<p>I haven't been on here in a while, but when I was there were a lot of questions about greek life. As a member of a fraternity at Michigan, I'm here to answer them.</p>
<p>If you're not part of it, does that hurt your social life?</p>
<p>It depends on the perspective. You can obviously still have friends and go to parties, but it is much enhanced through joining the greek system. It is much easier to make friends (not just in your house, but throught the entire Greek Community). Non Greeks will say it doesn't, but you will have a much better social experience, at least in my opinion, if you go Greek.</p>
<p>Hehe... what is greek life anyways?
I've only heard like "phi phi phi" or "theta phi gamma" and such.</p>
<p>Greek life includes sororities (women) and fraternities (men), which are greek letter social clubs (there are also co ed pre professional houses). The aim is to promote friendship, brother/sisterhood, philanthropy, and other things. We (meaning greeks) also control much of the social scene here on campus. Go to umgreeks.com for more information.</p>
<p>How about hazing? What's involved in that?</p>
<p>Interested in Greek Life. I look at the profiles of a lot of successful people, and many of them were in frats. However, there's a stigma I've noticed from non-Greeks that joining a fraternity is equivalent to buying your friends, and it will hinder you academically.</p>
<p>Mind clearing up misconceptions about Greek life at Michigan?</p>
<p>Hazing is defined as any activity in which pledges partake that does not include a significant portion of active members. That means that every house "hazes." Some do more than others.</p>
<p>Joining a fraternity is not paying for friends. You still have to make your own friends in your house. The money goes toward parties, other functions, IM sports, shirts, house maintence. It's just like the dues of any other club. Being in a house is like being on a high school sports team as far as the friendships go. </p>
<p>It should not hinder you academically. Usually the fraternity average gpa is higher than the all campus men's gpa. Many successful businessmen, athletes, politicians, and more were in houses. Some examples of houses with successful alumni are Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Delta Kappa Epsilon, and Phi Gamma Delta (all good fraternities at Michigan).</p>