<p>My son received a lovely brochure from USC in the mail today describing Greek life .
What if you are not into fraternities and sororites? Are there students who are not into that type of social situation?</p>
<p>The majority of students aren't in Greek life- 20% of students are Greeks, that's it. There are tons of other options for activities.</p>
<p>Of course. There are plenty of students who do not join the Greek community.</p>
<p>But I’d suggest approaching it with an open mind. Fraternities and sororities are sometimes unfairly stereotyped. </p>
<p>USC has one of the nation’s strongest Greek systems. The all-Greek GPA is consistently higher than the all-university GPA, and the all-fraternity GPA is consistently higher than the all-male GPA. </p>
<p>USC is a big school, and the Greek system provides students with an instant network or friends and older mentors. Houses also benefit from a loyal alumni base, which frequently come back to their houses to offer career advice, etc.</p>
<p>And there’s a huge diversity of houses to choose from. For instance, there’s a Christian fraternity, which holds weekly worship meetings and doesn’t allow alcohol in the house. There are pre-professional fraternities. And each of the national social fraternities has a distinctive flavor. </p>
<p>I’d advise your son to check out rush with an open mind. Rush is non-binding, so he has no obligation, but at least it will give him a chance to decide whether or not it’s right for him.</p>
<p>One could argue that marching band is a mixed fraternity. :)</p>
<p>That said, I don't have any interest in joining the Greek community, although I have friends who are in both band and a fraternity/sorority.</p>
<p>Does anyone know the range of costs for a freshman to be in a fraternity, not living in the house? And how likely is it that members would be able to move into the house second year and beyond? I have heard that the lower cost housing can make the cost of dues worthwhile, but I've not heard any specifics.</p>
<p>There are plenty of alternatives to Greek life at USC, although the Greek system is something that incoming freshman should at least consider (and no, I'm not a part of the Greek system).</p>
<p>My son is a quiet over achiever, does not drink and does not like loud parties.</p>
<p>My D received the brochure as well .... and threw it away without thinking about it twice. She is definitely not interested in Greek life.
I hope she will find and join other equally interesting groups, so she can get a nice network of friends with shared interests.</p>
<p>Haha. Mdcissp, your son sounds like a perfect fit for CS/BUAD. Myself and some of the people I know in the CS/BUAD track are also quiet, rather introverted non-drinkers. To be honest, most engineers I know fit those exact behavioral characteristics. </p>
<p>Your son will be very welcome to participate in late night code-a-thons with us. Tell him to look into joining ACM - there are a lot of corporate sponsored (Google, Microsoft, EA, etc) type of events that I bet would interest him.</p>
<p>But don't worry. There are a plethora of activities to do at USC. The only reason frats/sororities garner so much attention is they are typically the most crazy, and thus receive all the publicity. In reality, however, so much more goes on outside of that particular social circle. As someone earlier stated, greek life only encompasses 20% of the student population.</p>
<p>Thank you mrgorilla and others. I will tell my son to look into ACM. Do they have an active group on campus? Will he be able to sign up at the Viterbi open house during the welcome week? You are right that he would be interested in the kind of events you describe.</p>
<p>I would really endorse your son to go out to rush and go house to house and talk to a couple guys. The guys in the house will be totoally straight forward, and he will be able to tell if he fits in well anywhere, it is not for everyone, but I honestly believe it is a really advantageous part of beind a USC student. </p>
<p>I can't imagine being at USC and not being Greek, but then again I have a lot of friends who are not Greek and are having a good time. I hope that helps, and remember not all Greeks drink and like parties, in fact, i barelly drink i am so busy with school :).</p>