10 Colleges With Most Students in Fraternities

The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College and The Short List: Grad School to find data that matters to you in your college or grad school search

The first Greek fraternity was created at the College of William and Mary in 1776, when five students formed the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Over the last few centuries, several more fraternities have sprung up on campuses across the country, with members who have become CEOs and U.S. presidents. Students who consider donning the Greek letters at their university usually have several different kinds of fraternities to choose from, including academic, religious, service, multicultural, and social.

[Learn why it's important to get involved in college.]

Fraternity life is more common at some schools than at others. U.S. News surveys more than 1,800 colleges and universities annually, and 930 of the schools ranked in the U.S. News Best Colleges 2012 reported fraternity data. The average percentage of undergraduate males involved in fraternities among those institutions was about 12 percent for the 2010-2011 academic year.

One hundred percent of undergraduate males at Clearwater Christian College in Florida are involved in fraternity life, as are 98 percent at Free Will Baptist Bible College in Tennessee. Four of the top five schools with the most students in fraternities are located in the South, and none of the schools in the top 10 has a total undergraduate population of more than 2,400.

Because there are a few ties, the top 10 list actually consists of 12 schools, seven of which are part of the U.S. News rankings of National Liberal Arts Colleges. All of the schools on this list are private, with only two public schools appearing within the top 50.

[Learn what to consider when thinking about Greek life.]

Schools that reported no undergraduate males in fraternities were not considered for this report, nor were schools that were designated by U.S. News as Unranked. U.S. News did not calculate a numerical ranking for Unranked programs, because the programs did not meet certain criteria that U.S. News requires to be numerically ranked.

Here are the schools with the highest percentage of undergraduate men who are members of fraternities for the 2010-2011 academic year:

*RNP denotes an institution that is ranked in the bottom one fourth of its rankings category. U.S. News calculates a rank for the school but has decided not to publish it.

For complete Greek life information, including which honors fraternities are offered at each school, access the U.S. News College Compass.

U.S. News surveyed more than 1,800 colleges and universities for our 2011 survey of undergraduate programs. Schools self-reported a myriad of data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News's data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While the data comes from the schools themselves, these lists have no influence over U.S. News's rankings of Best Colleges or Best Graduate Schools.