Greek Life in the Ivy League

[RedRover]

I understand that there is Greek Life at some of the Ivy League universities. How would one rate the eight schools from the most Greek-oriented to the least. Just curious

[DartmouthPanhel]

Dartmouth is a HUGE greek school. We have deferred recruitment, but more than 65% of eligible students are affiliated. It's a big deal on our campus.

The other two schools with big greek systems are Cornell and Penn. I think that the affiliation rate is pretty high at both those schools as well.

Other Ivies have greek systems, but most are small, underground or not college recognized.

[ThetaDancer]

I would say that Greek life at Cornell has a strong, very visible presence. We also have deferred, fairly competitive recruitment and a high participation rate. I guess I wouldn't know how to really rate that relative to other schools but I hope that helps.

ETA: To be clear, Cornell's recruitment is only deferred 1 semester, whereas I believe at Dartmouth it's deferred until sophomore year (but please correct me if I'm wrong).

[Munchkin03]

I would say that, Dartmouth, Cornell, and Penn's Greek systems are closest to "traditional," in terms of the influence they have on campus, housing, and relationship to the administrations. It looks like there are people from Dartmouth and Cornell who can say a lot more, so I will let them do so.

Greek life at Columbia is pretty popular, but is dampened somewhat by the fact that it's in NYC. I believe all of the chapters except one is housed, in houses close to campus that they own themselves. Women's sorority recruitment is during first semester.

Brown has a pretty small Greek system that is given a lot of leeway by the University. All of the NIC/NPC chapters are housed on campus, and have been since the 1950s. Rush is deferred until the Spring semester.

I don't know that much about Yale's Greek Life.

Harvard and Princeton do not officially recognize Greek Life, but there are NIC, NPC, and NPHC chapters at each school that are well-known and thriving.

[exlurker]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

. . . Greek life at Columbia is pretty popular, but is dampened somewhat by the fact that it's in NYC. I believe all of the chapters except one is housed, in houses close to campus that they own themselves. Women's sorority recruitment is during first semester. . . .

HI Munchkin03:

The "Go Greek" section of Columbia's Greek life site says:

"A woman is eligible to participate in Formal Recruitment and join a sorority if she is enrolled at Columbia University as a full-time student and has completed one full academic semester of coursework. First semester freshmen are ineligible."

As I understand it -- and as last year's dates for formal indicate -- NPC formal recruitment is now held in second semester. That may have been a change from previous years.

I haven't been able to locate Columbia's dates for formal in 2010, and I've searched moderately hard a couple of times so I could report to irishpipes. I'm thinking either 1) I'm searching too sloppily and stupidly; or B) "they" haven't updated the relevant parts of their site quite yet.

The smart money is on 1) above.

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by exlurker

As I understand it -- and as last year's dates for formal indicate -- NPC formal recruitment is now held in second semester. That may have been a change from previous years.

I haven't been able to locate Columbia's dates for formal in 2010, and I've searched moderately hard a couple of times so I could report to irishpipes. I'm thinking either 1) I'm searching too sloppily and stupidly; or B) "they" haven't updated the relevant parts of their site quite yet.

The smart money is on 1) above.

Thanks for the update! I helped out with recruitment in 2003 and 2004; at that time it was first semester, and freshmen were allowed to rush. I know there was some chatter about deferring recruitment at that time, but wasn't sure if it had changed. I am not an active Columbia alumna (it was grad school, after all). So like I said, my information may be outdated to some extent.

I wouldn't be surprised if "they" don't update their Greek Life website as much as say an Auburn or Ole Miss. I think a lot more of the information is through word of mouth and information posted on campus boards, etc. So, you are probably searching just fine.

Originally Posted by 33girl

There was a hazing or drinking issue some years back which I think is what put the kibosh on the "moving right into the house" concept.

Yeah, there was a freshman who died of alcohol poisoning, which got people all heated up about moving right into the house. During a risk management session in college, they made us listen to the 911 call that the guys made when it became evident that he wasn't waking up. Gross.

[AGDee]

Taking copious notes since my daughter is really hoping to go to Columbia or Cornell (her first choice is Columbia, her more realistic option is Cornell). She considers Michigan her safety school (and my only current hope for her to be an Alpha Gam). Yes, she's a maniac.

[Boodleboy322]

Yale has a really small Greek Life that is almost non-existent. There are probably about 8 fraternities on Campus and about 3 sororities.

There are 5 Secret Societies at Yale that include Scroll and Key, Book and Snake, Wolf's Head, The Order of the File and Claw and of course Skull and Bones Society.

Regards,

Boodleboy322

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

I don't know that much about Yale's Greek Life.

[Psi U MC Vito]

I would just like to say that the Columbia houses are actually owned by the school, not the orgs.

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by Psi U MC Vito

I would just like to say that the Columbia houses are actually owned by the school, not the orgs.

Maybe for your organization. I attended Columbia as a graduate student not too long ago and was briefly involved with the Housing Corporation which was working to buy my sorority's CU chapter a house in the same area as the rest of the Greek houses. They were unhoused as of May 2009 and are working on it, but brownstones in Manhattan are expensive!

[Psi U MC Vito]

From what I understand the current houses are all owned by CU and run as dorms. Again I just know this for a fact for our lambda chapter, but that was the impression I got from them about all of them. Maybe the older ones are CU owned?

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by Psi U MC Vito

From what I understand the current houses are all owned by CU and run as dorms. Again I just know this for a fact for our lambda chapter, but that was the impression I got from them about all of them. Maybe the older ones are CU owned?

That may be the case. My knowledge is about 4 years old, so take that as you will. I know that again, not all the sororities are housed in part because of the price of real estate. If the U. owned the houses, that wouldn't be as much of an issue.

[Psi U MC Vito]

I agree but some of the houses predate WWII. I remember hearing that the Lambda chapter sold their house to CU during the war, and I assume that a lot of the others did the same. That can be it.

[Munchkin03]

There's a lot of apocrypha that goes on about Greek Life on any campus (hence why it's so damned hard for us to stop that stupid brothel law rumor!), so it's hard to know how much of that's true without doing a ton of research. A lot of stories, legends, and flat-out lies have been spread from generation to generation. If I didn't previously work for a firm that did a lot of work on Columbia's physical plant, and if I hadn't spent a brief amount of time working with the Housing Corp., I would probably agree with a lot of what you said.

I wrote my senior thesis on the postwar architectural program of my college (not Columbia). Some--not all of the fraternities--did indeed sell their houses to the University in order to be able to move to the new Greek housing, but there was so much hearsay about why they did it, and for how much, that I couldn't confirm without reviewing property records. It had nothing to do with the war, but a changing attitude of what it meant to be in a college fraternity throughout the country.

[naraht]

Alpha Phi Omega has chapters at Cornell, Penn and Yale, we have inactive chapters at Brown, Columbia and Princeton. No clue why we haven't gone to Dartmouth and as for Harvard, our bylaws require that for a chapter to be at a school it must be recognized by the administration. However should Harvard change their rules enough to allow Alpha Phi Omega on campus, we have a strong chapter at MIT and experienced staffers in Boston who would jump at the chance to go.