Rankings?

[Tom Earp]

My golden Angle, once again you prove youself to be the Greatest!

Damn I wish you were a LXA!

Who can take your place as the knowledgeable go to the great Alum in the Sky!

Some have lived it in a breif span of time and others are just stating!

God Bless us All!

[Pi Kapp 142]

Indiana's Center for the study of Fraternities will do this for you (sort of, it looks like it stays confidentiol). Try here and go to the section titled "Evaluations".

[bolingbaker]

refering to the Indiana link as a rankings source. That is a great resource, but do not confuse their internal 'evaluations' with what Wilson Heller created and promoted. The 'evaluations' are internal, and have to do with enhancing the quality of the undergraduate experience. This is very valuable, but it does not address how a particular fraternity or sorority is perceived among peers. Heller's survey, also extremely valuable and useful, was based strictly on external perception. His catchphrase was "prominence, power & prestige". No one does this anymore, but it's a simple mechanical process can be accomplished on any given campus. In practical terms, it's most useful in allowing an 'underperforming' organization to see where they stand in the eyes of their peers, and by extension, the potential rushees.

[DRau]

Well I think that ranking national organizations is nearly IMPOSSIBLE, despite any previous attemps that have been made. You can measure how much money one foundation brings in or how many initiated members there are, but what does that really say??? I don't want to offend anybody by saying this but I've had friends make some pretty snide comments about some of those particular houses that were found to be 'top' [KKG, Chi-O, SAE and Sigma Chi) on their particular campuses.

Every campus and every individual has a different opinion of what makes a house 'good'. My favorite frats, both from my campus and others, weren't always the strongest in terms of numbers, campus presence or parties, but it was the men that made them up and what kind of people they were. Again, this is an ever-changing variable.

I think you can rank sororities the same way.

Love & AOE from the Pacific Coast

[shultzz]

Originally posted by Erik P Conard

Please post this in Pi Kappa Alpha site, too....
WILSON BENTON HELLER was born in NE 1 Aug 1893.

Did you go to school with him?

[TNAndy]

I am told that Heller simply continued the ranking system started by William R. Baird, the same one who wrote the first few editions of Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities. During the hundred or so years the rankings were performed, I understand that one fraternity came out on top with an almost embarassing frequency. I don't want to start a flame war, and the latest rankings are about 20 years obsolete now, so I won't bother saying which one it was.

The bottom line is that whatever rankings there were had to be somewhat subjective, and thus should not be relied upon to make life-long decisions. As we repeat to every rushee that will listen, "All fraternities are good fraternities". Is there a best fraternity? Sure there is--the one that's best for you. Seek and ye shall find.

[hoosier]

I doubt the accuracy of this, but ole Eric may know.

The Bairds and Bantas were the revered Gods of the Fraternity World.

I doubt that Wilson Heller continued anything started by Baird, although he frequently commented that the first few issues of Baird's Manual were good - usually in the context that the later issues were useless and inaccurate.

[CarolinaDG]

I went into one of my pledge sisters rooms one day, and taped to the wall, her roommate (of a different sorority) had this:

Fraternities we'll mix with:
Sigma Chi
Lambda Chi
Sigma Nu
Sig Ep
Pi Kapp
Fraternities that won't talk to us:
Sigma Alpha Epsilon
Kappa Alpha Order
Alpha Tau Omega
Fraternities that we don't mix with: (I won't reveal what this list was;-)

Unfortunately, a Chi Psi (the fraternity that we were doing homecoming with this past year) came up to the room with one of my pledge sisters and found this list. They weren't listed at all (not even in the "fraternities we don't mix with") so he was pretty ticked, and brought the list back to the fraternity hall and showed it to his brothers. Even more unfortunately, when I went up there for homecoming business, he spewed off about how stuck-up sorority girls were, etc, etc... Ever since then I try not to say what my "favorite" fraternity is. I'll say stuff like, "Yeah, I had SO much fun at Carolina Cup with the Sig Eps" or "The Sigma Chi's were SO nice to me the other night when I was on the hall." I figure I wouldn't like it if some fraternity guy kept telling me how KD was his "favorite sorority" right in front of me (even though I love them, TOO!) I figure I get along with different fraternities than some of my sisters do, for different reasons, and everyone should keep that open of a mind.

[TKEmz894]

Dont they have a TKE chapter there, are they one of the ones yall dont mix with? It doesnt matter either way I was just curious?

[CarolinaDG]

Yeah, actually, there is a TKE chapter... keep in mind that this wasn't my sorority that did the list, please!:-) But, I left it off accidentally. They actually do mix with TKE.

[TKEmz894]

Thats good to hear......

[CarolinaDG]

George Banta was DG! Woo hoo! (Just brought that up since you brought up the "Gods of the fraternity world')

[dggirly]

I think it is really hard to rank houses at your school only because some houses have problems with other houses, so if you talk to memebers of those houses then you might get a lower impression of them, but the house could stil be a good house. Sorry that sounds a little confusing but I hope you all understand! I really think if you plan on ranking houses at your school you need to look at numbers each house gets during rush, when the fraternities ask sororities for exchanges do the sororites say yes(well at my school at least), and lastly the houses who have a ton of spirt, and people always want to be aound the particular fraternity or sorority. I have heard so many people rank people at my school differntly that it really depends on if you are talking to older members or younger members! Houses can change positions so quickly too that it is almost stupid to say who is the best and who is the worst!!

[DRau]

Originally posted by CarolinaDG
I went into one of my pledge sisters rooms one day, and taped to the wall, her roommate (of a different sorority) had this:

Fraternities we'll mix with:
Sigma Chi
Lambda Chi
Sigma Nu
Sig Ep
Pi Kapp
Fraternities that won't talk to us:
Sigma Alpha Epsilon
Kappa Alpha Order
Alpha Tau Omega
Fraternities that we don't mix with: (I won't reveal what this list was;-)

I have to ask... why would anybody even THINK that putting something like this down on paper is a good idea.... and then to put it on your dorm room wall? Did she need to check every day which fraternities she can 'mix with'? Sorry, just strikes me as really weird....

CIAO

[SigmaChiCard]

#1 Sigma Chi
#2 everyone else