My thing is…Cornell has a similar reputation. Sure, it’s an Ivy, but Cornell’s known for having big Greek life - fully a third of men and a quarter of women are in one of the nearly 60 Greek organizations there. Not only do they have big Greek life, a lot of Greek organizations were either founded there or were one of the very early chapters - the vast majority of the IFC and NPC chapters were founded in the 1920s or earlier - so a lot of Cornell Greek students are heavily involved in Greek life at the regional and national level and come from generations of families that have attended Cornell and joined that particular chapter. Cornell also has a reputation for a party culture, and Ithaca as a quintessential college town. So if you’re worried about Greek life at Michigan, then you shouldn’t even touch Cornell.
And Northwestern? Fully 40 percent of Northwestern’s student body is in a Greek organization, of which there are 47 on campus. Northwestern being an old university, a lot of those chapters are old, too - Northwestern has had Greek presence since the mid-1800s. I’m less familiar with Northwestern’s social reputation but I would imagine at a campus that is 40% Greek, the Greek students would heavily influence social life.
But, some things I learned about Greek students in college and in graduate school when I supervised them: They tend to have above-average GPAs - chapter GPAs tend to be higher than the total student body’s; they tend to be heavily involved not just in the social but in the intellectual and public life of the university, running for student government, starting new organizations, and organizing charitable and philanthrophic activities; many of them actually tend to be quite focused and attentive in class, since they usually have a GPA minimum to meet in order to stay active in their org. Also, especially at schools where Greek life is dominant, all kinds of students join the orgs because that’s just what you do. They’re very diverse. It’s not all drinking and partying. (Also, some of the Greek orgs on campus frequently had events without alcohol - there was one house that NEVER had parties with alcohol. They tended to have live music and poetry readings. Admittedly, they started out as a literary society and evolved into a social co-ed fraternity later.) ALSO, take a look at the ranks of some of the most well-known and influential Americans. A disproportionate number of them were in fraternities or sororities in college. I’m not Greek, so I don’t have a horse in the race; it’s just personal observation.
Just saying.