Greek Life at "New Ivies" (as Newsweek calls them)
 

The August 21 - 28 issue of Newsweek has, as part of the Newsweek - Kaplan college information, an article on 25 "new Ivies," selective schools that the article says have great academics, etc.

See: http://www.msnbc.com/id/14325172/

(If the link takes you to MSNBC, then click on their link to Newsweek. In Newsweek's list of contents, you can look for the article title "America's 25 Elite New 'Ivies.' ")

Interestingly, I think at least 15 of the 25 have chapters of national fraternities and / or sororities. (I think a couple have national fraternities, but local sororities or the equivalent.)

The 15 that I believe have national Greek chapters are

Carnegie Mellon
Colgate
Davidson College (fraternities, and "eating houses" for women)
Emory
Kenyon College (national fraternities and local sororities)
U. of Michigan at Ann Arbor
NYU
U. of North Carolina - Chapel HIll
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute ("RPI")
U. of Rochester
Tufts
UCLA
Vanderbilt
U. of Virginia
Washington U. - St. Louis

The others on the list, which I don't think have national Greek life (and some very probably never will) are

Boston College
Bowdoin College
Claremont Colleges (Harvey Mudd and Pomona)
Colby
Macalester
Notre Dame
Olin College of Engineering
Reed College
Rice
Skidmore College

The schools on this Newsweek-Kaplan list might get a boost in applications from the publicity. As far as Greek life goes, it's probably stronger at some of the schools than it is at others. (How's that for waffling?)

Current students and graduates of these schools might want to share their thoughts.

When they say "Ivies" I assume they're talking about the quality of the academics only...

because some of those schools definitely don't have the other things that you think of when you say "Ivy League."

As a proud University of Rochester grad, I can tell you that Greek Life is alive and well. The chapters aren't huge (we were around 50-55 women every year), but their presence is strong.

U of R is a fantastic school and I'm glad it's finally getting some recognition. Now if they could only do something about the weather up there...

Ivies sound like a bad rash?

:o

Everyone has a reason for proposing a survey dont they? Wonder what theirs is?

I'm surprised they left off Texas.....we have long been considered a Public Ivy.....usually in the same group as Virginia and North Carolina.

Saw this on a college search website
 

2007 USNews Rankings (Leaked)
Here are the leaked 2007 USNews Rankings (with change in position from previous year for each school).

1. Princeton 0
2. Harvard -1
3. Yale 0
3. Penn +1
5. Stanford 0
5. MIT +2
7. Duke -2
7. Columbia +2
7. Caltech 0
10. Dartmouth -1
10. WUSTL +1
12. Northwestern 0
13. JHU 0
13.Brown +2
15. Cornell -2
16. Chicago -1
17. Rice 0
18. Emory +2
18. Berkeley +2
20. Vandy -2
21. ND -3
22. Gtown +1
22. CMU 0
24. UVA -1
24.UCLA +1
24.UMICH +1
27. Tufts 0
27. UNC 0
29. Wake -2
29. W&M +2
31. Lehigh 0
31. UCSD 0
31. Brandeis +3
34. USC -4
34. Rochester 0
36. Wisconsin -2
37. NYU 0
37. Case 0
39. BC +1
39. GTech -2
41. Irvine -1
41. RPI +2
41. Illinois +1
44. UCSB +1
44. Washington +1
44. Yeshiva +1
47. PSU +1
48. Davis 0
48. Syracuse +2
50. Tulane -7
50. Florida 0
50. UT +2

alum, can you remember what these rankings are based on?

For 2006 edition:
Rank is based on highest overall score which is a composite score of Peer Assessment Score,
Graduation and Retention Rank,
Average Freshman Retention Rate, 2004
Predicted Graduation Rank, 2004
Actual Graduation Rate, 2004
overperformance/underperformance of predicted vs actual
Faculty Resources Rank,
% of classes under 20 in 2004,
% of classes with 50 or more in 2004,
Student/Faculty Ratio 2004,
% of faculty who are full-time 2004,
Selectivity Rank,
SAT 25th-75th percentile 2004,
Freshmen in top 10% of HS Class,
Acceptance Rate 2004,
Financial Resources Rank,
Alumni Giving Rank,
Average Alumni Giving Rate

And here are the top national liberal arts colleges....

LACS:

1. Williams
2. Amherst
3. Swarthmore
4 Wellesley
5. Pomona
6. Carleton
7. Bowdoin
8. Haverford/Middlebury
10. CMC/Davidson
12. Wesleyan/Washington and Lee
14. Colgate/Grinnell
16. Hamilton/Vassar
18. Harvey Mudd/Smith
20. Colby
21. Bates/Bryn Mawr/MHC
24. Oberlin
25 Macalester

im sure ive mentioned this before...

when i got to NYU, student life in general was kinda the pits, it seemed. my sophomore year, the school admin seemed to try a 180 with all aspects of student life - residential living (being that we have exponentially become a residential school in the past 10-15 years), campus life (creating "campus community) and greek life. over the 4 years i was there, i think its making a big shift - with the students who embrace it. not everyone is gonna get on the "rah rah, sis-koomba" attitude of college BFFs and school spirit.

re: greek life - from the greeks i knew, they said that "back in the day" (early-mid 90s) according to older chapter members that greek life was bigger (surely not as huge as some big greek state schools) and better, and that the late 90s, it kinda fell, due to greeks getting downsized from housing (word is, greeks had their own building, then got downsided to a wing of an upperclass dorm, and now are currently in penthouse suites in another upperclass dorm. (and i think its only 4 organizations that have "houses") makes it hard to party when your "house" is a 3-bedroom suite in chinatown.

greeks @ NYU (those marked with an * are the ones im 99% sure are nat'l and correct me if im wrong and the rest being locals)
alpha Kappa Delta Phi, Historically Asian/Asian American Sorority*
Kappa Phi Lambda, Historically Asian/Asian American Sorority*
Sigma Iota Alpha, Historically Latina/Hispanic Sorority*
Lambda Pi Upsilon, Historically Latina/Hispanic Sorority
Alpha Epsilon Phi*
Alpha Phi Zeta
Alpha Sigma Tau*
Delta Phi Epsilon*
Kappa Psi Delta
Theta Phi Beta
Zeta Sigma Phi
Alpha Epsilon Pi*
Delta Kappa Epsilon
Delta Lambda Phi, colony
Delta Phi
Iota Nu Delta
Lambda Phi Epsilon*
Phi Gamma Delta*
Phi Iota Alpha*
Pi Delta Psi
Pi Kappa Alpha*
Sigma Alpha Mu*
Sigma Phi Epsilon*
Tau Kappa Epsilon*
Zeta Psi

as for NPHC, no chapters on campus. there *was* talk about bringing Alphas to campus, but i dont see it happening. as for having a campus presence, you may see an AKA here or there. Deltas, i see coming up. Kappas, maybe. youre more likely to see an NPHC member as a grad student. Lambda Pi Chi, Lambda Upsilon Lambda, and Sigma Lambda Upsilon are around as well.

I could definitely see greek life on the up-and-up in the next 10 years there.

These three fraternities are NIC members.

Delta Kappa Epsilon
Delta Phi
Zeta Psi

I beleive that Delta Lambda Phi and Iota Nu Delta are inter/national as well.

Seeing Wisconsin on that list is very surprising. They must have cleaned up their act in recent years. Growing up, they were the tri-state area's big party school. Anyone who could read and/or write could get in.

It's the US News rankings. They are basically useless.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/13/tim....tm/index.html

Made me think of this thread.

wow...good read. Sort of reminded me of why I chose to go to Otterbein.

Yeah, I remember Greek life being bigger and more apparent in the late 80's - early 90's. Even though many of the NPHC UG chapters here are City-wide, the presence was always there nonetheless. You might have seen only one AKA @ NYU, but you knew that there were about 3-4 @ Columbia and so forth in the same chapter. My UG school actually had an NPHC chapter there, but I believe it may have been dissolved due to lack of members over the last few years. :( Now when you hear about NPHC events in the city, it's usually hosted by a graduate/alumni/alumnae chapter.

This is the list of "Colleges That Change Lives". There are truly some hidden gems here. I know that Centre, Denison have recognized GLOs in their student organizations. Reed: definitely not. Agnes Scott and Wabash are single-sex (F, M respectively). The Wheaton that is mentioned is the IL college, not the MA one. You'll have to do the research on the rest

Agnes Scott College
Allegheny College
Antioch College
Austin College
Beloit College
Birmingham-Southern College
Centre College
Clark University
College of Wooster
Cornell College
Denison University
Earlham College
Eckerd College
Emory & Henry College
The Evergreen State College
Goucher College
Guilford College
Hampshire College
Hendrix College
Hiram College
Hope College
Juniata College
Kalamazoo College
Knox College
Lawrence University
Lynchburg College
Marlboro College
McDaniel College
Millsaps College
New College of Florida
Ohio Wesleyan University
Reed College
Rhodes College
Southwestern University
St. John's College
St. Olaf College
Ursinus College
Wabash College
Wheaton College
Whitman College

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
 

As a student of the University of Michigan, I know that Greek Life is a vital part of the campus community -- at a school of over 40,000, it's just HUGE. The following are the lists of current GLOs at UM by Council (not including local GLOs):

Interfraternity Council
* Alpha Delta Phi
* Alpha Epsilon Pi
* Alpha Sigma Phi
* Beta Theta Pi
* Chi Phi
* Chi Psi
* Delta Chi
* Delta Kappa Epsilon
* Delta Tau Delta-expanding Fall 2006
* Delta Upsilon
* Kappa Sigma
* Lambda Chi Alpha
* Phi Delta Theta
* Phi Gamma Delta
* Phi Kappa Psi
* Pi Kappa Alpha
* Pi Kappa Phi
* Pi Lambda Phi-expansion chapter
* Psi Upsilon
* Sigma Alpha Epsilon
* Sigma Alpha Mu
* Sigma Nu
* Sigma Phi
* Sigma Phi Epsilon
* Sigma Pi - expanding Fall 2006
* Theta Chi
* Theta Xi
* Triangle
* Zeta Beta Tau-suspended pending review 12/06
* Zeta Psi

Panhellenic Association
* Alpha Chi Omega
* Alpha Delta Pi
* Alpha Gamma Delta
* Alpha Phi
* Chi Omega
* Delta Delta Delta
* Delta Gamma
* Delta Phi Epsilon
* Gamma Phi Beta
* Kappa Alpha Theta
* Kappa Kappa Gamma
* Pi Beta Phi
* Sigma Delta Tau
* Sigma Kappa

National Pan-Hellenic Council
* Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
* Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
* Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc.
* Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.
* Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.
* Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.
* Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.
* Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.

Multicultural Greek Council
* alpha Kappa Delta Phi
* Delta Theta Psi
* Kappa Phi Lambda
* Lambda Phi Epsilon
* Pi Alpha Phi
* Sigma Lambda Beta
* Sigma Lambda Gamma
* Zeta Sigma Chi
*Lambda Theta Alpha


GO BLUE~!

allegheny recognizes greek life. Good school, beautiful (HILLY!) campus, have a lot of friends who go there.

Wabash (on the Colleges that Change Lives list that alum posted) has 10 fraternities; the school says about 70 % of the students are greek.

http://www.wabash.edu/students/frats.cfm

They did have greek life at one point...its where we were founded! but you are right that they probably won't have it again.

I'm not surprised about this at all. Both Wabash and Hampden-Sydney are all-male and I knew HSC had a high greek percentage.

For some of them, yeah it's just academic quality. But most of them have very competitive admissions, competitive academics, and a large percentage of students continuing on to graduate schools. There are a few that I question as "New Ivies" but many of the ones on the list really are that good. Also, their names look pretty good to grad schools admissions officers.

Greek life probably varies quite a bit from school to school...I guess that's all I know about this though.

I'm just so glad that we have another thread where we can discuss how elite everyone is or isn't.

UTexas > You.

Oh, I forgot, the ridiculous prices of some of those schools compare with the ivies...some are almost $50,000 a year :eek:

Schools charge what the market will bear. Remember that private schools don't get subsidies and funding from a state's coffers as do publics.

Where I grew up and where I live now (2 VERY different areas), parents will gladly (maybe more willingly than gladly) pay full coat of attendance (COA) if it's the best fit for their kid. For us, the flagship public universities in our current state (and we have 2 in the top 30) just didn't "fit" with our oldest. Some kids just want a science/math driven curriculum like MIT, Caltech, some want Ivy only, some want a prestigious LAC. Still others want the bigger state school. It is up to the parents and the applicant to find the best fit for which the parent is willing to pay.

aKDPhi has 43 chapters nationally
KPL has 24 chapters nationally
IND is a historically South Asian based Fraternity with about 12-14 chapters
LPhiE is the largest Historically Asian/Asian American Fraternity with about 46 chapters
PDPsi, my organization, has 20 chapters nationally.

With the exception of IND, all of those above would be considered national by Asian Greek standards.

Just some info. :D

My college (Otterbein) is about 27,000 a year. But, I end up paying less to go there and live in than I would going to a PA state school and living in, because I qualified for merit aid. State schools didn't offer me any merit aid, and I was out of the "need" aid range. But OC offered me several sizeable scholarships that brought my costs down to about 7 a year. And the education was/is exactly what I was looking for...small classes, professors not TA's, small campus, campus "feel", and a real campus community. I didn't feel any of those at the state schools I got accepted to, nor some of the more "elite" private schools I was accepted by. I can honestly say that I do not regret my decision in the least, and the above is pretty spot on.

PA is absolutely correct. Merit aid is another wonderful thing that not enough parents/students research while looking at schools. For middle-class earners who have been diligent about saving, the EFC is going to be quite high, in many cases greater than a year of salary. When the EFC is greater than the COA, the student won't get any need-based aid.

We have friends whose son got a full-tuition merit scholarship to RPI for 4 years. He would not have gotten one from MIT etc, simply because MIT doesn't provide them.

When a student is looking for colleges with an eye for merit aid, initially look at the mid 50% range for standardized tests. Look more closely at the schools where your SAT/ACT scores are higher than those of the schools' high end range. This is just a starting point.

Threads and articles like this make me laugh.

"Public Ivy," "Southern Ivy," "Near-Ivies," and "New Ivies." There are only eight schools that can be called Ivies...the rest are just really good schools, but to use the term "Ivy" doesn't celebrate the schools in their own rights. I think UT is an awesome school, but never would I call it a "Public Ivy." It's just a damned good school in an awesome town.

There are only about 20 schools that I would consider sending any mini-Munchkins to. I will not pay if they go to crappy schools!

Technically the Ivy League is just an athletic conference of certain midsize private schools.:)

As the alumna of two Ivy League schools (not to mention the semester abroad sponsored by a third), and as someone who was an athlete at the Division I level in undergrad, I am quite familiar with the details of the Ivy Group Agreement. :) No athletic scholarships here!

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/col...udoc_brief.php

First of all, your list is wrong. Here is the real list.

Second of all, the rankings are essentially set in intangible stone for the top 10 schools so these rankings are meaningless. Alums of these schools recruit grads from their schools and donate to make sure they schools can keep growing their ridiculously large endowments.

-Rudey

see, i kinda figured aKDPhi was national, along with LPhiE and KPL (but i was reluctant to say so because ive only seen/heard of them in NY.) I've seen IND at 2 campuses and never heard of PDPsi (no offense pal).

but props to all these orgs--and everyone's really.

us news and wold report also has separate lists for individual programs. does it ever seem to jive with the over list? i'm surprised michigan or berkeley aren't at the top (relatively to other schools) considering damn near every program (or at least the money-maker ones) they have is in like the top 10 according to the other lists.

Thanks Rudey for the accurate list.

For Michigan, I would guess that's because of the criteria that they base the overall score on:

Average Freshman Retention Rate, 2004 ** I know an awful lot of freshman don't make it past freshman year at Michigan

Faculty Resources Rank, *** Michigan has a lot of HUGE classes and undergrad courses are often taught by GAs/TAs rather than full time professors
% of classes under 20 in 2004,
% of classes with 50 or more in 2004,
Student/Faculty Ratio 2004,
% of faculty who are full-time 2004,

sounds like my alma mater. and program prestige has nothing to do with any of that. the overall rankings are usually craptastic, obviously. pay attention to individual program rankings.

And third of all, not all schools completely participate in the rankings. My alma mater, for example, only sends in limited information. I imagine it's the same thing with the law school rankings and grad school; it doesn't take regional factors and other issues into account. One example I constantly bring up is Suffolk Law, which is in the 70s for rankings, but has a really good reputation with Boston law firms and organizations. A good number of the managing partners, hiring partners and government lawyers attended Suffolk.

If you go to someplace like Williams, U of Chicago, etc., you don't need to know that your in whatever # place on US News. The reputation of the school speaks for itself.

I agree on the Ivies comment as well. There are the Ivies, and there are some good schools that aren't Ivies. I don't understand the whole "Almost Ivies," "Public Ivies," etc. A good school is a good school, and a strong alum base will help, Ivy or not.