This doesn’t surprise me. The campus I recently worked in student life at was expanding their Greek life program particularly the sororities - they are adding three new sororities over the course of 3-5 years, IIRC. (Well, they reactivated one inactive chapter and then added two new orgs). The number of young women who wanted to Rush was steadily increasing and the individual houses were getting very large, and more girls were unsuccessful, so they needed to expand. It was interesting, because that campus traditionally had a very small Greek life and didn’t really attract the kind of student who wanted to go Greek in large numbers.
I don’t like to stereotype my generation (Millennials, who are still going to college - the youngest Millennials are just 15), but I will say that we are, on average, joiners. A very large percentage of my high school class went Greek in college. We like to belong to communities and form strong bonds with others; we like the idea that we are special and belong to exclusive fancy groups; and we do like community service projects and the idea of giving back. Greek organizations provide all of those opportunities, so I’m not really surprised that interest is growing.
But the other thing to remember is that the freshman classes are also growing at most places, so as the freshman class grows, the absolute numbers of people interested in Greek life will also grow even if the overall proportion of the freshman class interested in Greek life stays the same.
Well those kids are bums for just wanting to party and not take education seriously
Nobody should expect the upcoming freshmen attracted to Greek life to have more common sense than their predecessors, and especially not at the schools that are targeting the students more interested in 24/7 entertainment than academics.
Colleges and universities face tremendous financial pressures, and there is little reason to believe they will stop marketing the schools to all kinds of students, including the ones who see their next 6 years as a time for unfettered and unsupervised debauchery.
I just read on the Cornell Daily Sun that their sorority rushing was down 12% this year.
I don’t think sorority life has the same negatives that some fraternities do (with their boys will be boys attitudes).
I think many girls will still want to “go Greek” because they’re wanting a “feeling of belonging” to their new school…where they won’t know anyone. They go thru Rush, they seek out a House where there is a mutual attraction, and voila…lots of new friends and a feeling of a home away from home.
These girls are expected to maintain respectable GPAs (which are checked) and as pledges they have required “study hours.”
We looked for schools that were small enough and had enough recreational and social programs for students to find their place on campus without fraternities or sororities.
Neither of their schools had Greeks on or off campus. Some schools may never get rid of them.
http://www.businessinsider.com/why-fraternities-will-never-disappear-from-american-college-life-2014-12
Similarly, it’s amazing that college sports are still popular with students in spite of scandals and bad press associated with some teams and players.
Most fraternities and sororities have higher GPAs than the general student body. It seems that they take education more seriously than the GDIs.
Some of that is due to selecting easier majors/courses*, having old tests/papers on file in the fraternity/sorority house, and less honorable means if you catch my drift.
Most of the older cousins who were not only pan-hellenic greek members, but were also senior officers in such organizations had no compunctions about admitting so…and were taken aback and confused when I and other non-pan-hellenic greek cousins regarded those practices with much disdain and dubiousness. Especially considering some of what they did would have been considered an academic honors violation if they pulled it at some of our colleges.
Heard more of the same from my own peers who were in such organizations during their undergrad careers.
- It was common practice for some frat and sorority members on some campuses to take as many gut courses geared for Div I athletes as they could get away with.
I was in a house. We had girls majoring in engineering, Chinese, accounting, music. I never saw anyone cheat, there was no ‘bank’ of old exams or papers. I just read in my alum magazine that one of my sisters is a Rhodes Scholar. From MIT. Not exactly a slacker. My niece just was awarded a high honor from our sorority for academics. She’s not a cheater.
I think, cobrat, you are stereotyping, and it is a little dated.
Frats and sororities tend to have higher GPAs for the following reasons:
- During rush, many GLOs (greek life organizations) use a baseline GPA as a determinant of who gets a bid. This is particularly true of less selective schools with popular greek systems such as the University of Oklahoma.
- Members tend to be richer and whiter than the average student. This means they’re less likely to need to work any more than 20 hours a week, which has been shown over and over again to inversely correlate with college GPA (more hours worked often predicts a lower GPA). Additionally white students tend to have higher GPAs than many URMs, although this may just be a function of their generally higher SES.
- To remain in a fraternity or sorority, members usually have to have a GPA well above the university’s “good standing” minimum. For instance, my greek organization requires at least a 2.5.
- Especially during the candidacy process, many GLOs require mandatory study times. Some do it in group sessions while others do it via time log. Other GLOs may also extend this requirement for active members.
@whenhen I agree with you about the higher GPA’s. My son is a pledge this semester and the minimum GPA required to receive a bid, and the minimum GPA needed to stay in good standing with his frat is a 3.0. He said that much of what is required of a pledge has already helped him manage his time better.
I was not thrilled with the idea of him joining a frat, mainly because of all of the bad press they get, but so far it seems to be a positive experience.
I have a friend who is sort of lukewarm on his Greek experience. Apparently, it didn’t take too many stories of glory and conquest to encourage his son to go Greek even though he wasn’t too hot on it.
The unfortunate thing is that the distractions cost his son two desired majors due to grades and now, he’ll be lucky to graduate with…something.
My question is; where was the chapter’s minimum standing GPA when it would have served the kid to either do better or get out?
Again, not all chapters have minimum GPAs which are higher than the university’s “good standing” baseline. Some do, some don’t. Plenty of students get distracted without ever going greek.
@JustOneDad every frat and every chapter is different depending on the school. At one school the frat can have a stellar rep, while at another it is full of slackers and trouble makers.
I can’t speak to your friend’s experience, but at my son’s school the freshman have the 1st semester to go to events and to get to know the other guys in the various frats. Sometimes after going to a single event, my son crossed a frat off his list of possibilities. By November he knew which frat he wanted to join. It just so happened to be the frat that had the highest GPA on campus. He was lucky and got a bid, but his roommate was not so lucky. Even though the roommate had a higher GPA, he did not have any significant leadership experience, nor was he currently involved in other groups on campus.
Of the pledges this frat took, they had a number of top scholarship recipients, guys in the honors program, and most had significant leadership experience (Eagle Scout, high school student body officer, lots of community service hours, etc). My son said that he felt that the frats at his school tend to attract and offer bids to “like minded” or similar guys to the guys currently in the frat. I suppose that makes sense since a big part of being in a frat is community and brotherhood.
Or the fraternities and sororities have rules prohibiting the pledging of students with low GPAs. I.e. the higher GPAs can be attributed to this selection effect, regardless of whether there is a (positive or negative) treatment effect on GPA of joining a fraternity or sorority.
Test banks exist, I’ve seen them with my own eyes at multiple greek organizations, and I graduated in 2013, if that justifies my experience.
My non-Greek friends had access to the same ‘test banks’ that I did, or the professors handed them out themselves. It’s not some super secret advantageous thing, especially with the increase in short answer exams. You still have to know the material
My daughters inner city high school had requirements of students participating in sports that made them seem more academic than your random student.
Each team had different requirements, but included GPA and taking SAT tests, maybe even AP tests.
So it wouldn’t surprise me for Greeks to have a requirement as well, but it doesn’t seem to improve their press much.