On a campus whose very existence depends on exclusivity, Greek life exists as a subsection of a subsection, a selective group within a selective group.
Hamilton College has a current average acceptance rate of 24.8 percent, a number that will almost certainly drop in the coming year with the removal of certain application fees. Of those 24.8 percent of accepted students, 1,850 are currently enrolled. Of the 1,850 current Hamilton students, 20.9 percent are active members of a fraternity or a sorority, for a total of 386 students involved in Hamilton Greek life. From the applicant pool to the initiation ceremony, based on average admissions statistics for the class of 2022, the percentage of students who make it from the beginning of the application process to the end of the pledging process is 6 percent.
But this is not the type of exclusivity that should be touted on the Hamilton website or by Greek organizations themselves. These statistics necessitate comparison to understand the culture of fetishized exclusivity that governs so much of our lives on the Hill. Admissions statistics are inherently socioeconomically self-selecting, given the exorbitant price of standardized testing and admissions fees. These fees act in a similar manner to the way that active members of sororities and fraternities must pay bi-annual dues.
However, in the case of Greek organizations, admission is not based on academic or extracurricular merit (or even athletic prowess,) but on social capital. Social capital certainly has its roots in socioeconomic status, but this article is not particularly concerned with that anthropological argument. Rather, what is most interesting, and most important, to examine with regards to inequality in Greek life is the effect that exclusivity has on a campus social life heavily influenced by fraternities and sororities.
According to the Dean of Students Office, a measly 21.2 percent of active members of Greek organizations receive a Hamilton College Grant (HCG, Scholarship or Financial Aid), while 50.6 percent of Hamilton Students receive an HCG. 40 percent of one Greek Organization received an HCG at the high end, while in another organization, only seven percent were recipients. Notably, the average percentage of students of color in Greek organizations was far closer to the average demographic makeup of the school as a whole, with 24.2 percent of the Hamilton College population identifying as students of color compared to 21.5 percent of active Greek members. However, as with the HCG statistics, the disparity between organizations was fairly enormous with the most diverse organization having 47.8 percent out of 23 members and the least diverse having zero percent out of ten members.
So what causes these disparities? The low number of HCG recipients involved in Greek life could easily be explained by the prohibitive price of semesterly dues. As Ricardo Millien ’19 puts it, “There is, without a doubt, a lack of socioeconomic diversity among Greek organizations on campus. There are dues (money) that come with Greek Life because of insurance and parties. Every member of that society is expected to pay a particular amount of money, but there are scholarships for societies that are recognized nationally. It is not made clear that there are scholarships until one has joined, or if one asks prior.”
The presence of dues presents an obvious hurdle to those looking to join a fraternity and a “turn-off” for those who cannot afford them. As such, those who are more affluent will have an easier time joining fraternities and sororities. While this does not reflect poorly on Greek organizations (fraternities and sororities are required to pay national dues) it certainly affects their makeup and the culture they create. The idea of “paying for friends” is a pervasive critique of Greek culture on campus and holds a fair amount of truth. If you are inducted into an organization of people who have the same wealth status as you, the likeliness of understanding the financial realities of other backgrounds are slim should you spend the majority of your time interacting within the Greek organization. In Greek life, there is a lack of intersectionality that hurts the overall culture of the school, and the institution makes it easier for students to stick to their own socio-economic group.
But this is not solely a Greek problem. Sports teams will sometimes resemble fraternities and sororities: insular groups that spend large amounts of bonding time with each other and often have socioeconomic barriers to participation. The same goes for clubs, choirs, a cappella groups, and most significantly: nebulous friend groups. It takes significant effort to reach out of your comfort zone, and while Greek life arguably breeds a certain brand of entitlement and superiority based on affluence, it is a symptom, not a cause, of the lack of intersectionality on this campus.
