Purdue Greeks outperform peers in GPA

Via Purdue Exponent

Beta Upsilon Chi was the top-performing fraternity with a 3.7 spring semester GPA.

Statistics recently released indicate the Purdue Greek and cooperative system continues to outperform its undergraduate counterparts academically.

The Purdue Fraternity, Sorority and Cooperative Life report says  the community that accounts for nearly 20 percent of the undergraduate population averaged a 3.55 spring semester GPA. The all-undergraduate GPA was 3.30 for the third period. That means the Greek and cooperative community has earned higher grades than the average student for the 13th consecutive semester.

A total of 88 of the 92 groups in the list earned a 3.0 GPA or higher (generally that number is about 60) and the 0.25 difference between the Greek and cooperative GPAs and all undergraduates “is the largest differential in a very long time,” according to the FSCL office.

The report acknowledges grade point averages were inflated in the spring semester due to the cancelation of in-person classes after Spring Break to select pass-fail.

“Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the performance indicators in this report – including, but not limited to, academic performance, philanthropic contributions and service hours – are not reflective of the traditional spring semester reporting data,” the report said. “The pass-fail option for the courses and the abbreviated semester resulted in a significant increase in academic performance while drastically reducing philanthropic and community service events and opportunities.”

The fraternity, sorority and cooperative life area is further broken down into its five governing councils. They include Interfraternity Council (42 IFC chapters), Panhellenic Council (24 HPA sorority chapters), Cooperative Council (11 organizations), Multi-Cultural Greek Council (11 chapters) and National Pan-Hellenic Council (11 traditionally black sororities and fraternities). Of that group, Panhellenic chapters had the highest spring semester GPA at 3.64. That was followed by MCGC Greeks at 3.48, IFC groups (3.46), NPHC at 3.40 and cooperatives at 3.33.

Individually the highest-ranking campus organizations were:

• 3.75 GPA, Marwood (men) and Ann Tweedale (women), cooperatives

• 3.74, Kappa Alpha Theta, PHA

• 3.70, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., HPHC

• 3.69,  Beta Upsilon Chi at Fairway, IFC

• 3.66, Delta Phi Lambda, MCGC

The leaders in philanthropic dollars in the four groups were:

• $48,883, Zeta Tau Alpha, PHA

• $22,126, Sigma Tau Gamma, IFC

• $2,487, Glenwood, cooperatives

• $1,375, Alpha Phi Alpha, NPHC

• $209, alpha Kappa Delta Phi, MCGC

The leaders in service hours were:

• 735, Alpha Omicron Pi, PHA

• 420, Zeta Beta Tau, IFC

• 283, Phi Beta Sigma, NPHC

• 271, Circle Pines, cooperatives

The leaders in membership:

• 191, Zeta Beta Tau, IFC

• 153, Kappa Alpha Theta, PHA

• 57, Circle Pines, cooperatives

• 41, alpha Kappa Delta Phi, MCGC

• 11, Delta Sigma Theta, NPHC