Did the parents think she would mistreated because of her ethnicity or just did not want the student engaged in the rituals and traditions that are often part of the process of being in a Greek organization?
Also kind of weird that there is a “Greek culture” (go with me, I’m being facetious here). Be careful with that phrase as it may inadvertently confirm certain stereotypes for some folks. I honestly think some Greek members at top schools do fit say, the state school stereotypes, but certainly not all. They all of course try to work pretty hard to stay afloat and do well academically, but not all of said people may be as intellectually focused as the independents. There are, of course, tons of exceptions. But yes, Pancaked, you are correct about the affluence thing. This is definitely the case at elite institutions where basically most students are affluent or upper middle class in the first place. Then further segregation may happen along SE lines. However, I would note that elite schools contain high numbers of upper middle class and wealthy URMs as those in low income categories often do not tend to even apply to such schools as studies have been showing. What would be interesting to see, is whether or not there may be some correlation between say, the number of Questbridge Scholars (which yes, often includes many non-URMs, but does indeed include lots of URM’s and even lower/pure middle income ORM’s: several QB friends I had were Asian of some sort) or Gates-Millennium Scholars and the social climate on a campus (at a selective private) with a high Greek population (30% +).