Greek Life

[Reuniont]

Was in AEPi my first try at college.

Now the only way I'll get involved is if I get invited to the computer science honors group on campus (don't remember what their letters were).

[Ddz]

My friends give mixed reviews about joining frats too, but overall they seem to have a sense of security knowing that they have a safety net with their fraternity brothers/sisters. I genuinely enjoy networking and meeting new people, and this seems like a great way to have something in common/ice breaker for the future. I am planning to transfer to a university and I thought about pledging, but I am terrified of hazing, lol. I want to know more about that shit...

[Abandon]

Phi Kappa Sigma, reporting in. I did it because it was something that interested me from when i was young, as my uncle was a Kappa (Phi Nu Pi for you blacks, pretty boys, candy canes, etc) and i went with him to a lot of his alumni stuff. They did a lot of fundraising for the community, and did a shit ton of stuff like raising money to get kids scholarships to college. Also hung out together, and they were all very close friends. If something happened and we needed some kind of hookup, one of his brothers was within a call away from helping out.

That's pretty much how it is for me now. The guys I pledged with, and was active with, are among the closest friends i have. We do fundraisers for charities and scholarships, and all give money back to the chapter we came out of to allow them to have the same experiences, if not better, than what i had. it was also a great way to break the ice and meet new people in college, and a good time was had by all (minus pledgeship, lol). No regrets, and I would do it again.

[Abandon]

Also, there is a GIANT misconception about the people fraternities let in. I know everyone views them as nothing but party animals that well, party. Truth be told, fraternities and sororities usually have the highest GPA's on campus within their members, as there are GPA requirements to even pledge a fraternity. Many require (i know mine does, as did Kappa Sig, the house next to us) a certain amount of study hours per week to remain active. You could get placed on probation and even removed if you let your GPA drop too much.

[Baelari]

I had absolutely no desire to join one of the sororities on campus, and we have a bunch of them. I just don't get along with other girls very well. I wound up rushing and joining a co-ed engineering fraternity, and it's one of the best decisions I've made in college. It was a great match for me, especially since I'm very shy, and don't usually go out of my way to meet new people.

[Milkster]

My friends give mixed reviews about joining frats too, but overall they seem to have a sense of security knowing that they have a safety net with their fraternity brothers/sisters. I genuinely enjoy networking and meeting new people, and this seems like a great way to have something in common/ice breaker for the future. I am planning to transfer to a university and I thought about pledging, but I am terrified of hazing, lol. I want to know more about that shit...

Hazing is pretty much banned amongst all Fraternities now but you still have your brothers and sisters that want to haze, nothing too intense. Worse I had to do was spell out our name in Greek Letters with cups.

Also, there is a GIANT misconception about the people fraternities let in. I know everyone views them as nothing but party animals that well, party. Truth be told, fraternities and sororities usually have the highest GPA's on campus within their members, as there are GPA requirements to even pledge a fraternity. Many require (i know mine does, as did Kappa Sig, the house next to us) a certain amount of study hours per week to remain active. You could get placed on probation and even removed if you let your GPA drop too much.

I'm a Sigma Pi and I can back this up. Our student government is made up of 8/10 of Greek Org members. The whole paying for friends? Everyone pays for friends in some way or another. Fraternities and Sororities party about 20% of time. The rest is doing community service, philanthropy events, helping the communities because our National Chapters require it to stay a member. I can say in my one year, I've done more and been involved in more activities on campus than the non-Greek people I know. If you want to have a memorable time as someone said earlier, check out every fraternity and sorority on your campus. There is one out there for you no matter your interests or hobbies, if not look them up and become a founding father or mother.

This thread is helping me lots, thank you guys.

[plue]

Never even looked into fraternities, there seems no point to them? What's the point of joining (and WTFpaying) for shit you can do on your own? Drink, study, smoke pot, make friends, any of this shit is pretty standard to a normal person, just talk to anyone else on campus, everyone's in the same boat.

The whole paying for friends? Everyone pays for friends in some way or another.

It's cool if you do, just gonna let you know that most people don't.

The rest is doing community service, philanthropy events, helping the communities because our National Chapters require it to stay a member. I can say in my one year, I've done more and been involved in more activities on campus than the non-Greek people I know.

I don't see how this is supposed to entice people to join to be honest. You join, pay money, and then you have to do fucking community service too, are you nuts? Call up a bunch of your boys, get a couple cases and some Jager, and you just saved yourself time, money, and sobriety?

[miokomioko]

It's definitely purchasing a social environment and no, most people do not do it.

[Moosey]

Don't know much about Greek life, but Greek yogurt is freaking delicious!

[JigglyJam]

Voted indifferent. I never felt the allure to join nor had any bad experiences / heard bad things from them. I don't really like being around people anyways or at least for extended periods of time like what would be normal for a club/house.

[Skyylya]

The fraternities you speak of with people having good GPA's must not have sent the memo to my school. The people in the frats and sororities at my school were the biggest bunch of idiots you'd find on campus.

[Acturus]

Alright, here's my take on fraternities. I joined one my second year of college, stayed for three and a half years, and held two positions: Homecoming Chair, and President. I believe I walked away from the organization with two things: I was regarded as one of the most unusual brothers in the past decade, and also one of the worst presidents.

Here's the thing, a fraternity is a business. It's a business of making friends, but it's a business first. Any fraternity that does not conduct itself as a business fails both its members and itself. My experiences within my fraternity were largely frustrating because of the fact that I was not content with the organization to sit on its collective ass, drink beer, and piss away its opportunities. I was a part of an organization that was growing very fast, and was not equipped to handle the growth. I could go on and on ad naseum about specific stories, but why bother. It was a unique situation and I was a unique participant.

If someone is looking at joining a fraternity, there are a few things to consider well before "which one do I pick":

First, how big is greek life at your school? My school's greek life comprised 3% of the population, but also was responsible for a good 50% of the activities (sports fans, social gatherings, etc.), and the overwhelming majority of school life activities (student government, other clubs and associations, etc.).

Second, are you prepared to handle dues? Yes, you're paying for friends, but not really. You can be friends with other frat dudes, but being a member means that you're buying in to a collective purchasing alliance that will get you access to more things, like alcohol and women in the stereotypical sense, but also campaign funds for local school office, networking opportunities with alumni in the community, charitable work and opportunities, etc. etc.

Third, are you in it for the long haul? As you go through school, it's likely that your interests change. I know mine did. Will a fraternity (any fraternity) be something you'll stay with for four years and beyond? My fraternity's culture is that we are initiated for life. I've stayed connected with both the people I was friends with, and the local active chapter and alumni association for the last 6 years or so.

Anything beyond that is splitting hairs. All fraternities stand for a core set of similar principles, most attempt to adhere to them, blah blah blah. It's not a magic club where you all get matching tattoos and spend your weekends burying hookers in basements.

I personally never advocate for any incoming freshman to join a greek organization. There is a seperatist culture that seems to exist when greeks compare themselves to non-greeks, and that's dangerous for new students who haven't yet adjusted to college life. You end up building all of your friends within that affiliation, and if anything ever goes south, it's sometimes hard to adjust to not having the conveniences of a club of friends.

I'd really think hard about everything that's involved in joining a social club like a fraternity (or sorority) during what are I feel a person's most formative years. My experiences are largely jaded ones, but I harbor no illusions about what my greek life experience did to me, and did for me.

If the OP or anyone else wants more details, I can go on and on about specific aspects of greek life, everything from rush to ritual meetings to homecoming to networking. It'd be easier in PMs, but I know there's a lot of mystery in how greek culture really works when your a GDI (God Damned Independent), and since everyone wants your money and your friendship, it's hard to get a straight answer out of frat people.

[Eeeks]

Hazing is pretty much banned amongst all Fraternities now but you still have your brothers and sisters that want to haze, nothing too intense. Worse I had to do was spell out our name in Greek Letters with cups.
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Originally Posted by Ddz http://images.bluegartr.com/images/s...post-right.png
My friends give mixed reviews about joining frats too, but overall they seem to have a sense of security knowing that they have a safety net with their fraternity brothers/sisters. I genuinely enjoy networking and meeting new people, and this seems like a great way to have something in common/ice breaker for the future. I am planning to transfer to a university and I thought about pledging, but I am terrified of hazing, lol. I want to know more about that shit...

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I'm a Sigma Pi and I can back this up. Our student government is made up of 8/10 of Greek Org members. The whole paying for friends? Everyone pays for friends in some way or another. Fraternities and Sororities party about 20% of time. The rest is doing community service, philanthropy events, helping the communities because our National Chapters require it to stay a member. I can say in my one year, I've done more and been involved in more activities on campus than the non-Greek people I know. If you want to have a memorable time as someone said earlier, check out every fraternity and sorority on your campus. There is one out there for you no matter your interests or hobbies, if not look them up and become a founding father or mother.
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Originally Posted by Abandon http://images.bluegartr.com/images/s...post-right.png
Also, there is a GIANT misconception about the people fraternities let in. I know everyone views them as nothing but party animals that well, party. Truth be told, fraternities and sororities usually have the highest GPA's on campus within their members, as there are GPA requirements to even pledge a fraternity. Many require (i know mine does, as did Kappa Sig, the house next to us) a certain amount of study hours per week to remain active. You could get placed on probation and even removed if you let your GPA drop too much.
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Sigma Nu here, and I agree with a lot of this.

Too many people only associate fraternities/sororities with partying and general drunkenness, and while that is true to an extent (and true of many college students in general), to pigeonhole greeks in this manner is facile and fails to scratch the surface of overall greek life.

Yes, greeks party. Greeks also consistently surpass the general student population in average GPA, campus involvement, and philanthropic involvement. I personally devoted far more of my time to chapter leadership, campus leadership, and dozens upon dozens of philanthropic events than I ever spent partying. Anyone who wants to 'plug in' to campus life would benefit from joining a greek organization should they find one that fits them.

And this here barely scratches the surface. If I had the time right now, I could write so much more.

Some of the best and worst times of my life stemmed from my involvement in greek life, but overall, I grew tremendously as a person. For that, the experience was certainly rewarding and worthwhile. Although, if I could go back in time and redo college, I honestly don't know if I'd do it again.

EDIT: Acturus expressed much of what I would have liked to write. The only big difference is that greeks comprised more of the student population (and were heavily involved in campus and community life) at both universities I attended.

[Kuya]

Frats aren't very big in Puerto Rico. On my campus they are mostly just organizations centered around certain activities or field of study. For example a frat for basketball players, a frat for psych students, a frat for business students, etc. You don't join them for pussy or parties, both these things are easy to get by themselves anyway. It's practically exclusively about networking for your professional career and filling your curriculum vitae.

[Acturus]

Most of the impression that people get about fraternities in terms of participation in school events, community support, and GPA are largely dependent on how strong of a greek council exists at the respective school.

We had an Office of Greek Affairs at my school, as well as an Interfraternity Council (IFC, oversaw frats) and a Panhellenic Council (Pan, oversaw sororities). My school had a very weak Office of Greek Affairs, and as a result, things like GPA and involvement was rarely enforced amongst the organizations who didn't personally make it a priority. Overall, our IFC was a joke, and was regarded as a joke by all connected to it. Sadly, greek life at my school was not held in high esteem by the student body.

However, equally as important as a strong college office when it comes to comments like high GPA, high charitable cause involvement, and similar positive philanthropic aspects is a strong local and national alumni base, a strong national council, and strong individual chapter bylaws.

The best thing to do is to go to your office of student activity, office of greek life, or whatever campus department manages these organizations, and ask about the policies that are in place to enforce positive experiences. My experiences taught me that beer and tits will outweigh studying most days of the week if I'm left unsupervised.

[Milkster]

Never even looked into fraternities, there seems no point to them? What's the point of joining (and WTFpaying) for shit you can do on your own? Drink, study, smoke pot, make friends, any of this shit is pretty standard to a normal person, just talk to anyone else on campus, everyone's in the same boat.

If you don't want to do standard shit in college, going Greek is the way to go.

It's cool if you do, just gonna let you know that most people don't.

Like someone said before me you are purchasing a social environment. But you do get more out of than those in GDI. Like I said earlier the amount of people you meet just by wearing letters will easily be 3-4 times than someone is isn't Greek. It's absolutely amazing for networking. Having networks of hundreds of thousands of alumni to call throughout the country/world.

I don't see how this is supposed to entice people to join to be honest. You join, pay money, and then you have to do fucking community service too, are you nuts? Call up a bunch of your boys, get a couple cases and some Jager, and you just saved yourself time, money, and sobriety?

When you can put on your resume that you've done work for x amount of organizations while in school, it can do nothing but help you in the end. Also the connections you build doing said events are amazing.

[Chun Liroy]

Phi Kappa Sigma, reporting in. I did it because it was something that interested me from when i was young, as my uncle was a Kappa (Phi Nu Pi for you blacks, pretty boys, candy canes, etc) and i went with him to a lot of his alumni stuff. They did a lot of fundraising for the community, and did a shit ton of stuff like raising money to get kids scholarships to college. Also hung out together, and they were all very close friends. If something happened and we needed some kind of hookup, one of his brothers was within a call away from helping out.

That's pretty much how it is for me now. The guys I pledged with, and was active with, are among the closest friends i have. We do fundraisers for charities and scholarships, and all give money back to the chapter we came out of to allow them to have the same experiences, if not better, than what i had. it was also a great way to break the ice and meet new people in college, and a good time was had by all (minus pledgeship, lol). No regrets, and I would do it again.

Your uncle was a Kappa? A couple really good friends just pledged last semester for them. If there was any frat I'd join, it'd be this one but they just aren't my thing honestly.

Most of the sororities on my campus are pretty much for whores.

[Milkster]

Your uncle was a Kappa? A couple really good friends just pledged last semester for them. If there was any frat I'd join, it'd be this one but they just aren't my thing honestly.

That's a phrase I hear a lot as well. How can someone know something is there thing if they've never done/tried it before. I know the media and stereotype on Greek atmosphere has had something to do with this. It's like saying I hate a certain type of food. Well, have YOU ever tried it before? No, I just heard all sorts of things about it so I won't try it, it's not for me.

Most of the sororities on my campus are pretty much for whores.

If this is true, that sucks. And an unfortunate rarity.

[Chun Liroy]

That's a phrase I hear a lot as well. How can someone know something is there thing if they've never done/tried it before. I know the media and stereotype on Greek atmosphere has had something to do with this. It's like saying I hate a certain type of food. Well, have YOU ever tried it before? No, I just heard all sorts of things about it so I won't try it, it's not for me.

Nope, I tried it. I won't say what frat it is or whatever, but a few of my friends and I were going to join. We went through all the preliminaries, we had to do community service, presentations for the brothers, set up a couple social events and such. Next came "the process," where we essentially learned the probate show, and were pretty much on lockdown, which a lot of us didn't like. I could understand a lot of the reasons and such, but I ultimately (and nearly all of my friends) decided it wasn't for me. A couple joined different frats but they are like... the community service frats or w/e. During the parts leading up to where I dropped, I was pretty much doing it solely for the reason that I came this far and don't like to give up, but then I realized that that is a bad reason to join something that's going to have a significant impact. I took a lot away from it and value the experience, but it's just not for me.

[Milkster]

I wasn't saying that specifically to you. It was a more in general thing. So, you almost went Divine 9?