Nobody hands you a manual when you join a fraternity. You show up, you shake hands, you maybe embarrass yourself at a social event, and then slowly - over the course of months - you figure out that there's a whole second layer of rules running underneath everything. Unwritten ones. The kind that older members just kind of expect you to already know, and the kind that freshmen violate constantly without realizing it until someone pulls them aside. ... Read more

Nobody warned me about the scheduling conflict between picking a major and actually living inside a fraternity. I mean, they warned me about time management in some vague, orientation-video kind of way. But they didn't tell me that Sigma Alpha Epsilon's calendar would be so genuinely packed that I'd be choosing between a major advising appointment and philanthropy week setup - and that I'd pick the philanthropy week every single time. Twice. Until I almost picked the wrong major entirely. ... Read more

Nobody told me sophomore year was gonna hit like that. I had three philanthropy events, two formals, a brotherhood retreat, and intramural playoffs packed into about six weeks - and somehow I was still supposed to figure out whether I wanted to declare Economics or Communications. My advisor looked at me like I had two heads when I explained why I'd missed her office hours. She didn't get it. But if you're in a chapter right now, you do. ... Read more

But really. There’s such a thing as the “fraternity to finance” pipeline that allegedly places certain frat members into financial positions in the Big Apple — that might be harder for any regular college graduate to obtain. No surprise there, since one of the main long-term reasons members rush is for the networking opportunities Greek life affords. ... Read more

Miss Greek pageants are happening this time of year at colleges across the country, and we’ve funnelled the list down to five of the most popular, highest-raising, oldest-running, largest pageants and more. ... Read more

Hundreds of men have moved on from collegiate Greek life into the glitzy and powerful ranks of society. It’s no surprise that many of the actors, billionaire CEOs, politicians and Grammy-winning musicians you know as famed celebrities are also Greek alumni. ... Read more

Summer is almost over. Wow that went quick. Potential new members are doing all the research they can ahead of recruitment to make sure they get into one of their top houses. For the last several years we have put together the GreekRank rankings of the best fraternities and sororities in the country in the in each of our categories. Here are GreekRank’s Fall 2017’s top sororities and fraternities in the categories of Sisterhood/Brotherhood, Involvement, Classiness, Popularity, Looks, Fun, And Overall Highest Ranked... Read more

Last week, I got coffee with one of my friends from home, who also went Greek. As we shared lattes and stories about what classes we miraculously passed and which fraternities we borrowed composites from, she flipped through the pages of a People magazine next to us and sighed, “Man, I wish fraternity guys at our schools looked more like celebs, you know?” Apparently, a solid amount of Hollywood A-listers are Greek and proud to wear their letters.... Read more

You have made one of the biggest decisions of your life to go to college. Congratulations! However, that’s not the only decision that you’ll have to make when it comes to college life. Another important decision that you’ll probably make is the decision to go Greek in college. Greek life has lots of benefits to offer to its members – opportunities to build a network, social/community activities to participate in, a strong brotherhood bond to maintain, and many more!  However, one of the biggest challenges college guys face at the beginning of their Greek life is choosing the right fraternity for themselves.... Read more

Most chapter events don't fall apart because of bad ideas. They fall apart because nobody figured out who was actually in charge. I learned this the hard way during my first semester as an active, when what should have been a straightforward mixer with a sorority turned into two weeks of group chat chaos, three people who thought they were in charge, and a venue that got double-booked. The event still happened. It was fine. But fine isn't what anyone was going for. ... Read more

Every few years, a wave of high-profile assault cases hits the news cycle and suddenly everyone's got an opinion about whether fraternities should exist at all. The ABC News story making rounds right now is the latest version of that conversation - calls to shut down frat houses entirely as public anger over rape cases grows louder. I've heard this argument before. I've sat in Panhellenic council meetings where the exact same pressure was bleeding over into how we handled our own policies, our own relationships with IFC chapters, our own event approval processes. And I'll say what I said then: closing houses doesn't close the problem. ... Read more

There's a specific kind of chaos that hits Greek row the week before homecoming. Float builds happening at midnight. Someone's little sister from three towns over showing up unannounced. A chapter president stress-eating dining hall waffles at 2am because the banner isn't drying fast enough. I lived that chaos for four years, and I'm not even a little bit sorry about it. Homecoming week is the thing I describe to people who ask me if Greek life was worth it - and it shuts them up every time. ... Read more

Every few years, something happens at Cornell and the whole country acts like Greek life just invented itself. The New York Times is back on the beat, the op-eds are flying, and university administrators everywhere are dusting off their "embrace or ban" talking points like it's a policy debate and not a conversation about actual students. I've seen this cycle. I lived through a version of it. And honestly, the framing is what frustrates me most. ... Read more

Every Panhellenic president I've ever met has had the same reaction to Greek rank sites: eye roll, dismissal, maybe a comment about how "those sites don't reflect our values." I used to say the same thing. Then I spent two years on council watching chapters with glowing reputations internally get absolutely torched in public forums - and I started paying closer attention to what was actually being said. ... Read more

The Inter-Sorority Council at the University of Virginia just proposed adding a new sorority to its membership, with the expansion targeting the 2027-28 recruitment cycle. That's two years out, which means this is serious planning - not a casual conversation. And if you follow Panhellenic dynamics at all, you know that adding a chapter to an established council is one of the most consequential things a Greek community can do. ... Read more