"Best" Colleges and their Greek Systems

[TSteven]

Sigma Chi Fraternity

Harvard - Kappa Eta (1992)
Princeton - Sigma (1869)
Yale - Theta Upsilon (1986)
Cal Tech - No Greek Life
MIT - Alpha Theta (1882)
Stanford - Alpha Omega (1891)
Penn - Phi Phi (1875)
Columbia - Nu Nu (1894)
Chicago - Omicron Omicron (1897)
Duke - Beta Lambda (1912)
Dartmouth - Eta Eta (1892-1960) inactive
Northwestern - Omega (1869)
Washington U. - Tau Tau (1903)
Johns Hopkins - Kappa Upsilon (2005)
Cornell - Alpha Phi (1890)
Brown - Beta Nu (1914)
Emory - Beta Chi (1921)
Rice - No Greek Life
Vanderbilt - Alpha Psi (1891)
Notre Dame - No Greek Life
California - Berkeley - Alpha Beta (1886)
Carnegie Mellon - Colonizing Fall of 2010
Georgetown - no Sig chapter/never colonized
UCLA - Delta Eta (1947)
Virginia - Psi (1860)

19 Active chapters
1 Colonizing Fall of 2010
1 Inactive chapter
1 No Sig Chapter/never colonized
3 No Greek Life

[aephi alum]

Originally Posted by Miriverite

I'm sure there are definitely areas of some of our dorms that could contest that For example, certain halls in our East Campus dorm are so close that they're practically a frat. In fact, the 2nd West hall even calls themselves "Pi Tau Zeta" (a Greekification of their nickname, Putz). It certainly is true, however, that most GLO members at MIT come from the west side of campus, where dorms are much bigger and less bonded as a group.

re: Theta, it's also seen as one of the "top tier" sororities at MIT as well, interestingly.

That's definitely true - every dorm has its own personality, and often floors/entries/halls within a dorm will have different personalities.

Back in my day, we had dorm rush. You got a temporary room and then you went and visited all the dorms, met upperclass residents, took dorm tours, etc., then ranked the dorms in order of preference and got matched. Once you got matched, in most cases you then went through floor/entry/hall rush. (I believe freshmen now have to rank order their dorm choices before arriving on campus, but they still go through floor rush - Miriverite, correct me if I'm wrong.)

What made this all the more fun was that, in my day, dorm rush happened at the same time as FSILG rush. If you were a man checking out fraternities and/or ILGs, or a woman interested in ILGs, you really had to budget your time to make sure you checked out the dorms just in case you didn't get a bid you wanted to accept. If you were a woman interested only in NPC sororities, you had enough time outside scheduled rush parties to check out the dorms, and of course, if you weren't interested in greek life at all, you had lots of time.

And I don't think you can really have a meaningful discussion about tiers when there are only six sororities, one of which fills a niche market.

[irishpipes]

Alpha Omicron Pi:

Stanford - Lambda chapter - AOII's 14th chapter founded 1910, closed in 1944 when Greek life was abolished

Penn - Psi chapter - AOII's 24th chapter, 1918-1958

Columbia - never had a chapter there, but our founding chapter, Alpha, was at Barnard College of Columbia University from 1897 until Greek life was abolished - in 1914.

Chicago - Phi Chi chapter founded 1986. First NPC at Chicago

Duke - Delta Upsilon chapter 1979-2008

Northwestern - Rho chapter - AOII's 13th chapter. 1909-1973. Northwestern's archives state that AOII was viewed as a "liberal" sorority on campus which made them unpopular at times.

Washington - Delta Kappa chapter founded 2009

Cornell - Epsilon. AOII's 12th chapter. 1908-1962/1989-2008. Plans to recolonize in 2 years.

Brown - Beta 1908-1908. AOII's 9th chapter. Beta was never actually an active chapter. It was chartered when AOII absorbed Alpha Delta Sigma, which had chapters at Brown, Maine, and Tufts (then Jackson College). Brown banned Greek life before the chapter could function as AOII rather than Alpha Delta Sigma.

Vanderbilt - Nu Omicron founded 1917, AOII's 23rd chapter

California (Berkeley) - Sigma chapter founded 1908 as AOII's 7th chapter. It was the first AOII chapter to have a sorority house, which was designed by a Cal architecture professor who married an AOII. The letters A O and II can be seen in different architectural features in the house.

UCLA - Kappa Theta chapter 1925-1973

UVA - Chi Beta chapter 1982-200?

[Low C Sharp]

Dartmouth and Cornell, the most Greek-friendly Ivies, have strong old locals that stand arm-in-arm with the national houses to a degree that I think is quite unusual. Both schools, especially Dartmouth, have a long and proud tradition of national Greek houses defying racial and religious restrictions as early as the mid-1950s, and of abandoning their national organization when it ordered them to depledge a diverse member. Some of these houses have since rejoined the nationals, and others remain local.
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[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by Low C Sharp

Dartmouth and Cornell, the most Greek-friendly Ivies, have strong old locals that stand arm-in-arm with the national houses to a degree that I think is quite unusual. Both schools, especially Dartmouth, have a long and proud tradition of national Greek houses defying racial and religious restrictions as early as the mid-1950s, and of abandoning their national organization when it ordered them to depledge a diverse member. Some of these houses have since rejoined the nationals, and others remain local.

That's not just Cornell and Dartmouth--Brown was very vocal (both students and administrators) in addressing the discriminatory clauses that several of the fraternities had. Many had shed them in the postwar era, but there were still a few.

[Drolefille]

Is this still the case at some of the schools we're talking about here?

[littleowl33]

Originally Posted by AnotherKD

Amazing how it seems like Theta has a presence at the schools that have about 3 sororities- honestly, it makes them seem stronger in my eyes, though I don't know how on point that is. But to me, it's impressive that they are at the "top 3" schools, plus many others on that list, and not many other sororities are.

Just noticed this too - good for them! Kappa is pretty well represented (we're also at HYP and unless I've miscounted on irishpipes' list, out of the 25 schools listed, 21 have greek life and we're active at 16 and inactive at 1) but Theta still has us beat (active at 18 and inactive at 3). Pi Phi is up there, too. I remember them mentioning this quite a bit at their JHU extension presentation, not in a snobby way at all, but more of a "we understand this kind of campus environment and we know how to build a successful chapter here."

Originally Posted by Low C Sharp

Re: the fact that Theta is at all 3 of HYP: I know we don't like to talk about tiers here, but it's the "hot," socially elite group at all 3, too, and has chapters at all the other Ivies except Dartmouth, where its chapter went local.

Can't really speak to this at HYP, but I can say they were a very "in demand" group when they were at JHU, too.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by Drolefille

Is this still the case at some of the schools we're talking about here?

No.

[Low C Sharp]

You can be in a GLO and a secret society (at Yale), a final club (at Harvard)*, or an eating club (at Princeton). This is also true, I'm told, of the secret societies at Penn and UVA. In fact, one often leads to the other. Both Presidents Bush were in DKE and in Skull & Bones (a secret society founded 1832) at Yale. Teddy Roosevelt was in DKE, the Hasty Pudding Club (founded 1770) and the Porcellian final club (founded 1791). But no, no double GLOs.

*In practice, I'm not sure if this is true nowadays of IFC chapters and the male final clubs at Harvard; it is definitely true of the NPC/NPHC chapters and female final clubs there. In fact, there has been substantial membership overlap between Theta and the "top" female final club. It may just be that male final club members today feel no need for IFC membership. I'm pretty sure that NPHC membership and a male final club are compatible.

An interesting side note: historically, the final club system was extremely discriminatory with regard to prep-school lineage and social standing, but surprisingly open-minded with regard to race. Even in Edwardian times, the handful of black students at the top prep schools could make it into a final club at Harvard. I don't know if this was true at Yale as well; my guess is yes. Princeton did not admit its first black undergraduate until 1946, so it's a moot question there.
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[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

No.

Thanks Although I wonder if some of the perception of Greeks vs. senior societies today comes from that past.

[LaneSig]

Originally Posted by TSteven

Sigma Chi Fraternity

Harvard - Kappa Eta (1992)
Princeton - Sigma (1869)
Yale - Theta Upsilon (1986)
Cal Tech - No Greek Life
MIT - Alpha Theta (1882)
Stanford - Alpha Omega (1891)
Penn - Phi Phi (1875)
Columbia - Nu Nu (1894)
Chicago - Omicron Omicron (1897)
Duke - Beta Lambda (1912)
Dartmouth - Eta Eta (1892-1960) inactive
Northwestern - Omega (1869)
Washington U. - Tau Tau (1903)
Johns Hopkins - Kappa Upsilon (2005)
Cornell - Alpha Phi (1890)
Brown - Beta Nu (1914)
Emory - Beta Chi (1921)
Rice - No Greek Life
Vanderbilt - Alpha Psi (1891)
Notre Dame - No Greek Life
California - Berkeley - Alpha Beta (1886)
Carnegie Mellon - no Sig chapter/never colonized
Georgetown - no Sig chapter/never colonized
UCLA - Delta Eta (1947)
Virginia - Psi (1860)

19 Active chapters
1 Inactive chapter
2 No Sig Chapter/never colonized
3 No Greek Life

Sigma Chi will be colonizing at Carnegie Mellon this fall.

[KSUViolet06]

Our only chapter at any of those listed is Delta Chi at UVA.

[TSteven]

Originally Posted by LaneSig

Sigma Chi will be colonizing at Carnegie Mellon this fall.

Sweet! I'll go edit my post.

[oldu]

A little off subject but was just reading an article about billionaire David Koch who is the second richest man (to Mayor Bloomburg) in NYC and learned that he is a product of MIT. He was a basketball star and a member of a fraternity. Does anyone know which one?

[Miriverite]

A little off subject but was just reading an article about billionaire David Koch who is the second richest man (to Mayor Bloomburg) in NYC and learned that he is a product of MIT. He was a basketball star and a member of a fraternity. Does anyone know which one?

I did a lookup on the alumni site for you - he was a brother of Beta Theta Pi.