interesting- that actually sounds quite a bit like Penn to be honest- though as identified in my earlier post, not identical. While fraternities and sororities are technically organizations you can join for 3.5 years, they are only really relevant during 2nd semester freshman year and sophomore year (so, about, 1.5 years). They’re also only relevant to about 25% of Penn students in a meaningful way. After Sophomore year, even those who are affiliated with fraternities and sororities tend not to engage with them in a particularly serious way (They go to chapter meetings on Sunday nights occasionally… though more often upperclass students skip). Also, those who never joined greek life or who disaffiliated after joining (70%-80% of penn undergrads) don’t feel socially ostracized for not being in a fraternity or sorority because the vast majority of social interactions come from the college houses and extracurricular activities. There also isn’t a huge divide between students in Greek Life and those who are unaffiliated at Penn, especially since fraternity parties tend to be open to all students, all of Penn’s clubs from the literary club to the debate team, to the football team throw their own Greek-style parties, and Philadelphia offers more in the way of social activity for those uninterested in the Greek Life experience and uninterested in the extracurricular parties. Penn sort of has Greek-Life-lite; it exists and it’s clearly different from not having Greek Life as a substantial presence, but it’s not like the real Greek Life experience one might find at schools where the fraternities and sororities are the main vehicles for social interaction for a huge proportion of students. Greek life is kind of a nice bonus for those who join, a non-entity for those who want to avoid it, and something in between for those who sit somewhere in between on the Greek Life Interest Spectrum… So definitely not identical to Yale, but strikingly similar in some meaningful ways, I think.