Guide
A business fraternity for Cox School of Business students
If you are in Cox or headed there, here is how Phi Chi Theta fits around the coursework and the recruiting calendar you are already on.
Phi Chi Theta, Alpha Gamma Chapter, holds its chapter meetings at the Cox School of Business and is the natural professional fraternity for Cox students, though it is open to every major at SMU. It adds what the classroom does not: upperclassmen who just finished the recruiting you are about to do, speakers from Dallas firms, and reps at the things interviewers ask about. Brothers have gone to Morgan Stanley, Texas Capital Bank, Hilltop Securities, JLL, Visa and more.
Why Cox students join a business fraternity
Cox already gives you the coursework, the career center and a lot of classmates on the same track. What it cannot give you is a small group of people a year ahead of you who will tell you what the first round at a Dallas bank actually asked, or which real estate shops hire sophomores. That is what a professional fraternity is for. Phi Chi Theta meets at Cox, so the logistics are as simple as they get.
Where it overlaps with recruiting
Finance and consulting recruiting at SMU starts early and the timelines keep moving up. A chapter full of people on those timelines is a running source of intelligence: who is interviewing where, which firms came to campus, what changed this year. Phi Chi Theta brothers have landed at Morgan Stanley, Texas Capital Bank, Hilltop Securities, Origin Bank, Lockton and Visa on the finance and financial services side, and at JLL, Northmarq and Douglas Elliman in real estate. When a sophomore in the chapter wants an introduction, there is usually someone to make it.
What the chapter adds that class does not
- Speakers you can talk to afterward. Dallas firms come to chapter meetings; Holiner Holdings is one that has. A classroom speaker is a lecture. A chapter speaker is a conversation with thirty people in the room.
- Reps. Running a committee, pitching sponsors, organizing Pie Chi Theta. These are the leadership stories interviewers ask for and most coursework never generates.
- Peers who are not Cox. Because the chapter is open to all majors, you will sit next to advertising, engineering and political science students. That is good practice for every job you will ever have.
How it fits around the BBA path
SMU students typically spend time before they are formally in the BBA program, and the path into Cox has its own requirements that change over time; check with Cox for the current version. Phi Chi Theta does not require Cox admission. You can join as a pre business freshman or sophomore, or as a declared student in any other school, and the chapter is a useful place to learn what the majors actually lead to before you commit to one.
Time commitment during a heavy semester
Chapter meetings, a few events and dues. The exact schedule changes each semester and is covered at the Info Session. In practice most brothers find that the chapter takes less time than a single course and gives back more during recruiting season, because the prep happens in the room with people who just did it.
How to join from Cox
Same as everyone: attend an Info Session during recruitment, come to the social night, and submit the application. Fall recruitment usually runs in the first weeks of September, with the social night near campus. Spring dates are posted on Instagram in January. The recruitment guide has the full walkthrough.
Cox students moving off campus can use PonyUp Properties, a free SMU housing service.
Meet us at Cox.
Chapter meetings are there. So is the Info Session. Apply and we will send the details.