UGa Greeks have top grades
 

News
Greek grades top campus average

By ABIGAIL SMITH
Published , January 29, 2003, 12:00:01 PM EDT

If you want to raise your GPA, join a Greek organization.

The average U. GA Greek GPA for fall semester was more than a tenth of a point higher than the overall undergraduate population's average.

The sorority average was 3.29, versus 3.18 for the all women's average, and fraternities averaged 2.97 versus the all men's average of 2.92.

Alpha Chi Omega and Sigma Delta Tau tied for first among the sororities with an average GPA of 3.43.

Sigma Phi Epsilon had the highest average GPA among fraternities with a 3.30.

"The guys know how seriously we take grades," said Vinny Lotti, a senior from Hampton and president of Sigma Phi Epsilon.

"We've always finished in the top three for grades, but we've always fallen short of first," he said.

TOP 5 GREEK GPAS
Fraternities

1. Sigma Phi Epsilon - 3.3

2. Alpha Epsilon Pi - 3.22

3. Phi Gamma Delta - 3.21

4. Delta Tau Delta - 3.18

5. Tau Epsilon Phi - 3.17

Sororities

1. Alpha Chi Omega - 3.43

1. Sigma Delta Tau - 3.43

3. Phi Mu - 3.41

4. Delta Delta Delta - 3.38

5. Alpha Omicron Pi - 3.35


Lotti said the fraternity has a system of academic policies and restrictions for members who don't meet the grade requirements, which helps motivate the brothers to do well.

"(None of) the guys want to be the one who (is thinking) just because of my GPA, I've let everyone else down," he said.

Making good grades is all part of being a "balanced man" -- a key part of Sigma Phi Epsilon, he said.

"We stress being a balanced man," Lotti said. "You can throw a great party and do well at sports, but if you can't hold an intelligent conversation you're not a balanced man."

Philip Borgia, a junior risk management major from Marietta, is the academic chair for Sigma Phi Epsilon.

Borgia said he enforces any penalties a member may receive for poor grades and also maintains a "test bank" of old notes and tests from classes that members can use.

"I'm very, very happy about being first," he said. "We really enforced (the penalties) hard and stressed grades."

Having a member in a position to monitor the grades of the organization is common.

Zeta Tau Alpha has a scholarship chairperson whose sole job is to promote scholarship in the sorority, said Zeta Tau Alpha president Stephanie Hawkins, a junior from Marietta majoring in speech communication and minoring in Spanish.

"We give a 'Smarty-Pants' award each week to someone who has made an 'A' on a test," she said. "And we have test files where we keep all of the old notes for classes."

Hawkins' sorority finished sixth among the sororities with an average GPA of 3.34.

"We're definitely excited about it," she said. "We're hoping to get even stronger. We're going for first place this semester."

Making good grades helps improve the image of Greeks that outsiders have, Hawkins said.

"One great thing about grades is there is a lot of criticism of the Greek community," she said. "But grades they can't take away."

Good news but.....
 

At least in my experience, most of the greeks do not have to hold jobs while in college. Most of the people I know who are greek are in school full time and while they are really busy, they don't have to work a real job unless it's summer or spring break or something. I think at a lot of big schools, that has a lot to do with it. Especially if you consider the cost of belonging to a group-you have to be pretty well off initially or have mad loans to even be greek at most schools. Now I know it is not like this at EVERY school, and I know every chapter has people who work. But seriously, there's something to the stereotype that rich kids get to be greek more often than the ones who are wokring full time. I know girls who can't even take off a week to rush even if they could afford it afterwards. Just something to think about before we all think we are so much smarter:)
Good to hear that grades are important though!

Re: Good news but.....
 

Every single one of my sisters is working while at college. We are by NO means rich, most of us paying our dues in installments. I would think that greeks would have a strong work ethic and want to work, after all we do so much work for our organizations as it is. why not get some extra work experience while in college, pllus, a little money never hurt anyone.

Re: Good news but.....
 

almost every person I know that is greek works at least a few hours a week (at the least).

-just for the other side of the spectrum....

Great point, Blue Violet. The last time I cited that famous statistic we Greeks like to throw out, my partner reminded me that very few Greeks at my school work. I know that there are exceptions to the rule everywhere, but we have to think about that.

hmm, not to be a downer but...
 

if you have a group which requires a certain minimum grade point to join, you already skew that population to a higher potential grade point average than the university as a whole. It isn't an apples and apples comparison. While I applaud the organizations for their high GPA, I don't agree that joinging a sorority is necessarily a ticket to higher GPA.

I'm not surprised by these grades! It's WAY hard to even get into UGA. I know people with 1100s on their SATs and 3.5 GPAs who didn't get in. Last fall I was having a fit because a beautiful, sweet girl who was a National Merit Finalist got cut heavily in recruitment and someone there reminded me that loads of the PNMs are National Merit Finalists--they're like a dime a dozen at UGA. And I know that most of them are gorgeous too--I've seen the PNMs waiting outside for the parties to begin.

Not sure where I read it (I think on the NIC website), but "most" fraternity members have at least part time jobs.

Why do the sororities score higher GPA's than the fraternities? :confused:

frat boys drink more of the "beer." lol

Really though, I don't know, and not a single person, hear me now, a SINGLE person bring up the argument that men aren't as smart as women......if you do, you lose points, lots of points.

lol!

Probably because the sorority chapters are more even in size. The fraternities, if UGA is like most big campuses, can range from 20 to 200 members.

Re: Good news but.....
 

As an advisor to the DZ chapter at UGA, I can tell you that most of my girls have part-time jobs -- some even have full-time jobs. The same was true at my chapter. During my senior year, I was president of the sorority, took an overload of courses, and still worked 20-25 hours a week at a retail store. And most of my sisters held offices, jobs, and participated in extracurricular activities, too -- all while maintaining high GPA's. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that being Greek means that you have to be able to manage your time efficiently. If you can do this, then you can successfully juggle a multitude of things during college.

When i first heard abt formal recruitment at school i didnt plan on going b/c i was under the impression that b/c i wasn't rich, and have to work through college i wouldn't be able to participate in greek life. I was totally wrong. I work and i'm on a payment plan. Another good idea that i'm totally gonna do next fall is save up money from my summer job and pay in one big installment that way when winter semester rolls around i don't have to come up with cash b/c campus jobs just don't pay that much. As for the gpa thing..i think its just as hard for a greek without a job and a student with a job to get good grades..being greek takes up alot of time just as much if not more than having a job would...factor in the number of greeks that are both students and job holders and the high gpa's are pretty impressive in my book.
p.s phi sig has the overall highest greek gpa on campus