Greek Life

[archibaldcrane]

See the hard thing about college is that, in high school, you knew who everyone was. You knew who the jocks were, and the popular kids, the nerds, the stoners, etc. etc.

But then you get to college, and you don't know who anyone is - and even worse, noone knows who YOU are.

There's only one solution for this problem - go Greek! Easy reclassification, because stereotypes are real timesavers. Slap some letters on your chest, and make sure to socialize appropriately. Stay away from those people with the "bad" letters, or even worse, those losers who don't even join frats! Pay your fee and meet your new best friends - Greek Life - why wouldn't you?

Spoiler: show

no the irony is not lost on me

[Milkster]

See the hard thing about college is that, in high school, you knew who everyone was. You knew who the jocks were, and the popular kids, the nerds, the stoners, etc. etc.

But then you get to college, and you don't know who anyone is - and even worse, noone knows who YOU are.

There's only one solution for this problem - go Greek! Easy reclassification, because stereotypes are real timesavers. Slap some letters on your chest, and make sure to socialize appropriately. Stay away from those people with the "bad" letters, or even worse, those losers who don't even join frats! Pay your fee and meet your new best friends - Greek Life - why wouldn't you?

Spoiler: show

no the irony is not lost on me

You sure sound mad. And not being able to figure out who does what within the first week- month of college means you're doing it wrong.

[archibaldcrane]

lol get over yourself

[Milkster]

lol get over yourself

No sir, I think it is you with the condescending attitude that should "get over himself".

[archibaldcrane]

I guess

so I'd like to hear some of people experiences as to why they decide to join or not to join.

should've read

i will take any vague general criticism of greek life extremely personally and fight to defend the honor of the entire system as if it's a personal attack, if you have bad things to say about greeks fuck off and get out of my thread even though I asked for them

loud and clear bro, keep up the good fight

[Xno Kappa]

Yeah, the whole purpose of this thread seems like Milkster seeking validation for the "Greek Life" lol.

[Moss]

Disclaimer: This was MY experience. The posters that have mentioned fraternities being different at each school are correct. However, from my experience, SEC schools(save Vanderbilt) are similar.

I pledged a fraternity when I was a freshman but dropped after 2 weeks. The guys I talked to during rush were cool, but they were seniors, and the only people that were ever around were mostly dbags who treated you like shit because you were a pledge, and the other pledges who save for maybe 3 of them were a bunch of stiffs.

It is a dumb tradition to be hazed and treated like shit for an entire or semester or year, for ANY reason, let alone so you can just do it to other people once you are an active. I'm not just talking about bitch work like cleaning up the house and setting up the tailgate; those things are somewhat understandable. Having to give any random dbag active a ride at any hour or picking up cigarettes or buying flowers for some dudes girlfriend, etc, etc... fuck that. One of my friends from HS pledged the same frat as me, and he didn't bring his car to college just so he wouldn't be required to give rides all the time. Something is very, very wrong about that to me.

It took up ALL of my time for those first two weeks. Every day was some kind of nonsense meeting, we had all kinds of nonsense rules, a nonsense dress code, and they gave us a bunch of nonsense tasks like interviewing EVERY member of the entire fraternity. You are expected to at least get along with (if not be best friends with) everyone else in the pledge class, which is a silly expectation.

I knew I made the right decision in dropping because with actual free time I was able to meet the people that lived around me in my dorm and made a bunch of friends that way.

Another negative is if you are in a frat, you are going to be stereotyped both for being in a frat and for whatever your specific frat is known for. No one wants to be labeled and have people go "Oh, you're a XXX." and then make a ton of judgements about you.

[Milkster]

I guess

should've read

loud and clear bro, keep up the good fight

If you don't get it that's cool, but stop coming back and adding more. Everyone else has been able to say "it was cool" or "it sucked" in one post. You seem to want everyone to believe it's just bad all around for everyone. I know Greek Life isn't for everyone, my job as a Rush chairman and making this thread was to find out why reasons did not like it and hopefully, change that opinion for the better. You don't have to join an organization, that's fine with me. But hating it just to hate it, I find, is silly.

[plue]

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.

I don't know what you're studying that this would get you credit with any real company. I might be wrong, but I'd saythat in any serious field, saying that you volunteered as event organizer would just get you laughed at?

Maybe it's different in the States, but in Canada frats don't seem to matter all that much to... anyone.

[archibaldcrane]

If you don't get it that's cool, but stop coming back and adding more. Everyone else has been able to say "it was cool" or "it sucked" in one post. You seem to want everyone to believe it's just bad all around for everyone. I know Greek Life isn't for everyone, my job as a Rush chairman and making this thread was to find out why reasons did not like it and hopefully, change that opinion for the better. You don't have to join an organization, that's fine with me. But hating it just to hate it, I find, is silly.

Consider it a learning experience. True or not (obviously shit is situational), I'm espousing widely held views that you need to be able to effectively counter as you're trying to recruit. If you're interested in changing this perception, assure people that they won't be expected to treat people in their frat as "superior" to non-frat members, that they will not be discouraged from maintaining non-frat friendships even if they join, set up "initiations" that don't involve them doing "bitch work" for the senior members of the organization, etc. etc.

That is, if you want things to be different.

But then again, if everyone is treated as an equal, what's the point of a frat anyway?

[Yugl]

I never joined one and I don't plan to (Would be too late at this point anyways) do so. My roommate last year was my first experience with members from frats and it honestly matched up with the rumors quite accurately. They were always out even when they should be getting stuff done. My roommate has to be 1.5,3, or 5k to join (I honestly do not recall which). Like Arch mentioned earlier, that's a hefty sum to pay and can exceed tuition costs after scholarships. To join would be disingenuous to those contributing to my education as well (Both the slacking off component and personal funds used towards this cause). The one area that frats could help would be resumes and meeting people, but I don't think those are worth the costs I've outlined earlier. The feature I despise the most is the idea that secrecy within the fraternity reigns supreme over any other principle/outcome.

[archibaldcrane]

Pretty short-sighted thinking Yugl - if you don't have a culture of secrecy, how can you have a culture of date-rape?

[Yugl]

I laughed and then remembered that L&O episode I saw today. This shit just falls right in place. Impeccable timing!

[Seanr]

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.

Yea it's banned but some still do it in secret, I know they did at my school. My cousin got hazed pretty fuckin bad. They had to do it in secrecy because of one guy drowning in a lake or some shit around here during hazing. Cant find the article right now, but here is another recent case of people getting caught in MD
http://ww2.gazette.net/stories/03032...5636_32546.php

Pledging seemed kind of cool, with all the stepping and shit. But since I knew they still hazed, I avoided it for the same reason I stayed out of ROTC. I don't do well with orders being yelled at me... I'd flip the fuck out, and that person would be on the receiving end of misplaced pent up aggression.

Also...fuck getting branded

[Kaslo]

I don't know what you're studying that this would get you credit with any real company. I might be wrong, but I'd saythat in any serious field, saying that you volunteered as event organizer would just get you laughed at?

Maybe it's different in the States, but in Canada frats don't seem to matter all that much to... anyone.

Well if you get into a leadership role, then you are managing an organization with a pretty hefty budget. That's impressive to some companies. Plus, usually greek life prepares you to deal with drama a lot more since its about 24/7 drama

[Flarega]

Well if you get into a leadership role, then you are managing an organization with a pretty hefty budget. That's impressive to some companies. Plus, usually greek life prepares you to deal with drama a lot more since its about 24/7 drama

I TOLD YOU TO GET KEYSTONE NOT NATTY CHAD

[Kaslo]

I TOLD YOU TO GET KEYSTONE NOT NATTY CHAD

haha you lack of understanding of what a fraternity/sorority budget is really used for is amusing.

[Flarega]

me lack understanding

[Milkster]

Pretty short-sighted thinking Yugl - if you don't have a culture of secrecy, how can you have a culture of date-rape?

Yet another topic you know nothing about yet are extremely vocal about.

There are shitty chapters of Fraternities and Sororities. Are they all bad? No. For every stereotypical chapter there are at least 10 around the country/world that are the exact opposite. Fraternities and Sororities are full of people, so if the leadership/chapter is awful, then guess what kind of people they'll attract? You guessed it, awful members. It's the same in life. If you're a shitty person/business/partner/etc, don't expect good people to gravitate to you. I'm positive if people actually You're acting as if people aren't sexually assaulted else where, ever. Does date rape happen at Fraternity parties? Yes. By brothers of the chapters? Sometimes. There are also GDIs that come to these parties, hundreds to thousands of people can pass through a Fraternity house party in a night. It's becoming a bigger issue about security at parties now. Most National Chapters and Executive offices have been harping on how important it is for our Risk Management chair to do his job.

haha you lack of understanding of what a fraternity/sorority budget is really used for is amusing.

All stereotypes are true. Didn't you know? Why would I need to be in an organization to understand how it works? I'll just judge it from the outside from things the (always correct) internet and media portray.

[Qalbert]

to be fair you're not doing a good job convincing anyone that frat's aren't full of douchebags