Each year thousands of college students make the choice to join a men's collegiate social fraternity. This study sought to understand how a student's demographic characteristics, academic characteristics, participation in fraternity activities, and chapter characteristics explain growth, learning, and development along three areas: critical thinking, leadership, and openness to diversity. To assess fraternity members' development of critical thinking skills, leadership skills, and openness to diversity, data were collected from members of Delta Tau Delta international fraternity using the University Learning Outcomes Assessment (UniLOA) during the spring of 2011, resulting in a sample size of 1,238 students.

Through multiple regression analysis, I discovered that critical thinking scores were explained by the length of membership in the fraternity, attending a Road Connection presentation, GPA, belonging to a chapter rather than a colony, and the average GPA of the respondent's chapter/colony. Leadership and membership scores were explained by attending a Road Connection presentation, attending a Delta Tau Delta sponsored leadership event, belonging to a chapter on conduct probation, GPA, belonging to a chapter rather than a colony, the average GPA of the respondent's chapter/colony, and the size of the respondent's chapter/colony. Finally, diversity scores were explained by the length of membership in the fraternity, the average GPA of the respondent's chapter/colony, and whether or not his chapter was on conduct probation. The results build upon existing literature regarding the effect of fraternity membership on college student development by exploring what factors explain growth, learning, and development within fraternity members and reveal the need for additional research.