College Tip 7: Greek Life

College Tip 7: Greek Life

If you’ve ever seen a movie that is set in college, you’ve most likely gotten a glimpse at what Greek life is supposedly about. Basically, in any movie, Greek life will be depicted as a bunch of actor and actress-quality-looking people that party way too much, don’t have class, and never have worry about the consequences. Well the first part is definitely not true, but as for the rest I can’t really deny. But, there is so much more to Greek life than partying and social networking.

If you don’t know how the Greek system works, there’s a process at the beginning of every year that is called rush. This period allows freshmen to get a feel for which fraternities or sororities are most suitable for them. However, rush is completely different for guys and girls. Girls have to go to every house in groups, socialize, and both parties (rush and sorority) determine if there is a match in compatibility. Guys rush consists of going to any houses you want, eating free food, and chilling for a couple hours. It’s much more relaxed and not really stressful at all. At the end of rush, ‘bids’ are given out from fraternities and sororities to the rushes that they think are the best candidates for pledging. Rushes typically have about a day to accept or decline bids. Once a bid is accepted, the pledging process begins. This is typically a semester long process (can be shorter) in which the pledges learn about the frat and sorority they joined and fulfill requirements set by their chapters to prove their commitment. At the end of pledging comes initiation in which pledges become brothers or sisters and become members of their frat or sorority.

This whole process may seem overwhelming, but if you know you want to be a part of Greek life beforehand it definitely helps in figuring out where and when to be at events. Now, not everyone knows they want to join Greek life at the beginning of college. Most girls have a clue whether they want to be in a sorority or not, but for guys it can take a semester or two to figure out if it’s right. However, it becomes increasingly difficult to get into frats as you wait longer. So, my first tip is if you are even somewhat interested in Greek life, rush your freshman year and you can always choose to not accept a bid. I definitely recommend rushing in the fall though because it is usually more fun if you rush during college football season – just something I’ve heard and noticed.

If you already knew a lot about Greek life you’ve probably heard that pledging can be horrible which is true. Hazing is an issue that is outlawed by just about every school, but in some way or another, every pledge gets ‘hazed’. There is no way to stop it completely, but some frats and sororities take hazing way too far. It’s impossible to say which frats and sororities haze the worst because chapters are very different from campus to campus. I would recommend asking around if you’re worried about what a pledging process entails for specific chapters.

Partying and socializing are the two main reasons people join Greek life. You will do more of both if you join Greek life. But, if you are an organized person it really shouldn’t affect your schoolwork. One of the points I want to make is that being in a frat or sorority can actually help you with work because you can network with a lot of older students that you wouldn’t normally meet who have taken the same classes you have to take, have had the same professors, and know how to succeed in those classes. Your brothers and sisters are great resources when it comes to schoolwork and most chapters have academic standards that really force you to put school before socializing.

I don’t have enough time to get all the perks of Greek life into one post, but the events outside of partying are awesome as well. Every school that has Greek life has something like a Greek Week which is a week for all participants in Greek life to come together and ‘compete’ in games and sports. There are also Greek fundraising events that prove that Greek life participants give back to the community as well.

 
Well, definitely consider rushing and let me know what chapters you end up in! Good luck!