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Narrator: Being a student at Ohio State, Greek life has a widespread presence on campus. Whether it be the emblems on people's shirts and hoodies, the fundraising booths in the Oval for various sororities, or the block parties that shut down streets during football season. There are 29 social fraternities, 9 multicultural organizations, and 7 historically Black fraternities and sororities, and 17 social sororities, making Greek life a social force even for students not directly involved. A lot of students join these organizations to find a sense of community in this ginormous school. However, how and why people join the chapters that they do largely depends on the reputations and the informal rank of each other. Being students that were not a part of these organizations, we were intrigued by this system of ranking that seemed to shape other people's perception of the chapter. We set out to meet with individuals who are involved in Greek life or are closely aligned with Greek life on campus to uncover more about the unofficial ranking of Panhellenic chapters.

Isha: My name is Isha, I'm a senior, and I am not involved in Greek life, but I do have a lot of friends in sororities.

Charlie Delgado: My name is Charlie Delgado. I am a junior at Ohio State, and I was previously a part of a fraternity.

Christine Murkowski: Hi, my name is Christine Murkowski. I am a third year uh PPE major, Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, which is part of the College of Arts and Sciences. And my affiliation to Greek life is that I am in um uh I'm in a social sorority that is under like the Panhellenic sector of, you know, Greek life here at Ohio State.

Charlie Delgado: Before I came here, I kind of had the perception that Greek life was a lot about, you know, drinking, and uh game day, and kind of like the culture of just kind of like college partying.

Isha: There are some sororities that are almost exclusively blonde hair, blue-eyed white girls, and some sororities who aren't as obvious about it, but still are only focusing on looks. I think that a sorority should bring people together based on common interest or common ground, and not just be like America's Next Top Model.

Narrator: When listening to these conversations, we heard a lot of discussion about the differences between sororities and fraternities that we, as outsiders, would never expect.

Isha: I did consider rushing, and when it comes to sororities, their reputation um is is a lot about acceptance. What do they look for in girls that are rushing? Is it mostly about appearance? Is it mostly about personality? Um different sororities uh have different cultural values, and it's all about finding the best fit for you. When it comes to fraternities, they are more in the context, their reputations are more in the context of parties.

Charlie Delgado: I feel like there's more pressure if you're joining a sorority in terms of just kind of the culture around it. Like, not that there's not that level of, or like there's not any of that in fraternities either, but I feel like it's a lot more of a uh kind of not it's kind of competitive, I guess, in a way where there's like it's a lot it's a lot harder to get into some of the higher, more uh sororities that have kind of built a reputation as being this more prestigious. In my experience, it was kind of a lot more of a low-key, just kind of, hey, like test the waters, see if this is the kind of group or environment you would be interested in like being a part of. And if not, that's cool, and if it's good, then that's great. Whereas like some of the people I know who have tried to rush sororities have like they've they've stopped partway through just because it's such a big time commitment and pretty early on in the year, and it's just a lot, it takes a lot of your time and energy and money.

Narrator: During the interview process, we found one especially important tool that many involved in Greek life use to discover, discuss, and dispute chapter rankings.

Christine Murkowski: I don't know if you've looked at this, but it's like this website called GreekRank.

Narrator: Oh, I have not looked at it.

Christine Murkowski: Oh, well here, I will send you links to them, but you want to like, you know, so you search up like Ohio State GreekRank, like sororities. And then there's like, you look for the discussion forum, so that's where people who are likely in OSU um GreekRank are discussing like, you know, like the the like social system. So when I like talk about like things being like quote unquote accurate, like a lot of people I feel like would defer to this website.

Narrator: GreekRank.com allows users to rank Greek chapters according to a variety of benchmarks, such as friendliness, popularity, classiness, involvement, social life, and sisterhood/brotherhood. According to GreekRank.com, Sigma Chi is the top ranked fraternity with an approval rate of 73%, while the lowest ranked is Sigma Alpha Mu with an approval rate of 59%. The highest ranked sorority is Alpha Chi Omega with an approval rate of 69%, while the lowest ranked is Sigma Alpha with 57%. While this site is useful for people within Greek life to shape their chapter's reputation, it is just one component and is not the end-all be-all in a student's decision to join a fraternity or sorority.

Charlie Delgado: I don't really think there's any specific like linear type of listing of like, "Oh, this is the coolest, this is the one everyone wants to be in, and this is like the one no one wants to be in." It's definitely a lot more spread out in terms of like horizontally, rather than vertically, and that there's a lot of different types and niches, rather than like a specific, "Oh, best to worst."

Christine Murkowski: Like, they're just people's opinions that people you know like seconded or like, you know, "I don't agree." They're based, you know, on stuff like looks, stuff like how much like, you know, how, you know, promiscuous the girls are and how loose they are sexually, um how much money they have, uh the parties that they go to, their willingness to do sexual things...

Isha: I've definitely am aware of the unofficial ranking system. I think that the sororities that are deemed better or higher up on the ranks have a lot more competition because so many people want to be in them, so many more people rush them. Um I don't know what essentially differs them from the sororities and fraternities that are lower in the ranks, but when it comes to fraternities, people will go to their parties more, and when it comes to sororities, it will just, it they will have uh more success with their fundraising events, they're they're just more known around campus versus some of the smaller and more unknown ones. So...

Narrator: In the end, it's an informal ranking system regarding Greek life on campus that informs OSU's social hierarchy. However, it's a student's personal preferences and values that have the biggest influence on their experience with Greek life chapters.

Christine Murkowski: People, you know, in their respective places, you know, those at the top are going to maintain that reputation of like, you know, having social clout, so they may be, you know, meaner or more willing to assert the fact that, you know, they're they have a superiority complex.

Charlie Delgado: A lot of the rankings impact kind of I think they kind of have they kind of tie in with the the um economic status of a lot of the members. Like if you're in a really high-ranked sorority or fraternity, like the dues are a lot higher in a lot of cases, and so that can make it difficult for some people who aren't in a financial position to make that kind of uh financial investment.

Christine Murkowski: And then I was like, "Oh my god, like this is so much pressure," because it's technically a competition, but like, you know, the like the girls that are dancing in Alpha Chi, it's on a voluntary basis. We do it for fun, you know, it's just like you don't have to have any dance experience, like you know, you just come bring yourself, and like I will, you know, do my best...

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