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.
Although the movie Animal House and its comedic portrayal of Greek life on campus was at least partially based on Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, some of the top schools for fraternities are actually based in Tennessee. The Volunteer State is evidently hospitable to formal brotherhood societies, as it is home to two of the top five schools in the nation for percentage of fraternity enrollment. Dartmouth, where 48 percent of male students enrolled in fraternities in fall 2011, is 10th on the top 10 list.
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At the 951 ranked college and universities that reported fraternity participation data to U.S. News in a 2012 survey, an average of 8.1 percent of the male, degree-seeking undergraduate students enrolled in fall 2011 were members of a fraternity.
The average fraternity membership at the top 10 schools for male Greek life participation was much higher: 68.9 percent. The list has a very different look from the 2011 version. The second school this year, for instance—Lyon College in Arkansas—was nowhere to be seen on last year's top 10 list.
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Schools designated by U.S. News as Unranked were excluded from this list. U.S. News did not calculate a numerical ranking for Unranked programs, because the program did not meet certain criteria that U.S. News requires to be numerically ranked.
Below is the list of the 10 schools that had the highest percentages of male, degree-seeking students in fraternities in fall 2011:
| School name (state) | Percentage of males in fraternities (fall 2011) | U.S. News rank & category |
|---|---|---|
| Welch College (TN) | 98 | 42, Regional Colleges (South) |
| Lyon College (AR) | 92 | 156, National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| Washington and Lee University (VA) | 86 | 14, National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| DePauw University (IN) | 76 | 54, National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| Sewanee—University of the South (TN) | 67 | 36, National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| Millsaps College (MS) | 60 | 90, National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| York College (NE) | 60 | 68, Regional Colleges (Midwest) |
| Wabash College (IN) | 52 | 56, National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| Transylvania University (KY) | 50 | 75, National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| Dartmouth College (NH) | 48 | 10, National Universities |
Don't see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News College Compass to find information about fraternities, as well as complete rankings and much more.
U.S. News surveyed more than 1,800 colleges and universities for our 2012 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 U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Colleges rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data come from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News's rankings of Best Colleges or Best Graduate Schools. The fraternity participation data above are correct as of Dec. 4, 2012.
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