What Are Greek Letter Societies?

Most brotherhoods and sororities have adopted Greek letters to represent their organizations, and are therefore often referred to as Greek letter societies or Greek organizations. In the United States, the word “fraternity” is often used to refer to a male student society at a university or college that is cooperative, especially one that is a fraternity house where its members live in a sort of glorified dormitory. Fraternity and sisterhood are sometimes referred to by the all-embracing term “Greek alphabetical organizations,” which is often described by the adjective “Greek”.

Families and sororities are American student organizations that in the early 21st century will remain a positive social option for college and university students. General Men’s Universities are exclusive, self-sustaining groups that offer their members at colleges and universities an organized social life and contribute to their educational experience. The so-called clearest example of a student subculture at an American college is the Greek alphabet society, known as the oldest form of student self-government in the American higher education system, which included fraternities and sororities on college campuses as early as 1825.


Definition of Greek letter societies Dictionary of Student Associations and Sororities at U.S. universities and colleges that use the Greek letters in their title. Professional recognition and honorary societies that use Greek names and are organized to include general fraternity members. Unique to most campus organizations are the members of Greek social letter organizations who live in large houses belonging to the Brotherhood itself or its alumni association and are different from parts of the student residences.

John Heath gives us the origins of Greek-letter organizations as models for modern social fraternities, going back to Schenectady, New York University, where the Kappa Alpha Society was founded in 1825. The first Greek alphabet brotherhood for women, Kappa Alpha Theta, was founded in 1870 at DePauw University, along with the first Greek alphabet organizations called sororities, Gamma Phi and Beta.

Phi Beta Kappa Society, an elite honorary academic society, was founded on 5 December 1776 at the College of William and Mary, in a long tradition of organizing under the name of College in Latin letters. Two years later the state-approved BGLOs Greek Letter Society, founded by college students at Cornell University. As two more fraternities spread to other universities, new groups at other colleges were formed and national chapters were established, and Greek life began as we know it today.


The whole reason why modern brotherhoods and sororities use Greek letters in their names is that 200 years ago there was an honorary society that was so arrogant that they forgot where they started and initially named themselves after the Greek letters. Greek letter organizations that were formed in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in the United States bear a number of similarities to the modern fraternity, and although they were regarded as elite honor societies, they were not quite as prominent in universities today as fraternity and sisterhood.

The popularity of Phi Beta Kappa led to the formation of other fraternities and the precedent that she set led them to adopt Greek mottos to name their organizations. The Greek letters, now named after the Ivy League school social organizations (Fraternities), not only represent the motto of the Greek letter that was named for the new society (in this case Phi Betaappa) but in some cases, the word is actually derived from the letter itself.

Studies have shown that graduation rates are 20 percent higher for members of Greek-letter organizations than for students who are not members and that members of student societies and sororities have a higher grade average. The term “sisterhood” means “society of female students,” and although universities and colleges are increasingly staffed with female students, the term is mainly used in North America, and in some cases, there are no fraternity institutions in other countries in the English-speaking world. In the mid-20th century, a small number of fraternities decided to become coeducational and accept female members such as Alpha Theta, Lambda Lambda, and Alpha Phi Omega. These organizations represent a minority of Greek-letter organizations like the Fraternity and are members of the North American Interfraternity Conference, the largest international fraternity association.


While students seek membership in fraternities and sororities through “haste,” Greek organizations are recruiting new members. Potential new members visit houses, are invited to various events, and are selected as new members of their organizations.

This post was proofread with Grammarly.

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