A clandestine world of secret societies thrives behind the closed doors of elite universities. Not all gather in tombs like the Skull & Bones club, of course, and some even file tax forms revealing financial secrets they’d rather you not read. These nine secret societies are among the most exclusive in the world. 

The Sphinx, Dartmouth, Hanover, NH

‍The all-male Sphinx club is the oldest secret society on campus dating back to 1855. Members meet in an Egyptian tomb reportedly linked to underground tunnels and a natatorium known as Cleopatra's Swimming Pool. Members’ names remain secret until graduation when they walk with canes emblazoned with Sphinx symbols. In 1989, 16 members were disciplined for stealing $12,000 worth of paintings and photographs during a campus ‘treasure hunt’, including a $10,000 painting of an American Indian entitled Pawnee, The New York Times reported.

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Bullingdon Club, associated with Oxford University

British Prime Ministers David Cameron and Boris Johnson are alumni of the male-only dining society known for its furniture-smashing meals as displays of wealth. The group was founded as a hunting and cricket club in 1788. Members welcome new recruits by trashing their college bedrooms. While recruits are Oxford students they are banned from holding events on university grounds due to loutishness. Johnson once described the club as a ‘shameful vignette of almost superhuman undergraduate arrogance, toffishness and twittishness’.

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Skull and Bones, Yale‍

The Order of the Skull and Bones founded at Yale in 1832 is more notorious than even the Bullingdon Club. With its HQ known as ‘The Tomb’, Skull and Bones initiate 15 people a year. New York’s Observer newspaper, using night-vision video equipment, recorded an initiation where recruits were berated with sexual insults and kneeled to kiss a skull. The club’s death mantra is: “The hangman equals death! The devil equals death! Death equals death!” Recruits are told they must ‘die to the barbarian world’ and be reborn in the Elysian company of ‘The Order’. Women were finally admitted in 1992. Presidents William Howard Taft, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush are all former members. 

The Flat Hat Club, William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Virginia

The F.H.C. Club, also known as The Flat Hat Club, has the honor of being the first US college secret society. Founded in 1750, it was primarily a drinking club at the Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg. Patrons met to discuss politics and liberty which eventually led to US independence. Former President Thomas Jefferson, also a member, supposedly claimed the society ‘served no useful object’. Though the Flat Hat Club disappeared from college life for decades, rumors suggest it has been revived.
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University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA

One of UVA's most elusive clubs is the Seven Society, founded in 1905. The group contributes financially to the University. Donation announcements are through letters signed with astronomical symbols in the order of Earth, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Neptune, Uranus, and Venus. Members are only revealed after their death - a wreath of black magnolias shaped like ‘7’ is laid at the gravesite. Alumni include Frank Wisner, one of the CIA’s founders, and US ambassador to the UN Edward Stettinius, Jr.

Scroll and Key, Yale, New Haven, Connecticut‍

Founded in 1841, Scroll and Key are one of Yale’s ‘Big Seven’ societies - referred to as ‘landed’ because the groups have a prestigious building on campus. Among the 40 or so Yale societies, Scroll and Key are one of wealthiest, according to their tax filing, with more than $12m in assets under the Kingsley Trust Association. Scroll and Key don’t interview candidates. (If you must ask, don’t.) Alumni include former Dateline NBC news anchor Stone Phillips, American film director George Roy Hill (The Sting), and musician Cole Porter.
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The Apostles, University of Cambridge, UK

The Apostles are among the most mysterious of Cambridge’s secret societies, founded in 1920 by George Tomlinson, later Bishop of Gibraltar. The Apostles reportedly held (and may still hold) weekly meetings to discuss truth, God, and ethics. Recruits swear a 'curse' or vow of secrecy. Former members include influential British economist John Maynard Keynes and writer Lytton Strachey. Three of the so-called Cambridge Five KGB spies - Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt, and John Cairncross - were Apostles. The group’s meetings have been described as Saturday night get-togethers where Whales (sardines on toast) and coffee are served.

The Ivy Club, Princeton, New Jersey‍

Technically, secret societies are banned at Princeton so exclusive ‘eating clubs’ operate above ground. Fans of F. Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise will recall the Ivy Club described as ‘detached and breathlessly aristocratic’. Candidates are vetted with 10 one-on-one interviews. All 130 male and female members must vote unanimously to admit new recruits. According to Town and Country, one of the wilder rumors about the Ivy Club is that during initiation week new members are passed down a staircase - the men naked, the women in their underwear. Famous alumni include James Baker, Woodrow Wilson, and author Michael Lewis.
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Porcellian Club, Harvard, Boston

Harvard students join ‘Final’ clubs in their last academic year rather than secret societies. The Porcellian Club, dating back to the 1790s, is one of the oldest. One Harvard grad described his visit to the club as “stepping back into the 1800s. Alumni in club medallions smoked cigars beneath the taxidermied visages that decked the hall… On the walls, the heads of horned beasts (moose, antelope, caribou) with glazed eyes that matched those of the drunken revelers celebrating.” The all-male club fought the push to go co-ed in 2016. Graduate board president Charles M. Storey argued in the Harvard Crimson that going co-ed "could potentially increase, not decrease the potential for sexual misconduct". President Theodore Roosevelt was an esteemed member.