While the term fraternity can be used to describe any number of social organizations, including the Lions Club and the Shriners, Fraternities and sororities are most commonly known as social organizations of higher education students in the United States and Canada. Fraternities are all-male or mixed-gender; the female-only equivalent it called a sorority. Fraternities and sororities are also referred to as student corporations or academic corporations or simply corporations.

There are various types of fraternities: social, professional, and honor fraternities. The most recognizable (and cliched) form of fraternity is the college social fraternity, as lampooned by John Belushi in the film Animal House. More so than social sororities, many social fraternities maintain their own housing, usually overseen by an alumni corporation or its respective national fraternity organization. Some fraternities today are alcohol-free (referred to as "dry"), and focus on building friendship, community service, sound learning, and leadership qualities in their membership, though some are purely "social".

While the purposes of fraternities vary wildly, most of them maintain a ritual system that is highly symbolic in nature and kept a closely guarded secret. Some signs point to common ancestry in both sorority and fraternity ritual, but most is likely derived from Masonic order ritual.

The Kappa Alpha Society was founded in 1825 at Union College, Schenectady New York. It is the oldest college fraternity and was the basic model for the U.S. fraternity system. It operates today in both the United States and Canada.

Table of contents

1 List of Fraternities 2 List of Sororities 3 Other Secret Societies 4 Fraternities and sororities outside of North America 5 Links

List of Fraternities

• Alpha Delta Phi
• Alpha Kappa Psi
• Alpha Tau Omega
• Beta Theta Pi
• Chi Phi
• Delta Kappa Epsilon
• Delta Phi
• Delta Sigma Phi
• Delta Upsilon
• Lambda Chi Alpha
• Theta Tau
• Kappa Alpha Order
• Kappa Alpha Society
• Kappa Sigma
• Phi Gamma Delta known more commonly as Fiji
• Phi Delta Theta
• Phi Kappa Psi
• Phi Sigma Kappa
• Pi Kappa Alpha
• Pi Kappa Phi
• Psi Upsilon
• Sigma Phi Delta
• Sigma Phi Epsilon
• Sigma Alpha Epsilon
• Sigma Tau Gamma
• Sigma Chi
• Sigma Nu
• Tau Kappa Epsilon
• Theta Chi
• Zeta Beta Tau

List of Sororities

• Alpha Chi Omega
• Alpha Gamma Delta
• Alpha Delta Pi
• Alpha Phi
• Alpha Sigma Alpha
• Alpha Omega Epsilon
• Delta Delta Delta
• Gamma Phi Beta
• Delta Phi Epsilon
• Delta Gamma
• Kappa Kappa Gamma
• Kappa Alpha Theta
• Phi Mu
• Pi Beta Phi
• Sigma Gamma Rho
• Zeta Tau Alpha

Other Secret Societies

• Skull and Bones
• Phi Beta Kappa Society (originally a secret society, but public since 1831)

Fraternities and sororities outside of North America

• Studentenverbindung

Links

• Academic corporations worldwide
• International academic dictionary
• English and Latin commercium songs