<p>In practice, there’s a big difference between a college-sanctioned “social house” and a private fraternity or sorority, even if the house occupies a former frat building.</p>
<p>Greek organizations are typically single sex, choose their own members, and operate independently. Since they are private clubs, college administrations have relatively little ability to regulate their activities, except in the case of severe transgressions. </p>
<p>Social houses are typically coed and have members assigned to them by the adminstration. They operate as part of the college, and so the college administration has much more control. In practice, social houses are less likely to develop camaraderie and loyalty to the same degree as frats or sororities; some houses are little more than co-ed dormitories. On the other hand, social houses generally lack some of the perceived negatives of Greek organizations (e.g. immaturity, hazing, sexism, anti-intellectualism, snobbery).</p>
<p>If there wasn’t a difference, then schools like Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, Middlebury, and Colby wouldn’t have bothered to ban frats and replace them with social houses in the first place.</p>