Who wants to talk about sorority and fraternity life?

[treestarfae]

Anyone want to share their experience here?

[Janie Grace]

This is so funny. My 12yo dd was asking me questions about college life today, and I was trying to describe fraternities and sororities. She looked at me in confusion and said, "so... you pay money, get together and do good deeds, and then you drink?"

 

I can't comment from personal experience. I didn't rush. To me it felt like going back to high school ("oh, I hope these people will accept me!"). I have an easy time finding a social group without having to join a preset one. My friends who pledged later regretted it because they didn't ever feel close to their "sisters" but felt obligated to do stuff they didn't really want to do since they had committed.

[Ria]

My friends who pledged later regretted it because they didn't ever feel close to their "sisters" but felt obligated to do stuff they didn't really want to do since they had committed.

 

This describes my involvement entirely. I joined but felt resentful and obligated to have to give them my time. Eventually I became inactive. We did not have sorority houses on our campus.

 

Dh was in a fraternity. It was a good group of guys and not known for excessive drinking...most of the time. :)

[Gailmegan]

I think it varies widely from school to school. At bigger universities or schools in large cities there is so much to do that one can entertain oneself and find friends through many different clubs/activities. But at some smaller campuses in the middle of farmland, everything centers around Greek life.

 

I went to a small school (1800 students) where there was nothing to do other than go to the fraternity houses on the weekends. I think 60% (or more) was Greek. I rushed just to check it out and wasn't planning to join, but I'm so glad I did. The sorority I joined welcomed me for who I was. It was an extremely diverse group of athletes, scholars, partiers, etc. We didn't have a stereotype since we were different from the rest. Although there was plenty of drinking, no one ever gave me grief about the fact that I wouldn't. And when there was the occasional pledge activity that made me uncomfortable, they let me sit out no questions asked. But I was also one of the first to volunteer to do silly stuff like hang spoons from my nose and walk around the cafeteria. I loved how wearing my pledge pin gave me an excuse to be outrageous. ;) And of all the friends I made in college, it's mostly my sorority friends that I'm still in touch with.

[Danestress]

"that I am a Kappa Kappa Kappa Gamma, nobody knows, how happy I am."

 

I had an ok greek experience. I pledged my sophmore year, went abroad my junior year, and was still sort of "over" the experience by my senior year.

 

The pros: Living in a beautiful southern mansion on prime college real estate (I only lived there one year, though)

 

Having a "home" for a proper dinner every night with cloth napkins, candles ... the works. They served a casual lunch everyday. I think my parents had to pay for a certain number of meals a week. It was sort of a hike sometimes from where ever I was on campus, but it was worth the effort and it was good to have that sort of regular "family life."

 

Having a network of really bright, successful women who achieved so much in college and after. My sisters are doctors, teachers, engineers, professors, mothers .... They were athletes, leaders, Christians, Jews .... all sorts of great women.

 

Friends. Really nice ones, who I maintained relationships with through the whole college experience because we were all paying for those meals, lol.

 

I didn't do a lot of the parties. I wasn't a big party person. I did go on a spring break trip to Mexico with a few of them, and sometimes I marvel that we are all still alive to tell the tale. I also remember a weekend trip I took with some of them, the stories from which I would not share with my parents:)

 

But still, it was an overall good experience.

[FaithManor]

I was not involved. I was a music major. Music majors at my school had no life....no.life.at.all....you were enslaved to your voice or your instrument! :lol: It is still extraordinary to me that I met dh in college and he wasn't a music major....cosmic collision if there ever was one.

 

My nephew was in a fraternity, my niece in a sorority. I don't know which ones. They both went to Florida State in Tallahasee. For them, they got involved in a lot of partying that neither of them had done in high school. Now, whether or not that was the negative influence of Greek life or not, I do not know. I tend towards the, "You are an adult now, try acting like one and be responsible" attitude. So, I don't like to blame the organizations. I do have to wonder if they might have done better if they hadn't pledged.

 

Faith

[Unscripted]

I was Greek throughout college and loved it. Contrary to the stereotypes- I wasn't buying my friends on monthly dues payments- that money went to the chapter so we could have things like cable, furniture, insurance, and yes the occasional party. We were not functioning alcoholics and sluts. My chapter did have an excellent bond throughout the sisterhood- truly, those girls *are* my sisters. My "twin" is my best friend and lives like 3 miles from me... I talk to other sisters regularly. Granted I was closer to some than others- but I would (even 12 years after graduation, *gasp*) still drop everything for the sister I knew the least. My grades were better because of the sorority- we had a girl in nearly ever major, so you could always get a free tutor. In addition, in our chapter you were not allowed to do the "fun stuff" (socials, homecoming, etc) if you carried below a 3.0 the previous semester. Yes drinking happened- but again we were to only drink when sisters were with us- to watch out for one another. There were always several DD's assigned for everything.

In all honesty - the apartment dwellers were the ones that had the outrageous parties that were really dangerous, TBH. As a Greek Organization- we were under the surveillance of the University- and could have our charter yanked for a myriad of things.

 

I say all of that about *my chapter* and *my sorority*... Yes some are horrible- the horror stories are known- and perspective members (not allowed to call them rushies or pledges any more, lol) should be interviewing the chapter and going in with eyes wide open about the girls. Ask around about their reputation- students and faculty. And make an educated choice about who they want to associate with... In many cases a bad experience is just as much to blame on the chapter as it is the new member- they should both be looking for a "fit" not just going with a "do you really like me, gosh really?" mentality- and just accepting a bid because it was extended.

 

Anyway- I hope I don't come across as snarky. I loved my experience, still love my sisters, and I hate to see those stereotypes flashed about as fact- because they just aren't... Most of the Greeks I knew (I do live in the South) were really good solid girls.

[ktgrok]

Well, in my experience sororities were VASTLY different than fraternities. I am Sigma Sigma Sigma, and it was a pretty good experience. However, I have moderate face blindness, so I had a hard time making friends even living in the house, because I didn't recognize people if they changed their hairstyle or clothing style. And in a group of girls that happens daily.

 

But anyway, it was GREAT for me academically. I don't think all schools are alike, but at mine sororities were ranked partly by house GPA. So there was a lot of pressure to study. In fact your first semester you had to do mandatory study hours. 6 hours a week of studying in a special study room they had, and you had to have someone sign off that you did the time, each time. In the second semester, IF your GPA was high enough, you could do 3 hours unsupervised, on the honor code, and 3 hours in the study room. Your second year you didn't have mandatory study hours unless your GPA dropped below a 3.0 or something. Maybe even 3.5, I don't recall. Also, at every meeting the education chair would pass around candy to everyone that had attended all their classes that week. I'm sad to say I never got a piece of candy. But it was still good social pressure. There were also test files, with old tests for each/class professor. The professors knew about them, and changed their tests every year, but the questions were similar to give you a feel of what the professor was looking for. A huge help.

 

There was a house "mother" to watch out for us and run things, and there were rules like "no guys upstairs". So nothing icky happened. And the security system was great. (I lived there two doors down from where Dahmer attacked...and my sorority house developed sleeping porches, where everyone slept in the same room, as a security precaution, on top of the door ALWAYS being locked.)

 

The house environment was really nice, and I liked it. But the main issue I had was that I had a serious boyfriend. You were required to go to "mixers" every month, with a different fraternity each time. They were things like Ice cream socials, etc. There was no alcohol, just girls and guys hanging out...but I couldn't bring my boyfriend, and I didn't want to go without him. You got demerits if you missed too many, although no one gave me a hard time about it. It would have been a LOT more fun if I hadn't had a boyfriend. There were other events that did have alcohol, that were not mandatory, but only certain kinds of alcohol (no hard liquor), and they had to hire a bartender, security, etc and had to provide other drinks....those events only happened a few times a year.

 

In fact, I'd highly encourage a single girl to join, for the academic reasons alone. It is a great way to make friends and feel that you have a "home" on campus. If I hadn't had face blindness, been shy, and had a way too serious boyfriend, it would have been even better.

 

On the other hand, fraternities were pretty much what you see on tv. Lots of drinking, no house parents, no meals served, filthy, etc.

Edited September 23, 2011 by ktgrok

[kitten18]

I was in a sorority, DH was in a fraternity, we both had great experiences.

 

We went to a pretty big state university (20,000 students).

The great things:

-I lived in a big, safe house with 60 other young women.

-My room and board, and sorority dues were LESS than my dorm room (lived in the dorm my freshman year).

-Getting good grades was VERY important in my sorority, this caused me to step up my game and make sure my grades were good (didn't want to bring down the house GPA).

-Spending time with very smart girls. My pledge sisters went on to become, lawyers, engineers, pharmacists, nurses, teachers, etc..

-GREAT food, we had a lunch cook and a dinner cook who cooked almost everything from scratch.

-We did drink, quite a lot, but we did almost all of our drinking on campus so there was never a need to drive. When we were old enough to drink in the bars, they were close enough to campus that we walked.

-I still keep in touch with my sorority sisters and we had a pledge class reunion a couple years ago.

 

Cons:

-I can't think of any.

 

 

 

I know there are a lot of stereotypes about sorority girls. The one about snotty, rich girls makes me laugh. In my sorority (and all the others on my campus), most of the girls were from lower-middle income, blue-collar families.

 

I have to go now, I will come back to this thread.

[Alice]

I was in a sorority. It was somewhat different at my school because rush was in January and we had no houses. So you already had a group of friends before rushing. My roommate for sophomore-senior year (and after college) was in a different sorority, one of our apartment mates senior year was not in a sorority. Guys also didn't have houses (they did have lodges for parties) although they did rush in Sept. My college boyfriend lived with some other guys in fraternities but he wasn't in one himself. There was just more intermixing than in other places.

 

As to why do it. I have to admit I primarily did it because it was something important to my Mom. She had wanted to be in a sorority in college but wasn't for various reasons and it was really important to her that I try it. I could have said no but since it was fairly laid-back at our school I was willing. My Mom was actually able to join my sorority also and that meant a lot to her. I didn't regret it although I think I would have been just as happy without it. I am someone who has always made friends with guys better than girls and it was a nice way to meet girl friends. For us it was sort of a social club with some service projects.

[Shelly in IL]

That being said, i hope my boys don't have my experience or my husband's (who was also Greek). It was fun while it lasted tho...

[Harriet Vane]

My dh had a really positive fraternity experience (Phi Kappa Theta), and I had friends who did well in a sorority setting (Alpha Phi). Also a dear, dear friend of mine cherished his time as a Theta Xi.

 

The houses vary widely in character. Drinking was an issue for every house on campus (and every party). However, my dh did not drink in college and did have (still has) a strong faith. His drinking preference and his faith were both respected by his fraternity brothers. He was NEVER pressured to engage in drinking or other negative behaviours. We still keep in touch with a handful of the guys and we value them as friends.

 

I would say that a confident student could really benefit from time in the Greek system. However, that student would need to choose their house carefully, as there are some houses that WILL exert specific pressure to engage in negative party behaviour. On the other hand, there are houses like my dh's that are not like that. I would hate to paint all houses with the same brush.

 

My dh and my friends valued the camaraderie above all else. That, in my mind, is the number one benefit to being in a Greek house.

[Dustybug]

I'm a card-carryin' member of Zeta Tau Alpha, and I had a great Greek experience. I went to a small private school and our chapter was not very large. We weren't really the "wild" ones on campus either..in fact we had a reputation of being the "good girls." lol I didn't rush. I was an older freshman and was placed on the ZTA hall as an independent because I was going to turn 21 one my first year and since no alcohol was allowed in freshman dorms, administration placed me there. My school only had houses for the fraternities...the sororities each had their own hall in the regular dorm buildings.

 

I got to know a lot of the girls and during the second semester, they extended an invitation to me. I gladly accepted. They were great. I still talk to several of them and my Big Sister was my matron of honor and talk weekly. Our kids play together. :)

[OrganicAnn]

Tri-Delt here. I went to a school that was about 80% Greek (I used kid the motto of the college was Go Greek or Go Elsewhere). Overall I'd say that my experience was good. We lived in a sorority house. It did provide more structure than living in a dorm or apartment.

 

I would be my worried about fraternities. At our College, sororities didn't haze, but you never were sure what the fraternities were up to.

[Green Vixen]

I was in a sorority at a large University (45,000 students) and we had around 50 sororities and fraternities, in other words a large Greek system :001_smile:.

 

I lived in the house and had a very good experience! If my daughter wanted to join a sorority I would support her decision though I have a few years before I need to worry about that!

 

Being at a large university it was easy to feel like just another number so having a home away from home was very comforting. The house we lived in was very nice though not very private with 80 other girls! We had food cooked for us for each meal and there was a "mother" there if we needed an adult for anything.

 

Academics were very important in our house and we had lots of study groups and required study hours for freshman. As other posters have said my sorority sisters became lawyers, doctors, engineers, etc. We also did a lot of community service projects in our community.

 

Drinking in the house was forbidden as well as males in the sleeping areas. So we would go to the fraternity parties, drink there and then come home to our nice quite house. There was a lot of drinking done by members of the sorority, but the same can be said for students at the dorms, in apartments or anywhere else.

 

Having said all this I would NOT recommend someone joining a fraternity. At least at the university I attended the fraternities were absolutely disgusting! All of the parties happened there because it wasn't allowed at the sororities. The houses smelled like urine and beer and were noisy all the time. I don't know how anyone was able to study.

 

So there's my 2 cents about Greek life :lol:.

 

Marisa

[mommymilkies]

With my sorority/fraternity exposure when I went to university, I Would not support my kids joining. It sounds like some people here had good experiences, but at my college it was only an excuse for binge drinking and often very dangerous hazing.

[kitten18]

 

Drinking in the house was forbidden as well as males in the sleeping areas. So we would go to the fraternity parties, drink there and then come home to our nice quite house. There was a lot of drinking done by members of the sorority, but the same can be said for students at the dorms, in apartments or anywhere else.

 

 

Yes, I forgot to say that there was absolutely, NO drinking in the sorority house, we did all that at the fraternities.:tongue_smilie:

 

We also had ZERO hazing. I don't think that any of the sororities on our campus hazed.

 

My DH was hazed in his fraternity. His little brother is 10 years younger and he was in the same fraternity. By the time he got there, the hazing was gone. Their house was kind of gross but they had cooks and had pretty decent food (much, much better than the dorms). The guys rarely studied in their houses, they went somewhere else every night to study.

[twoforjoy]

I have no personal experience being in a sorority.

 

However, I have taught freshman writing courses for the last nine years. I can say that, when I was teaching at a university that had a large, active Greek scene, I saw a marked drop in academic performance in students pledging fraternities during "rush." (And a truly surprising number thought that pledging should be considered an extenuating circumstance to be factored in when I was grading.) I didn't tend to see it in female students who were pledging, though. That is as far as my experience extends, though.

 

The school where I teach now has sororities and fraternities, but no houses. I assume the pledging process is less intense and the commitment is less significant, because I rarely hear students talk about it and don't see it affecting academic performance.

 

I will say that I'd probably discourage my kids from pledging, particularly my boys and particularly in their first year of college.

Edited September 24, 2011 by twoforjoy

[Remudamom]

Chi Omega here. They were a good bunch of girls.

[KristinaBreece]

I was not involved. I was a music major. Music majors at my school had no life....no.life.at.all....you were enslaved to your voice or your instrument! :lol: It is still extraordinary to me that I met dh in college and he wasn't a music major....cosmic collision if there ever was one.

 

Faith

 

Lee University, Sigma Alpha Iota Charter Member.

 

It's an amazing women's fraternity... the requirement being enrollment in a music course before joining. Most of my sisters, and the Phi Mu Alphas (the men's equivalent) were music majors. Amazing experience! I went to a Christian school, so the official policy was no drinking. There was some drinking anyway, but it wasn't CRAZY. (Ok, it was crazy once. But that got back to our faculty sponsor & it was only a few SAI girls and a couple of Phi Mus in an isolated incident. I'll never forget the lecture when she found out: "There's nothing worse than a sloppy drunk broad." ;)) Overall, though, it was empowering and we were very service-oriented.

 

Oh. And official campus rules prohibited Greek houses, but I roomed with some of my sisters.

[Enough]

I was in a sorority, DH was in a fraternity, we both had great experiences.

 

We went to a pretty big state university (20,000 students).

The great things:

-I lived in a big, safe house with 60 other young women.

-My room and board, and sorority dues were LESS than my dorm room (lived in the dorm my freshman year).

-Getting good grades was VERY important in my sorority, this caused me to step up my game and make sure my grades were good (didn't want to bring down the house GPA).

-Spending time with very smart girls. My pledge sisters went on to become, lawyers, engineers, pharmacists, nurses, teachers, etc..

-GREAT food, we had a lunch cook and a dinner cook who cooked almost everything from scratch.

-We did drink, quite a lot, but we did almost all of our drinking on campus so there was never a need to drive. When we were old enough to drink in the bars, they were close enough to campus that we walked.

-I still keep in touch with my sorority sisters and we had a pledge class reunion a couple years ago.

 

Cons:

-I can't think of any.

 

 

 

I know there are a lot of stereotypes about sorority girls. The one about snotty, rich girls makes me laugh. In my sorority (and all the others on my campus), most of the girls were from lower-middle income, blue-collar families.

 

I have to go now, I will come back to this thread.

 

:iagree:with almost everything, except I (and my DH) both went to the same small, private, liberal arts college. Greek involvement did not affect our room and board fees or perks, unfortunately- lol!

 

Everything else- emphasis on making GREAT grades, drinking a lot :lol: but absolutely NO driving, close connections with Greek sisters/brothers, "regular" people in the sororities + frats etc- YEP!

[chepyl]

I am proud do be and A Dee Pi! I pledged second semester of my freshman year. My grades did not drop, I did not become a drinker and a partier; but I had an AMAZING group of friends and lots of fun activities and opportunities for leadership.

 

If your kids are solid in their values and beliefs before heading off to college, they will get all the benefits of the Greek System, but not go off the deep end.

 

I am still close to my roommate and two other girls from the house (close friends), my "big" and I keep up on Facebook and at reunions. I would wholeheartedly support my daughter joining a sorority.

 

Pros:

Opportunities to gain leadership experience

EXTENSIVE practice in interview and presentation skills (you can't find another experience like Rush/Recruitment to practice these skills!)

Life long friendships

A support system of students in all majors and years, you can generally find someone who took a class with the professor you have if you need some help.

Mandatory study hall hours.

Lots of fun activities - homecoming, dances/parties, Greek competitions.

Amazing networking - alumni are VERY supportive of other members of their house, even from other universities.

 

Cons:

It can be time consuming

There are some kids who go Greek for the parties

 

Hazing is illegal and a Panhellenic will pull a charter if they learn about it. There was NO hazing in my house.

 

I loved living in the house. We had an awesome house mom, a Christian, who led a morning prayer meeting and a weekly Bible study for anyone who wanted to join. She did etiquette lessons each Monday at formal dinner and made us yummy homemade meals 12 times a week. (3 days was cold breakfast).

 

Our dues and room and board cost less than the room and board to live in the dorms. Definitely less than getting my own apartment. That paid for 12 hot meals, two cold breakfasts, a stocked snack room, a double occupancy room, dues for the house, cable in the tv room, and maintenance on the house. We paid for our own phone line if we wanted one (and you needed it to have internet at the time). So I paid about $450 per month plus I split a $20 phone line with my roommate. Dormrooms were $450ish, plus the meal plan (our food was MUCH better :D)

 

My sisters sang to DH and I at my wedding, I cried.

[angela in ohio]

I was a Tri-Delt for almost a year. :D I was a sophomore dating a grad student seven years my senior, and he had no patience for the Greek scene, so I caved to the pressure and quit. I was also in the one for my major and the Honors fraternity, but I don't count those as Greek life really.

 

I was at the university on one of the top four scholarships they gave (full everything, plus pocket money and a trip to Europe.) We - the handful of girls on my scholarship - were heavily recruited for our GPAs. Delta Delta Delta had the highest GPA on campus and many other Honors students, so I joined. There was a party scene, of course, but there was also a group of girls who weren't into that. It was a nice support group, and I can see the benefit of joining your freshman year, but I already knew people and had a social circle by the time I joined. Two of my closest friends didn't get into Tri-Delta and became Chi Omegas, and it was hard to be in different sororities.

 

There was no hazing in our house, but we did get to see the guys in thehouse next door get hazed. The sororities doted on their pledges and gave them gifts, and the fraternities made theirs clean the house in their underwear. :lol: The Greek social events, as someone else said, were actually tamer than some of the other ones I went to off-campus at apartment complexes.

 

I have no idea whether my dc will pledge or not. It will depend on the university they go to and what they decide. I would support them financially pledging if they found a group they wanted to be a part of, because I trust their judgment.

[choirfarm]

I pledged a sorority mainly because you had to be a member to participate in Sing this HUGE competition among frats and sororities. You put on a musical show in the spring. Then you get judged and the winners put on the show for the Alumni in the fall for Homecoming. I was a music major for half my time there and that is fairly common to be Greek. I was in charge of the music for our Sing program. I had to figure out the songs, do the arrangements, find a band and then teach it to my girls. I didn't know anyone who drank.. Baylor didn't encourage it. ( I'm sure they did... but it was off campus I guess.) There were no houses and hazing was nonexistent. In fact, if it came close like requiring the girls to sign something or say something to an older girl they would clamp down.. I remember thinking it was over the top.

 

When I went to Baylor there were no dances on campus ( has sinced been changed) so our functions were a big part of the social life. Once again no drinking.

 

To me, it was practically required to do social stuff. Some of my friends did the service frats/sororities instead of the social ones. My dh didn't do any Greek stuff he proudly maintains. Grin.. my comment is that he was VERY active in the BSU ( Baptist student Union) which was its own clique that ran Welcome Week and tons of official activities for Baylor. You just didn't pay dues.

 

There is also a frat whose job is to represent Baylor. They take care of the bears and have to go to college fairs and such. They wore these green and white striped shirts. Now they did have sort of hazing from what I heard..not with drinking but other stuff. Hard to get into this one.

 

Then there was the Nose brothers who were an underground group. They published an undergroung newspaper that spoofed Baylor but no one knew who they were. Not sure about their drinking policies since I wasn't a member.

 

I had a ball. I maintained a 4.0 when I pledged and when I was Sing Chairman. The sorority taught me time management and leadership skills. I had no interest in keeping active after I left. I could care less about sororities but it was the only way to do certain activities.

 

Christine

[ktgrok]

This has me remembering one of my more embarrassing moments....I was elected Ritual Chair at one point, even though I really didn't know much about doing that. I was rushing around to do some ritual one night, getting everything read. I don't think it was initiation, something slightly less important but I know we were dressed for it. I had slipped into flip flops while setting up, planning to put my heels back on before we started. I totally forgot though, until I was walking with a lit candle, in a floor length dress, with my shoes going "smack...smack" as I walked across the tile. Oops. Everyone was staring.

 

I wasn't ritual chair the next semester :)

 

Oh, and like the previous posters, there was NO hazing. NONE. You felt totally appreciated and loved as a pledge. It was the opposite of hazing. The sorority would lose their charter if there ever had been any.

 

The fraternities DID have hazing, but it was pretty mild I believe.

 

Oh, and I learned in those you years you do NOT shorten fraternity to "frat" any more than you shorten "country" to .....well....you get the picture :)

[Bassoonaroo]

Chi Omega at a very small college (800 students, with most living on campus). At the time, we had two sororities (or "women's fraternities") and two fraternities but I think the college has four sororities now! Tiny.

 

Anyway, the sororities were given each a suite of three rooms in the attic of the dorm, so we didn't live in sorority houses. In fact, many of the girls in the sororities had roommates in the other sorority.

 

Being such a small school, it probably was a much different Greek experience. We had "dry" parties but usually alcohol showed up. I wasn't into that much but a few girls did overindulge a lot. Alcohol was strictly prohibited on campus (and people got kicked out!) so these were off-campus parties (so, someone had to drive). I guess any party like that is going to have alcohol though -- Greek or not.

 

PROS: Always had a buddy to sit with at the dining hall.

File of past tests (yes, the profs knew we had them) to study from.

Pressure to keep those grades up.

Friends that I probably wouldn't have made otherwise. Girls I probably thought were "stuck up" ended up being great gals!

Friendships that lasted.

Absolutely no hazing.

We did community service which is something I would've done little of in college otherwise.

We also went to church together once a month and that got me going to church. It wasn't required but a lot of girls went.

I got leadership experience I didn't get in high school as I was treasurer for a year. Oh, and I learned that I didn't like dealing with other people's money. Not my cup of tea!

 

CONS: Sometimes people assume you were a certain way (whether good or bad!) based on your Greek membership. Maybe at some huge universities, all the drama queens are in one group, the athletes in another, the rich girls in a certain group, and those who like to drink in yet another. Of course, some nasty college boys seem to pursue girls in a certain group because, as a group, the girls have a reputation of being quite available. Duh. And, sometimes stereotypes go beyond college. If I tell someone I was Chi O in college, if they have any experience with Chi O, they often assume I fit their image exactly. Maybe that's pretty rich girl, alcoholic with loose morals, sweet girl, smart girl, ugly dog of a girl, etc. Not true at all. Not only does each chapter in a national group have a unique collection of girls, but each girl in each chapter is a unique individual. But people make generalizations. I'm sure that there are people that have landed jobs (or been denied jobs) based a lot on their Greek affiliation

 

A "past con" is that in the past, the groups were a lot more racially divided. The whites were ONLY in these groups and the blacks were ONLY in these groups. And the Asians at my tiny school (not many) stayed out of that mess! Ha ha. In the early 80s, Chi O was all white (as far as I could tell), now there are black, middle Eastern, and Asian members, bringing a new diversity to the group. I like that. I am guessing other groups are also accepting of girls from a variety of backgrounds and beliefs.

 

I am guessing most of this applies to fraternities with boys too. Hmm.

[treestarfae]

:lurk5:

[treestarfae]

:bigear:

[scrapbookbuzz]

I am a Chi Omega only because I was too stubborn to quit. That being said, the majority of my experience with "Greek life" was not pleasurable. I tend to be an "out of the box thinker" and I despise beer. All the ideals the sorority claimed to follow I did not see practiced on a day to day basis. It is my hope that my experience was not that of most. I even tried to participate in alumni activities but I found that, while the people I came across were quite pleasant, that past experience was so invasive in my memories, that I did not enjoy myself.

 

The rest of my family, all of whom were "Greek" in some aspect had much pleasanter experiences than I.

Can't say I'd encourage my children to go through Rush or pledge. There are other clubs out there with viable interests.

[Crimson Wife]

I was in a women's fraternity (which was very particular about calling it that, rather than a "sorority", LOL!) and DH was in a fraternity. For the most part, it was a positive experience for both of us.

 

For the girls, Rush was awful (on both the rushee and the member side) while the initiation period was fun. For the guys, it was the opposite. DH's fraternity actually wound up losing their house as the result of a hazing incident (which he thankfully wasn't involved in). If my kids decided to go Greek, I'd worry about my girls' psychological well-being during Rush and DS' physical well-being during his pledge period.

[kitten18]

I was in a women's fraternity (which was very particular about calling it that, rather than a "sorority", LOL!)

Me too. :D

[treestarfae]

:bigear:

[Janie Grace]

:bigear:

 

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