Best schools for Greek Life...according to students
 

Here is how current students rate their colleges for Greek Life:
from collegeprowler.com


Rank College City, State
A+ Bucknell University Lewisburg, PA
A+ Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN
A+ Lehigh University Bethlehem, PA
A+ Washington and Lee University Lexington, VA
A+ University of Illinois Champaign, IL
A+ Wake Forest University Winston-Salem, NC
A Syracuse University Syracuse, NY
A University of Oklahoma Norman, OK
A Clemson University Clemson, SC
A University of Florida Gainesville, FL
A Louisiana State University Baton Rouge, LA
A Colgate University Hamilton, NY
A Elon University Elon, NC
A Duke University Durham, NC
A Dartmouth College Hanover, NH
A University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC
A University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI
A San Diego State University San Diego, CA
A Rollins College Winter Park, FL
A Texas Christian University Fort Worth, TX
A Valparaiso University Valparaiso, IN
A University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA
A College of William and Mary Williamsburg, VA
A University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA
A Gettysburg College Gettysburg, PA
A University of Richmond Richmond, VA
A University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, AL
A University of Mississippi Oxford, MS
A Pennsylvania State University State College, PA
A University of Georgia Athens, GA
A Southwestern University Georgetown, TX
A- University of Arizona Tucson, AZ
A- University of Wisconsin Madison, WI
A- Hamilton College Clinton, NY
A- Seton Hall University South Orange, NJ
A- Indiana University Bloomington, IN
A- Denison University Granville, OH
A- University of Washington Seattle, WA
A- MIT Cambridge, MA
A- Miami University of Ohio Oxford, OH
A- University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA
A- Dickinson College Carlisle, PA
A- Southern Methodist University Dallas, TX
A- Purdue University West Lafayette, IN
A- Furman University Greenville, SC
A- University of Colorado Boulder, CO
A- Lafayette College Easton, PA
A- University of Missouri Columbia, MO
A- Northwestern University Evanston, IL
A- University of Tennessee Knoxville, TN
A- Rhodes College Memphis, TN
A- Iowa State University Ames, IA
A- Franklin and Marshall College Lancaster, PA
A- Allegheny College Meadville, PA
A- Florida State University Tallahassee, FL
A- University of California, Riverside Riverside, CA
A- University of South Carolina Columbia, SC
B+ University of South Florida Tampa, FL
B+ Loyola Marymount University Los Angeles, CA
B+ Muhlenberg College Allentown, PA
B+ University of Texas Austin, TX
B+ Trinity University - Texas San Antonio, TX
B+ Drexel University Philadelphia, PA
B+ James Madison University Harrisonburg, VA
B+ Pepperdine University Malibu, CA
B+ University of Kentucky Lexington, KY
B+ Ohio University Athens, OH
B+ University of Maryland College Park, MD
B+ University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA
B+ Emory University Atlanta, GA
B+ University of Kansas Lawrence, KS
B+ Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester, NY
B+ University of Miami Coral Gables, FL
B+ Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA
B+ West Virginia University Morgantown, WV
B+ Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo, CA
B+ University of Denver Denver, CO
B+ Georgia Tech Atlanta, GA
B+ University of California, Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA
B+ University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, CA
B+ Depauw University Greencastle, IN
B+ Auburn University Auburn, AL
B+ Cornell University Ithaca, NY
B+ University of Delaware Newark, DE
B Washington University in St. Louis St. Louis, MO
B Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD
B Tulane University New Orleans, LA
B Rutgers University - New Brunswick New Brunswick, NJ
B University of San Diego San Diego, CA
B University of Rochester Rochester, NY
B University of Nebraska Lincoln, NE
B Union College Schenectady, NY
B Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, NY
B American University Washington, DC
B University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN
B Beloit College Beloit, WI
B Colorado College Colorado Springs, CO
B University of Central Florida Orlando, FL
B Michigan State University East Lansing, MI
B Texas A & M University College Station, TX
B Whitman College Walla Walla, WA
B- University of Vermont Burlington, VT
B- Kenyon College Gambier, OH
B- Trinity College - Connecticut Hartford, CT
B- University of Connecticut Storrs, CT
B- Stanford University Stanford, CA
B- Grove City College Grove City, PA
B- University of California, Santa Barbara Goleta, CA
B- Baylor University Waco, TX
B- University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA
B- SUNY Binghamton Binghamton, NY
B- Towson University Baltimore, MD
B- Hofstra University Hempstead, NY
B- George Washington University Washington, DC
B- Villanova University Villanova, PA
B- Davidson College Davidson, NC
B- Arizona State University Tempe, AZ
B- University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT
B- Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, OH
B- Babson College Babson Park, MA
C+ University of California, Davis Davis, CA
C+ SUNY Albany Albany, NY
C+ Brown University Providence, RI
C+ College of Wooster Wooster, OH
C+ University of California, Irvine Irvine, CA
C+ College of Charleston Charleston, SC
C+ Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA
C+ Duquesne University Pittsburgh, PA
C+ University of Rhode Island Kingston, RI
C+ University of Chicago Chicago, IL
C+ St Johns University Jamaica, NY
C+ Cal State - Northridge Northridge, CA
C+ Hampton University Hampton, VA
C+ Marquette University Milwaukee, WI
C+ University of New Hampshire Durham, NH
C+ University of Oregon Eugene, OR
C St Louis University St. Louis, MO
C Temple University Philadelphia, PA
C Wesleyan University Middletown, CT
C Loyola University - New Orleans New Orleans, LA
C University of Puget Sound Tacoma, WA
C Bentley College Waltham, MA
C Ohio State University Columbus, OH
C University of California, San Diego San Diego, CA
C- University of Iowa Iowa City, IA
C- SUNY Buffalo Buffalo, NY
C- Columbia University New York, NY
C- Princeton University Princeton, NJ
C- Tufts University Medford, MA
C- Brandeis University Waltham, MA
C- Northeastern University Boston, MA
C- University of California, Santa Cruz Santa Cruz, CA
C- SUNY Stony Brook Long Island, NY
C- Barnard College New York, NY
D+ Boston University Boston, MA
D+ Harvard University Cambridge, MA
D+ Pomona College Claremont, CA
D+ Yale University New Haven, CT
D+ McGill University Montreal, Quebec, AL
D+ University of San Francisco San Francisco, CA
D+ Emerson College Boston, MA
D+ Loyola University - Chicago Chicago, IL
D Swarthmore College Swarthmore, PA
D New York University New York, NY
D Ithaca College Ithaca, NY
D Wellesley College Wellesley, MA
D Occidental College Los Angeles, CA
D Santa Clara University Santa Clara, CA
D- Amherst College Amherst, MA
D- Rhode Island School of Design Providence, RI
N/A Xavier University Cincinnati, OH
N/A Smith College Northampton, MA
N/A Georgetown University Washington, DC
N/A University of Notre Dame South Bend, IN
N/A Macalester College St. Paul, MN
N/A Carleton College Northfield, MN
N/A Sarah Lawrence College Bronxville, NY
N/A Skidmore College Saratoga Springs, NY
N/A Guilford College Greensboro, NC
N/A Grinnell College Grinnell, IA
N/A Colby College Waterville, ME
N/A Boston College Chestnut Hill, MA
N/A West Point West Point, NY
N/A Bates College Lewiston, ME
N/A Loyola College - Maryland Baltimore, MD
N/A Brigham Young University Provo, UT
N/A Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr, PA
N/A Caltech Pasadena, CA
N/A Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY
N/A College of the Holy Cross Worcester, MA
N/A Harvey Mudd College Claremont, CA
N/A Connecticut College New London, CT
N/A Pitzer College Claremont, CA
N/A Scripps College Claremont, CA
N/A Fordham University Bronx, NY
N/A Lewis and Clark College Portland, OR
N/A Wheaton College (MA) Norton, MA
N/A Bowdoin College Brunswick, ME
N/A Bard College Annandale-On-Hudson, NY
N/A Geneva College Beaver Falls, PA
N/A Alfred University Alfred, NY
N/A Seattle University Seattle, WA
N/A Providence College Providence, RI
N/A Haverford College Haverford, PA
N/A Rice University Houston, TX
N/A Middlebury College Middlebury, VT
N/A Mount Holyoke College South Hadley, MA
N/A Oberlin College Oberlin, OH
N/A Williams College Williamstown, MA
N/A Reed College Portland, OR

Thanks for posting this, Jill! It's interesting to see how each campus grades themselves (and it's really exciting to see that my alma mater rated themselves as an A :))

My school got an A-...I personally think we deserve higher. We have an amazing Greek system.

A- University of Colorado Boulder, CO

LOLOLOLOLOLOL

What were they, DRUNK?!

"great" greek schools
 

whoever compiled this must either be brain dead or they have
never stepped foot on campus...some of the listed schools have
no greeks at all, and some have an extremely low % of greek
population. Duh

Yeah...whoever rated WVU as a B+ in terms of being a greek school must be brain dead.

The system here is so mismanaged that it's not even funny.

The current sororities won't even think about letting a new sorority on campus, even though there are plenty of girls willing to join and the fact that there is close to three times as many frats as sororities. Many girls just don't get bids b/c the houses get full.

The entire fraternity scene is a joke. Some frats can get away with selling crack and heroin out of their house, while other's get in trouble for having a keg. Instead of settling issues as they come up....they wait until something get's into such disasterous proportions that chapters get shut down.

IFC and Pan are run by the most un-organized space cadets that my school can find. Basically, you get no information about anything from them until like a day too late and you have to pay fines and run around like an idiot trying to fix the mess.

The system here is about a tenth of what it was twenty years ago. They seem dead set on making it worse.

LOL -- I was just about to say the same about Wisconsin's A-.

I would give us a solid B though.

Marquette's C+ is clearly a result of blatant grade inflation.

I feel as tho the University of Washington - Seattle is not an "A-" greek system. I'd give us more of a B+/B...

Oh well - I don't usually trust random rankings unless it includes sample size, margin of error, and maybe a t-score or two... :)

Arizona got and A-, which I think is fair...I'd say it used to be an A but we've definately slipped in the last few years...

Weird that they listed Barnard and Columbia separately and gave them separate grades.

Colgate an A? Hamilton an A-?

Hamilton took over the fraternity houses and barely recognizes that the fraternities exist off-campus and Colgate is in the process of taking over the fraternity houses. And some of those colleges with a "D" have no Greek life!

I was surprised that we only got an A- as well.

I'd like to know what the criteria were for this list.

There were a few interesting listings. For instance, Wellesley got a D despite not having a greek system, and as KLPDaisy pointed out, Barnard and Columbia are listed separately.

My school got an A-. I'd say that's a pretty fair assessment.

My school got a D+ which is higher than I would have thought...I thought we would have gotten an F easily, or at the very least an incomplete.

Re: "great" greek schools
 

[tangent]

Great to see you back Erik. Been thinking about you and hope you're doing well!

[/tangent]

Syracuse
 

My campus got an A. I'm a little surprised but seems about right. We have around 1300 sorority members. We have 11 sororities and 600PNM's went through recruitment last year (numbers have risen every year) and only about 30 ended up dropping out of recruitment or didn't receive a bid. The last time we lost a chapter was five years ago, but panhel invited another to come into the system.

However, I wonder if greek life will be as strong as the university continues to outbid for properties on greek row.

All right!!!!

U of A (where I was initiated) got an A-, but ASU (where I graduated) got a B-.

Hey, I'm happy, could have been worse. ;)

Although I'm surprised ASU only got a B- because just about 700-800 PNM's go through formal. But Crow is a bit (not much though) more supportive of greek life than Likens. (Now this is completely what I've heard through the grapevine from greeks on both campuses and plus my perceptions of Crow while I completed my last semester at ASU).

Good to see Denison on the list!

You guys, there's this amazing thing called "reading comprehension" -- you should work on that. The very first line of the first post says that this was based on students' votes, thus the entire criteria is how the school's students view their Greek systems. If the students are happy with it (which I'm guessing usually means a fairly large number of chapters, good parties/events that are open to the whole campus, minimal rules from the school, fairly good Greek/GDI relations or at least little Greek spillover to the rest of campus), it will probably receive a higher grade. There is no scientific criteria for this rating. It's not determined by experts, or pseudo-experts. It's just based on students' votes.

It didn't surprised me about Case Western Reserve University being on the list. Their Greek System is pretty solid.

Re: Best schools for Greek Life...according to students
 

I don't think they have greek life.

Some of the schools listed as N/A don't have Greek Life, I know Vassar doesn't.

I would guess that's why it's not applicable.

Why have them in the list at all then?

i started at the bottom expecting it to be near there, but we got an A-... what I want to know is this based on the whole student population, or the greek life population

Because their site tells about the "top 210 US colleges" and rates them all in all the categories.

http://www.collegeprowler.com/all_college_guides.asp

What jackass decided to omit George Mason University from this list entirely?

Granted, our Greek system could use some work but it's still fairly developed. Why we weren't put on the 210 at all really bugs me.

#1 most diverse school in the country
roughly 30,000 students
Excellent law school, economics program with nobel prize winning professors, #6 I/O Psychology graduate program in the nation...

and, we're getting a full-service Damon's Grill (sports restaurant/bar) in that'll be open in October. That's just plain cool.

Dude, you live on top of DC and you're excited about a DAMON'S? That's whack.

WHACK!!

Now this is getting serious isnt it?:D

Hee!

Although that ntn trivia stuff is nothing to joke about.

NTN Trivia is the greatest thing ever. Besides Naked Photo Hunt.

We voted last year about letting Zeta Delta Phi affiliate with Tri-Delt. All 8 sororities had to agree, and even if one said no, they weren't going to be allowed to come. From what I hear, not one person said yes. Our advisor strongly recommended we say no becaue quote would drop severely and we can't afford to do that.
Girls not receiving bids have nothing to do with houses getting full. Ceiling is 100, and you are allowed to have more than 100 girls if it's who you are accepting as part of quota.

I just find it odd b/c the zeta's (one chick was in rotc with me) went from just being founded to like 80 girls in two years. It doesn't really sound like a lack of numbers on campus, just another petty reason to not let some competition on.

I have no idea about the situation or this local, but even if they went from zero to 80 in 2 years, that's not a guarantee they would all stick around when they were colonized by Tri-Delt or whoever.

No, but it does indicate that there's a substantial number of interested women who aren't being served by the Panhellenic sororities presently there.

This is true as far as formal recruitment is concerned, but houses getting full certainly does have to do with bids being unavailable via informal recruitment, and the local members may be women for whom formal was a bad fit.

I completely understand why campus panhellenics control whether a national can come on campus to recruit for a ground-up colonization, but it does seem counterintuitive that where there's a large and growing local that wants to affiliate and an NPC that wants to take them on, the other groups on campus would say no. I mean, the local is going to exist regardless, and it's going to recruit regardless. To whatever extent the existing chapters would be harmed by a one-eighth drop in quota if Zeta joined DDD, aren't they equally harmed by a large local that can recruit PNMs all summer, give them gifts, etc.?

College Prowler is an interesting thing. Basically what College Prowler does is they search for someone to compile all their information, essentially it's their author b/c they come up with the introductions and synthesize all the information complied. With every section published in the book, the author has to get information. My friend was an author for my college and the way she got information was everywhere. One of the most unique concepts about college prowler is the students' response. I was part of the team that looked over general info and what not just to see if it was correct, just general stats here and there. My friend sent out emails to everyone with questionnaires (that college prowler provided, more like talking points) about various topics. I remember Greek Life was one of them. I remember the one question was what do you think of them? How does the campus think of Greek Orgs, etc...?

There were very vague questions and it depends what responses the author gets. I know that my friend tried to get opinions across the board so there is a balance, not an overwhelming attitude towards a subject.

My evasive point is that anyone can answer these questions if they can get their hands on them. I got the questionnaire and made a response based on essentially nothing b/c I was not exposed to Greek orgs that much, all I know it was not as stereotypical as first perceived and it didn't have much of a presence at my school. Also, if everyone thought Greek Life was atrocious and aligned it with the stereotype then the opinions are slanted and you may never know unless you go to that school. The answers and grades are not truly representative.

My friend did an awesome job on the book given of what she had to do and the resources available. I always think if you really want to see how things, go see it for yourself, don't rely on a grade to have the final say on what something is all about ;)

haha these are ridiculous rankings
This is how you do it:
SEC = A+
ACC = A
Wabash College = A
Miami at Oxford = A
All else, C's or below

I didn't know you were such an expert on Greek Life. :rolleyes:

I'm sure you didn't since you've never met me. These are obvious standards though. When greek life controls every social aspect of your school, you know it's good. When that same control is applied to about 1/3rd of the students, it's again, very good.