Greek Life Leadership as Project Experience?

Emma, I don't know what your professional experience is, but normally, if you did day to day PM activities, that qualifies. You don't need to have the official position of PM for your experience to qualify.

I suggest you go through the exam content outline, and compare the tasks and domain with your expertise.

Emma -

In general, professional experience is what an auditor would look for as non-professional roles are unlikely to expose you to sufficient scenarios which a PM would be expected to deal with. It is one thing if the majority of the projects you submit on the application are professional but if you are only submitting non-professional experience your odds aren't good if your application gets audited.

Kiron

Great question, and a very common one for people early in the PMP journey.

Short answer: yes, it can count – but only if it truly meets the definition of a project, not because it was a leadership role.

PMI does not evaluate titles or contexts.
It evaluates whether you led or directed temporary endeavors with a clear objective, defined start and end, stakeholders, constraints, and measurable outcomes.

If your sorority or fraternity role involved things like planning a fundraising event, organizing a recruitment campaign, coordinating a conference, or delivering a one-off initiative with scope, schedule, resources, risks, and stakeholders, then you are describing project work.
If it was ongoing operational leadership with no defined finish, then it is operations, not a project.

What matters on the application is how you frame the experience:

• Describe the objective and success criteria.
• Show how you planned, executed, monitored, and closed the work.
• Use PMI language, not academic or social terminology.
• Focus on outcomes, decisions, and responsibilities, not the organization itself.

Many candidates fail here not because their experience is invalid, but because they describe it as “being a leader” instead of “delivering a project.”

One caution: do not stretch or retrofit experience.
PMI audits randomly, and clarity and honesty matter more than creativity.

Stepping back, the fact that you are already asking this question shows the right mindset.
Understanding the difference between leadership roles and project delivery is itself part of becoming a project professional.

If you can explain the work in a way that any project practitioner would recognize as a project, you are on solid ground. If not, it probably does not belong on the application.

Well done for asking this early.