How big a deal are fraternities/sororities in American college life?

Factual Questions
21

The influence and traditions of fraternities and sororities on American college life are huge. Their relevance today, not so much.

Fraternities are almost as old as the university system. Keep in mind that there wasn’t really such a thing as teenage/early adult culture until the 1920s, and fraternities and sororities were very influential in defining the college experience. Part of the reason the organizations gained a foothold was because campuses were getting much larger. There were so few students that there wasn’t a need to belong to a smaller, more exclusive group.

Popular culture - books, TV, movies, etc. - exalted Greek life as a pillar of college culture but the influence of the groups waned in the 1960s when campus became more diverse and students became more politically active. (Not to say that Greeks were not politically active.) But then fraternities and sororities targeted towards new populations (Latino/a, Muslims, LGBT, “plus size” women, and Asians, to name a few) started to emerge.

I would still say that a sizable number of the students who are active campus leaders - your student body president types, big man/woman on campus types - are Greek. But they’re not the majority by any stretch of the imagination. On large campuses Greeks are very prominent on the social scene (they had the resources and spaces to have parties), athletics (a lot of the groups have one or more intramural teams), and philanthropy (organizing clothing drives, building Habitat for Humanity homes, and fundraising).

22

[QUOTE=IntelSoldier]
In my experience, if you try to get in, you will, unless there’s a reason for them to actively reject you like drugs or a criminal record or you did the head guy’s mom.
[/QUOTE]

This is not true everywhere. The sororities at the University of Texas are incredibly selective: I’ve had many students that seemed like perfect sorority girls get cut in the first few days of rush. And I am talking about girls that central casting would have sent over for “Texas Sorority Girl”.

As far as the Greek experience, if you are involved in Greek life, it can be the defining element of your college career. On the same campus, it can be practically invisible to kids that aren’t involved.

23

[QUOTE=Manda JO]
This is not true everywhere. The sororities at the University of Texas are incredibly selective: I’ve had many students that seemed like perfect sorority girls get cut in the first few days of rush. And I am talking about girls that central casting would have sent over for “Texas Sorority Girl”.

As far as the Greek experience, if you are involved in Greek life, it can be the defining element of your college career. On the same campus, it can be practically invisible to kids that aren’t involved.
[/QUOTE]

Depends a lot on the chapter, too; like everything else, at any campus with Greek organizations, there will be a hierarchy among the fraternities and one among the sororities.

To some degree the groups become easily pigeonholed: there will be a few “hot girl” sororities, a few “smart girl” sororities, and (without wanting to be judgmental), there will usually be at least one “fat girl” sorority.

The reputations may or may not be reflective of the membership.

At Southern schools, especially the big state colleges, Greeks dominate most campus involvement. At mine, for example, 24 student body presidents in a row were Greek; 80%+ of the student Senate was Greek; Homecoming Kings/Queens were always Greek (and usually shockingly unattractive), and so on. In fact, 99% of the time when non-Greeks ran for student offices, they did so on an explicitly anti-Greek ticket.

In large part this was because Greeks constituted a ready-made voting bloc; in a campus of 35,000 (of which 5,000~10,000 were Greek), it was virtually impossible to reach more than a quarter of the student body any other way.

24

[QUOTE=An Gadaí]
Having spent the last 26 years exposed to movies, comics, songs and books that feature fraternities and sororities I’m curious as to how important they are in American college/university life.
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Basically speaking, they are immensely important to the people who join them. They are not important at all to everyone else.

Most have at least one. There are some places that ban them.

Definitely not. Very generally speaking, Greek organizations attract only certain demographic segments of the population. At most colleges, the vast majority of students do not try to get into a Greek organization.

25

My college (St. John’s College) didn’t have any Greek system at all. it’s defnitely a rarity, though. Plenty of smaller schools and commuter schools don’t have much of a Greek presence, and sometimes what ‘Greek’ presence there is is far from the system portrayed in Animal House, but instead professional organizations (I have friends who were members of a lawyer’s fraternity or a dentist’s fraternity.)

Larger schools, especially public ones, tend to have a greater Greek system, although I still believe it’s still a (sizeable) minority that join.

26

I went to a very greek southern public university, and let me tell you, it is a HUGE deal. It almost ruined my college experience for one. Where I went, the greek system dominated the culture. While only around 30 percent were greek (from what I remember) there is a larger group that also is very much related. They are sort of in the outer sphere. Unafiliated, but of the same cloth. They would be in a fraternity, but probably didn’t get into the one they wanted.

There’s a definite pecking order in terms of what the quality frats are too. There’s a top tier, and then there’s a middle and finally a lower tier. You particular tier level largely determines the quality of parties that you’re able to throw. Not many people want to go to a lower tier party, but an upper tier frat guy will go to another upper tier party.

I was in one for a while (I was even initiated) and really it all seemed so fake to me that I had to quit. Now this mainly holds true for the youngest students. As you get to be a senior, things change and are less rigid. Once you turn 21, you get to go to different bars in the town where I went to college. The 21+ bars are much more relaxed with regards to immature bullshit related to fraternities. But yes there are 18+ bars where people are allowed in to not drink. Of course this doesn’t work in practice but that’s the idea, really. But I’d say that a good 50 percent of the school was either in a frat, or would have been had it not been for money / acceptance / some other reason. That just shows you how much it influences the culture.

I’d like to say more, but I gotta run!

27

Yeah, definitely not all schools have fraternities or sororities. I went to Pomona College, which had a few frats that were Pomona-specific, meaning they weren’t part of any national chapters or anything. Very few people joined, and they didn’t have houses or anything. They just threw parties and maybe did some community service type stuff. The other four Claremont Colleges (Pitzer, Claremont McKenna, Scripps, and Harvey Mudd) did not have frats. I don’t remember specifics, but a lot of the small, liberal arts schools I looked at in the northeast also did not have frats.

And looking at Princeton University’s website,

28

There was no Greek system at the small, but prestigious, college I did my undergraduate studies in.

Ed

29

I think my school had a total of one frat with maybe a couple of dozen members. (Most of the schools I looked at seriously didn’t have a big Greek system; to me, the lack of frats was a BIG plus.) Then again, it was a large private university in the middle of NYC, so it’s not like anyone needed to depend on the university in order to have a social life.

My younger sister went to a large campus of our state university, and became a Little Sister at a frat (I don’t remember which one). Let’s just say that her experience there didn’t do much to improve my opinion of the Greek system. She spent her entire first semester pretty much either drunk or stoned, and dropped out after ending up with a 0.8 GPA (on a 5-point scale).

Would she have gotten into trouble anyway? Probably, but why encourage it?

30

[QUOTE=liberty3701]
And looking at Princeton University’s website,
[/QUOTE]

They are not officially sanctioned by the University but chapters do exist there. The eating clubs are the official “houses” for upperclasspeople who wish to join that kind of organization, and they center around alcohol too, so it’s not clear what the distinction is.

31

I don’t think anyone has mentioned it yet, but for those of you who went to schools with a big Greek presence, were most of the frats/sororities tied to sports? My school had a relatively small Greek system, but it seemed to me that we had the football frat and the lacrosse frat and so forth. We did have one or two public service or related houses, too, but mostly the athletes lived in the frats, or so it seemed.

32

[QUOTE=gigi]
They are not officially sanctioned by the University but chapters do exist there. The eating clubs are the official “houses” for upperclasspeople who wish to join that kind of organization, and they center around alcohol too, so it’s not clear what the distinction is.
[/QUOTE]
Right. I was curious whether Princeton had fraternities because there were eating clubs, and I was surprised that they took such a strongly worded stance. I could tell from other stuff on that site that they do, indeed, have unsanctioned frats.

33

[QUOTE=vix]
I don’t think anyone has mentioned it yet, but for those of you who went to schools with a big Greek presence, were most of the frats/sororities tied to sports? My school had a relatively small Greek system, but it seemed to me that we had the football frat and the lacrosse frat and so forth. We did have one or two public service or related houses, too, but mostly the athletes lived in the frats, or so it seemed.
[/QUOTE]

Most “big-college” sports programs don’t leave room for Greek life.

At my school, there was one guy on the football team (the quarterback, oddly enough) who was an active member of a fraternity while on the team. Some of the black players were active members of black fraternities, but in my experience the black fraternities are less active and involved than “white” fraternities.

If by “lacrosse frat” and “football frat” you mean the teams themselves formed fraternities, that’s a bit different. Mainstream fraternities (ie. the established national organizations) don’t work quite the same way; team fraternities are local one-off organizations.

34

I went to UVA in the 80s, right before the drinking age was raised, so it was a more beer-soaked culture than at the present time. There were 20-odd frats, slightly fewer sororities, with a standing membership of 60-100 each (or roughly 15% of the undergraduate population). Slightly under half of them lived in the frat houses, except for Black frats, which did not have frat houses.

The best of them (and several were like this) emphasized public service. The worst (one or two I vividly recall) essentially facilitated date rape. Most plugged members into a network of contacts that they could draw on socially and professionally for life.

I was never in a frat. I was on the student paper, which served the same beneficial purposes minus huge monthly dues. I professed disdain for the institution of fraternities, but sure went to a lot of their parties. My friends who were Greeks did no better or worse in life than my friends who were not.

35

[QUOTE=suranyi]
There was no Greek system at the small, but prestigious, college I did my undergraduate studies in.

Ed
[/QUOTE]

Ditto. (Bryn Mawr College, class of 2000)

36

[QUOTE=Krokodil]
My friends who were Greeks did no better or worse in life than my friends who were not.
[/QUOTE]

Handy for certain career paths, though.

37

There’s a bunch at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but that’s not to say that a large percentage of people participate in them (at least in my experience). They’re there if you want them, but I’d say that most don’t join them. You see them during rush week, and occasionally you might notice one of their functions throughout the year, but if you’re not involved, I’d agree that they’re largely invisible.

At Wisconsin, there is a definite vibe of “looking down your nose” at frats and sororities - most of the student body isn’t involved and does seem to think that they’re only there for a) those who want to be drunk/stoned all the time; b) to help facilitate date rape (as another posted said); c) those who want to buy friendship; or d) all of the above. During my years there, there was a story in the student newspaper about some jokester who’d spraypainted “Sluts -->” on the sidewalk outside one of the sorority houses; the sorority sisters were outraged, but the rest of the students were like, “this is news?” Especially when you hear about the sorority pictures where all the sisters are nude for the picture, outside in front of their house.

One of my college roommates belonged to a sorority her first couple of years, but “deactivated” (what a term, hey?) her Junior year because the fees were too expensive.

Wisconsin’s really too big and too diverse for the Greek system to really matter much. While you can be a Greek if you’d like, there’s tons of things to get involved in there, and no need to be a Greek before you can be involved. And I agree that if you were on any of Wisconsin’s athletic teams, you’d have very little time to get involved with a frat/sorority. That said, however, Wisconsin’s also pretty famous as a party school - perhaps people don’t join up because there’s no shortage of parties or drinking to be found, so no reason to join one.

38

My alma mater, Rice University, has banned all social Greek fraternities and sororities since its founding.

Instead, there is a robust College System, which is the centerpiece of undergrad life. Every undergraduate student is randomly assigned to one of the nine residential colleges (including students who live off-campus). If there is truly a bad fit, however, you can transfer from one college to another.

If you live on campus, you live in the actual college of which you are a member.

The colleges used to be segregated by sex, but they are all co-ed now.

It’s a neat system, and it works very well.

39

[QUOTE=Snickers]
Especially when you hear about the sorority pictures where all the sisters are nude for the picture, outside in front of their house.
[/QUOTE]

makes mental note to move to Madison

40

[QUOTE=Eva Luna]
I think my school had a total of one frat with maybe a couple of dozen members. (Most of the schools I looked at seriously didn’t have a big Greek system; to me, the lack of frats was a BIG plus.) Then again, it was a large private university in the middle of NYC, so it’s not like anyone needed to depend on the university in order to have a social life.

My younger sister went to a large campus of our state university, and became a Little Sister at a frat (I don’t remember which one). Let’s just say that her experience there didn’t do much to improve my opinion of the Greek system. She spent her entire first semester pretty much either drunk or stoned, and dropped out after ending up with a 0.8 GPA (on a 5-point scale).

Would she have gotten into trouble anyway? Probably, but why encourage it?
[/QUOTE]

This is why (or at least part of why) my alma mater had pushed Rush from First Semester Freshmen to Second Semester before I got there, and pushed it to Sophomore year while I was a student. They also banned Freshmen from being physically present in a Fraternity or Sorority House or Party for the first 3 months or so of the school year.

When I went, about 25% of the men, and 30% of the women were Greek. I wasn’t and hardly noticed the Greek presence.