - mentoring, tutoring, and advice from older members is invaluable in a number of different ways. If you’re pre-med, getting help on a chemistry concept, or being told which professors to avoid when scheduling classes, or just getting a glimpse of what’s ahead on the professional path are all extremely helpful things that can lead to better academic achievement. </p>
<p>There are more things I could discuss, but these are the major reasons. In the end, the decision to go greek is a personal decision. For some people it’s the absolute right decision, for others, the absolute wrong choice, and for some people it depends on what campus they end up on. The important thing is to give greek life a look and see if it’s right for you. It never hurts to look.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say joining Greek life causes you to get a better GPA but it does attract top performers usually. There are valid reasons as to why Greeks have better GPA’s. It’s not just cheating, test bank, etc. Fraternities have their academic benefits, especially with networking for internships and jobs later. </p>
<p>A lot of it also might be the study skills you gain from pledging. All the fraternities at my school have time-intensive pledging processes, and also have study hours set aside to make sure pledges are keeping up with coursework. This actually kept me motivated, as I would get my work done before pledging at night. I had 5 difficult courses including orgo and bio, a varsity sport, and another club when I was pledging and still came out with a 3.8. It was a very stressful, but a very fun and rewarding semester.</p>
<p>I think the decision to go Greek should be made independent of academic consideration, unless you know for a fact you can’t balance pledging with coursework. Otherwise, being a brother doesn’t take a significant amount of time away from studying, as long as you can control yourself from going out the ngiht before your big exam and that sort of thing. It’s all about balance.</p>
<p>Do you have actual numbers? This is all a question of magnitude.
Let’s say the average gpa at your college is a 2.8. Let’s also say the average gpa of people in fraternities/sororities is 3.0. Then this can just be explained by the fact that there are less people in the fraternity/sorority group (smaller groups always do better in these things).
But if it is like a 2.8 vs a 3.5 then there might be an actual difference that can be attributed to something else.</p>
<p>At Clemson, Greek life students had an average of 3.19 last fall while Clemson students were 3.08</p>
<p>so I guess the difference isn’t too significant</p>
<p>I think part of the academic success of students in Greek houses can be explained by the fact that students get advising from older students, not just as to whether a prof is easy or hard but as to what the prof is looking for. Older members are available for advice and tutoring. A junior who did well in organic chemistry is around to help a pledge with a problem set. A poli sci major is around to proof or criticize a paper.</p>
<p>Also, members often try to sign up for classes together, creating an instant study group. They keep each other on task with respect to papers, tests, etc. Members who are stronger in a subject are right there to tutor a weaker student and the help is immediately available. Not cheating–tutoring! Academic problems are brought to light right away and help is immediately available without the student necessarily needing to pursue outside sources --while the student may miss this life lesson, at least the academic concerns are being , because most greek houses take academics seriously.</p>
<p>My S2 was rush/pledging chair for his house last year. The GPA for his pledge class was a 3.7 on a campus where the average gpa is a 2.9.
The reason? The house felt embarrassed that it had fallen down on academics the previous year and did not want that reputation. it cracked down on all members, and put a special effort in to starting freshmen off on the right foot.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Does that figure include academic frats.?</p>
<p>That statistic is for all fraternities and sororities on campus. How do you know if a fraternity is academic or social? At first glance, it seems that all of the fraternities are social fraternities.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If that figure is from the Office of Greek Life or whatever they call it at Clemson, I can pretty much guarantee that they are all social.</p>
<p>Check the Greek Life web site at your school. They often post GPAs of all the groups, along with the all-women and all-men GPAs. If it’s not posted, you can probably call and get the information.</p>