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Going Greek might go poorly.
- Joining a $4 or $4 is often advertised as a way to connect with successful alums and boost your career.
- A new study from Miami University found that students' GPAs suffer after joining Greek life.
- The study also found no evidence to support the idea that going Greek ultimately increases your income.
Being in Greek life coincides with more than a few markers of $4: 85% of Supreme Court justices, 76% of US Senators, and 85% of Fortune 500 CEOs $4. The $4 associated with Greek life factor heavily into many fraternity and sorority recruitment messages.
But recent research is pointing elsewhere. $4 from William Even and Austin Smith, two economics professors at Miami University, posits that joining Greek life not only doesn't boost your salary, it reduces your GPA. The effects were most notable among men in fraternities and active pledges.
To measure this, Even and Smith analyzed the GPAs of those who joined and did not join Greek life in their second semester of freshman year. Students at the large public university that Even and Smith researched aren't able to join Greek life their first semester. They also looked at those who were suspended from Greek organizations, and how leaving Greek life changed their GPAs.
Those who joined Greek life graduated with lower GPAs than their first-semester performance would have indicated. What's more, those who left Greek life saw their GPAs improve to what their first-semester performance predicted.
"This paper documents a substantial cost for the average member - reduced academic performance - which should be considered in conjunction with the other costs and benefits of Greek life," the researchers $4.
Sorority and fraternity members did have a higher GPA than their non-Greek classmates. But that's at least partially because members are often required to keep above a 2.5 GPA to stay in the organization.
"While Greek organizations are quick to point out that their members have GPAs above their institution specific averages, this simple statistic does not demonstrate that membership improves academic performance," the researchers $4. "A key factor driving these differences is that many Greek organizations impose minimum GPA requirements for joining a chapter."
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Theta Chi house at the University of Alabama.
But what about their salaries?
$4 in upstate New York also found that the oft-parroted stat that Greek life members have a higher GPA doesn't reflect the full picture. Fraternity membership sank final GPAs by .25 points, the researchers found.
On the other hand, their income was an impressive 36% higher compared to those who didn't join Greek life.
"These results suggest that fraternity membership causally produces large gains in social capital, which more than outweigh its negative effects on human capital for potential members," the Union College researchers $4.
But some argue that it's not the Greek organization that leads to success, but external factors.
"It's not that fraternities breed leaders, but that the young men who are drawn to - and successfully navigate - the fraternity system choose and succeed in that path for precisely the same reason they will go on to become successful leaders," author $4 wrote $4 in 2014.
The type of person who ends up in Greek life is also poised for success in a country where $4, $4, and $4 are some of the greatest predictors for success.
At Princeton University, around three-quarters of those in Greek life are white compared to 47% of the student body, $4. Nearly a third of fraternity members and 19% of sorority members were legacy admits. More than a quarter of Princeton Greek organization members were from the top 1%.
Regardless of those stats, the Miami University study suggests that going Greek doesn't have an impact on one's salary. The researchers argued that that oft-reported pay boost relates more to their chosen area of study.
"Little if any salary premium represents the causal impact of Greek affiliation," Even and Smith $4.