<p>Depends on the school, annasdad. But it’s easier to make blanket proclamations than actually investigate the particulars of specific schools. As with anything, there are campuses at which Greek life doesn’t interfere with academics and is a general positive force for its members and a neutral force on the campus, and campuses in which Greek life does interfere with academics and is a general negative force. But, I’m not surprised that you think Greek life is what was depicted in Animal House, on every campus, no exceptions.</p>
<p>Actually, Pizzagirl, my post is based on published research, not on my assessment on whether Greek life reflects that depicted in a movie I’ve never seen. …for the beneit of lurkers, I’ll refer them to Ernest T. Pascarella and Patrick T. Terenzini, “How College Affects Students, Volume 2: A Third Decade of Research.” San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005, pp. 190-1, which reports that two studies (with the same lead researcher) examining Greek membership at a sample of 18 colleges, after controlling for a host of factors, found that “Greek-affiliated men, compared to their male counterparts, had a statistically significant disadvantage of .27 of a standard deviation (11 percentile points) in end-of-first-year critical thinking.” For women, the difference was smaller and not statistically significant, and for both genders, the difference after three years of college was no longer statistically significant.</p>
<p>But I’m sure your anecdotal experience is much more valid.</p>
<p>I don’t know about annadad’s research, but I do know that many schools aren’t rushing until second semester freshman year for just the reason he states.</p>
<p>I wonder what the 30% of Greeks at NW are doing - or has the number changed?</p>
<p>@MisterK Well, I visited Harvard for a while when I was in Boston for a program held at MIT. While there, I couldn’t see half the campus due to an Occupy Harvard movement going on. I was concerned about the political environment, so I talked for a while to almost a dozen students about it. The students basically (to sum up) told me that if you’re conservative, you keep your head down about politics, unless you don’t want very many friends at all. Harvard kids are veryyy outspoken, mostly type A personalities from what I gathered (could be wrong-I didn’t attend the school, but I did get that impression) and if you say something political, they jump on you, or if you contradict their political statements. More so than a lot of other colleges.</p>
<p>
NEVER seen “Animal House”? Really, annasdad? Wouldn’t you like to?</p>
<p>I’m not worried. Amazing, isn’t it, how many of the young women who were in my Greek house at NU wound up at top b-schools, top law schools, etc. – many of them very successful in their subsequent careers. Wonder how that happened, if their grades were so poor from all the boozing and partying and lack of attention to schoolwork? Why, some of us were even Phi Beta Kappa and / or Mortar Board, won departmental prizes, and so on. Well, I must have just* imagined* it. Clearly the Greek situation at a school like NU or other elite school is exactly like that at Party-On Nonselective State U.</p>
<p>I agree with Pizzagirl that it is different at each school, it is hard to make a blanket statement. Cornell sorority/fraternity GPA:
<a href=“Identity Resources | Student & Campus Life | Cornell University”>Identity Resources | Student & Campus Life | Cornell University;
<a href=“Identity Resources | Student & Campus Life | Cornell University”>Identity Resources | Student & Campus Life | Cornell University;
<p>Sorority overall GPA is 3.44, and fraternity GPA is 3.28. This includes both current & new members on campus. I don’t know Cornell’s average GPA, but I would think those GPAs are certainly average, if not above average. One thing to point out is that at Cornell there is a minimum GPA requirement to participate in Greek life.</p>
<p>Oh, and yes - given that I specifically said that at SOME campuses, Greek life is every bad stereotype come to life, and at OTHER campuses, Greek life is neutral to positive, then critical thinking skills would lead one to say that you cannot generalize and you have to go campus-by-campus, in which case anecdotal evidence IS more relevant than generalizing from campuses with few shared characteristics. </p>
<p>And Animal House is classic. We had our kids watch it before they went off to school (though D’s school does not have a Greek system). It’s good to have a sense of humor.</p>
<p>jeez pizzagirl, he was just stating the results of a study…and you felt the need to ramble on about how successful your sorority friends are?</p>
<p>Great thread</p>
<p>Sent from my T-Mobile G1 using CC App</p>
<p>The only thing I disliked about Animal House was the scene where John Belushi guzzles a bottle of Bourbon in about 2 seconds with no consequences. Not cool.</p>
<p>The rest of it though-classic. Too many hilarious moments to count.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl’s “rambling” was due to this unprovoked statement from annasdad:
“I realize that you are much more impressed by your own opinion than by anything as mundane as juried journal articles”
Would annasdad speak to anyone like this when he goes to his kid’s PTA meetings.</p>
<p>Whether you like the Greek system or not, Animal House is a must see classic. Times have changed, however, and the school on which that movie was based has made sweeping changes in it’s Greek system. And it is a very highly regarded school.</p>
<p>Time to start talking about Blutarsky, flounder, foodfights, the “college” tshirt, Dartmouth, the Harold Parmington Foundation and Alpha Delta Phi . Come to think of it, if the data from the “research” touted unnecessarily condescendingly by annasdad was collected at those institutions (the frats shut down at Dartmouth ), its no surprise they got the results that they did. Those were some wild times.</p>
<p>[Animal</a> House Trivia - ACME Animal House](<a href=“http://www.acmewebpages.com/animal/trivia.htm]Animal”>http://www.acmewebpages.com/animal/trivia.htm)</p>
<p>Some fun stuff.</p>
<p>Great link, Nrdsb4!!</p>
<p>OldFort said “Sorority overall GPA is 3.44, and fraternity GPA is 3.28. This includes both current & new members on campus. I don’t know Cornell’s average GPA, but I would think those GPAs are certainly average, if not above average.”</p>
<p>I looked for a few minutes for the data and couldn’t find it but I would not be surprised if you are wrong. I saw some recent figures on grade inflation, and a huge percentage of all grades given out in college these days are A’s, with B’s a distant 2nd, and very few C’s or lower.</p>
<p>I could be wrong on this, but i think that Cornell is one of the schools that is known for not having rampant grade inflation. I’d be surprised if those averages weren’t at or above average there.</p>
<p>no, oldfort, Pizzagirl’s rambling was due to the fact that she can’t refute the data with anything comparable and still felt the need to weigh in.</p>
<p>And clearly, she didn’t even bother to read the post, which said the research reported that among females, there was not a statistically significant difference between Greek and non-Greek. (Which, I point out, was in line with my original post, which said the research reported that freshman fraternity members showed a disadvantage.) Yet she jumped in with hysterical ramblings about her sorority sisters.</p>
<p>My comment about her degree of enamoring with her own opinion was in response to her post in which she ignored the research I referred to and accused me of being anti-Greek - which as a proud alumni member of Alpha Chi Rho, I decidedly am not. But unlike quite a few regulars here on CC, I don’t feel the need to jump in with emotional hand-waving whenever someone says something mildly negative (and the research I reported is very mildly negative) about me or mine.</p>
<p>And to answer your question - I can’t imagine any of the parents at either of my kids’ schools accusing me of comparing the Greek system to Animal House merely because I cited some research pointing out that one poster’s anecdotal experience is not universally applicable, so I can’t really predict how I’d react if one did. (I will say that a parent at one of those schools told me just today that she’s identified me here on CC - no great feat, since I’ve made no real effort to remain anonymous - and went on to say how much she enjoys my posts.)</p>
<p>^ ^</p>
<p>Agreed eireann. Every Cornellian…including an older cousin has mentioned the grading tends to be tough and you had to work for your Bs.</p>