We explored the effects of fraternity and sorority membership on first-year students’ development across various liberal arts educational outcomes at 11 institutions. Although many educators perceive fraternities and sororities as anti-intellectual organizations, fraternity and sorority members in this study did not differ from their unaffiliated peers on the educational outcomes explored.
We use a longitudinal national dataset to explore the direct and conditional effects of fraternity/sorority membership on students’ educational outcomes in the 4th year of college. Controlling for a variety of potentially confounding variables, including pretest measures of the outcomes, we find no direct effect of fraternity/sorority membership on educational outcomes; however, we identify 5 conditional effects related to students’ entering academic abilities and their racial/ethnic identities. We conclude by discussing implications for practice and research.
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