A head-and-shoulders illustrated portrait of Emiko. She has light skin, and long wavy brown hair. She is wearing a necklace and a dark tank top.

Tour de Frat by Emiko P. '25

house tours of pbe, dke, and sig chi!

Welcome back to another tour – and I hope you’re excited, because this one is gonna be fun. Today we will be going on a tour of three different MIT fraternities! Fraternities existing at MIT may seem like a crazy concept, but what’s even crazier is that we actually have 26 of them in total! A lot of my friends ended up joining frats freshman year, so I thought it would be fun to show what Greek life is like for them. (You can see the tour of sororities here too, if you’re interested)

Without further ado, let’s embark on our Tour de Frat!

Phi Beta Epsilon

First up is Phi Beta Epsilon! Right next to the tennis courts and other athletic fields, it’s on the same street as a bunch of other dorms on campus. Here to give us a tour is Ethan R. ‘25, a member of the lacrosse team, and AZ ‘26, a member of the soccer team!

Tall building half brick and half turquoise blue, with large windows.
hey pbe!
az (left) and ethan (right) welcome us in
Three frat brothers around a pool table with windows and a Christmas tree in the background.
we start our tour in the pool room, where ethan shows us his shot (he definitely makes it in this pic)
Three frat brothers in a living room with green couches and wooden walls.
on the same floor of the pool room is the living room, where pbe hosts events and holds weekly meetings!
Three frat brothers playing piano, guitar, and singing in the living room.
we then get a quick serenade to put us in a good mood for the rest of our tour!!
Two frat brothers and an orange mannequin sitting at a long wooden table.
we then head over to the dining room, and something smells really good...
A frat brother pointing at some food with a big smile on his face.
... so we investigate the smell and find the chef making dinner in the kitchen! pretty sure i heard az's stomach rumbling in this.
Frat brother posing in sunglasses with tools in the background.
next up is the shop, where the brothers have access to woodworking tools, 3d printers, and cool safety goggles. scroll down to the next set of pics for the rest of the tour!
Three frat brothers playing die and throwing a dice on a roof.
we then go all the way up to the sixth floor for the most iconic part of pbe: the roof!!
Three frat brothers gazing over the edge of a roof towards Boston.
this is one view from the roof, where you can see all of boston, including the charles river, harvard bridge, and the prudential center!
Overhead picture of various sports field from a roof.
this is the other view from the pbe roof, where you can see the tennis courts, football field, and field hockey field
Two frat brothers play a video game while two others watch. The TV is large and there are windows behind it.
we go back downstairs and hang out in the lounge for a bit. there is a lounge of couches and TV's on every floor of pbe.
Two frat brothers sitting on green couches moving pieces on a chess board.
is it really an mit fraternity if there isn't chess?
each brother has their own desk space, so we stop by this one that has a really nice view
Frat brother gazing out the window of his room.
finally, we end the tour by checking out ethan's room, where he lives in a single! thanks for coming along on this tour of pbe, see you at the next frat :)

PBE House Quick Facts

  • Inhabitants: 42
  • Singles: 7
  • Doubles: 4
  • Triples: 9 
  • Location: on campus

Delta Kappa Epsilon

We continue our tour with DKE! Conveniently, DKE and PBE’s buildings are actually physically connected – literally you can cross from one roof to the other – so it takes only a few seconds for us to be greeted by one of our next tour guides: Drew R. ’25!

Tall brick building with many windows and a red, blue, and yellow column.
hello dke!
Frat brother opening a door and welcoming someone in.
drew welcomes us to his humble dke home
Two frat brothers smiling in a room with a Coke vending machine and a golf simulator.
of course, the first stop of our tour is the golf simulator, where we are joined by our other tour guide, donald (aka donny)
Four frat brothers lounging in a library filled with books.
we then head over to the library, where we find some dke brothers hard at work
Open room with wooden ceilings, a mounted moose head, a ping pong table, and two smiling frat brothers.
next up is the living room! this is where dke hosts events, and where donny performed as lead singer of the dke band: the deuce!!
Frat brother pointing at armor mounted on his wall.
drew points out a cool piece of wall art to us
Three men at a dining table, chatting and smiling.
we then walk over to the dining room and chat with dke's graduate resident advisor (this is an adult required to live in the house to help foster a safe and supportive living community, which nearly every mit sorority and fraternity has)
Two frat brothers standing in a room with two beds, with one behind a desk and another in the middle of the room.
we then visit a classic dke double. scroll down to the next set of pics for the rest of the tour!
Two fraternity brothers sitting on separate couches, with a TV mounted on the wall.
we take a look at another room that has two couches AND two TVs. we are informed that: "this room is popping."
Two frat brothers sitting on a leather couch in front of some national park posters.
we finally arrive at donny and drew's room! they show off their nice wall decor and their comfy couch.
they then lead us to the balcony right outside their room, before going up the stairs to...
... the roof!! we play a game of die...
... and we check out the views of campus and boston
Chef pointing at a tray of meatball subs in an industrial kitchen.
finally, we go alllll the way downstairs to the kitchen. on my way out, westy (beloved dke chef and honorary brother), gives me a meatball sub to go!
thanks for visiting dke! onto the final tour: sig chi!

DKE House Quick Facts

  • Inhabitants: 30
  • Singles: 8
  • Doubles: 11
  • Location: on campus

Sigma Chi

With our two on-campus fraternity tours complete, it’s time to go off-campus and walk across the bridge to Sig Chi. There are many frats located off-campus, so we see a few (like Theta Chi, Skulls, and Theta Tau) on our way. We are greeted by our next two tour guides: Sanjay L. ’25 and Jack G. ’25!

Tall brick building nestled right next to two other buildings.
hey sig chi!
Two frat brothers gesturing to their door in welcome
jack (left) and sanjay (right) welcome us in
Two frat brothers playing instruments in front of a window.
we start off the tour with a quick concert from sanjay and jack
Two frat brothers playing ping pong next to an American flag.
followed by an intense ping pong match. i ask to play but am refused, probably because they don't want to get destroyed...
Selfie with a girl and boy at a ping pong table with the caption saying:
... again. this is from freshman year, so our tour guide jack may be holding a grudge.
One frat brother singing next to a neon Sig Chi stoplight, while another cheers.
next up on the tour is the basement, where sanjay sings for us!!
Two frat brothers holding various kitchen utensils in the kitchen.
then we visit the kitchen...
Two frat brothers pointing at a Sig Chi sign next to long wooden tables.
... and the dining room! sig chi also hosts events here. scroll down to the next set of pics for the rest of the tour!
Two frat brothers smiling down from a set of white stairs.
we start to take our tour up the stairs
Two frat brothers reading books on couches with bookshelves behind them.
our first stop after taking the stairs is the library. this is where sig chi's weekly meetings are held!
Two frat brothers watching a movie on the TV, one wearing a cowboy hat.
our next stop is a lounge in one of the rooms, where we watch our favorite scene in goodwill hunting
One man sleeping on the bottom bunk of a bunk bed, another sitting next to him.
then we check out a classic triple, where sanjay takes a quick nap with his stuffed animals!
Two frat brothers hanging out in a large open room on a couch.
for our final stop, we check out the largest room in the entire house, the fifth floor quad!
View from window overlooking Charles River and skyline.
from this room, you can see the dome and mit's campus, which is where our tour started :) and with that, we end our tour here at sig chi. thanks for coming along!!

Sig Chi House Quick Facts

  • Inhabitants: 28
  • Doubles: 6
  • Triples: 4
  • Quads: 1
  • Location: off campus (Back Bay)

And with that, we wrap up our Tour de Frat! I hope everyone enjoyed the tour – thanks for tagging along :)