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Who is best?
"Best" is subjective, but it's very predictable within the greek world.
Fraternities are judged & evaluated by their peers, by rushees and by sororities on five "external" criteria. If you want to know who's considered the best on a given campus - provided that campus has a competitive fraternity system in terms of number of chapters and size - then chart these things and you'll have the answer.
One caveat: don't think of this in terms of a snapshot of a given moment in time. Fraternities that compete to the the "best" are likely to remain strong over time. Think of these criteria expressed over, say, three years:
Size: Size matters. If you have a 50-man chapter at Penn State you can compete. If you have a 50+ man chapter at Ole Miss you cannot compete. The top fraternity doesn't have to be the largest, but it has to be size competitive.
Appearance: Looks count. Yes, the best fraternity may have a few sketchy guys, but as a group the best fraternity looks like you'd expect the best fraternity to look. The men are strong, manly, handsome (or at least not scarey) and in sufficient numbers for that image to be associated with the chapter.
Athletics: Sports count with men. The best fraternity doesn't have to win the IM trophy every year, but they do have to be competitive in the "manly" sports. The best fraternity won't field a weak football, basketball or softball team that carries the stench of loser. Varsity and club athletes are points of pride. Eli Manning and his dad Archie Manning are both Sigma Nus at Ole Miss. Tiger Woods is a Sigma Chi. Bobby Bowden was president of his Pike chapter in college. Big names count.
Power: The best fraternity attracts many of the best men on campus. The best men on campus routinely hold important offices and have impressive titles. The "best" fraternity always can point to a few of the most prominent campus leaders in their chapter.
Social Preference: Fraternities with the top reputations pair up naturally with their sorority counterparts. If the fraternity has men that girls like, and if the fraternity as a chapter acts decent toward women and has a good time, they will be socially preferred.
If a fraternity dominates all five categories, then they are the dominant fraternity in terms of reputation. They are the best. If, say, five different fraternities each rank #1 in a separate criteria, then there is no clear #1 on campus. If you WANT to be considerd the best, then you must focus on winning the Five Criteria.
There are "internal" criteria that are very important to the strength of the chapter. However, no one is judged by their rivals, the rushees or the sororities on these things.
Outside of your chapter (to which these things ARE important) NO ONE CARES about:
The pedge program;
The alumni program;
Winning Homecoming;
Community service (trust me - no one cares in terms of ranking the "best");
Financial management;
Scholastics (unless your grades are horrible, then that could be trouble; but that's usually a symptom of other problems);
The meal plan;
The themes of your parties;
Any number of other things.
There are small campuses where the criteria have to be adjusted slightly, but these are universal principles within the fraternity world. REPUTATION follows performance in the five external criteria.
Last edited by Firehouse; 05-05-2008 at 10:03 PM.
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