<p>How many Asians are there in the "better" frats, the ones that are more popular?</p>
<p>If any at all?</p>
<p>Ive seen asians in top frats but there are generally only a few.</p>
<p>They’re underrepresented through the Greek system, it would seem. It’s less an issue of Asians being discriminated against and more of an issue of the Asian community choosing not to be a part of the Greek system. There’s also an Asian fraternity that attracts many of the Asians who rush. </p>
<p>Asians may participate less because they don’t find themselves as comfortable during rush or just aren’t as interested in general, but I can’t tell you for sure. Being familiar with the rush process myself I can tell you that Asians certainly aren’t treated any differently.</p>
<p>Alright, thanks Pancaked & timetodecide12</p>
<p>I agree with Pancaked. Vanderbilt is diverse on paper, but not in the culture of the university if that makes any sense. Asians stick with asians, blacks with blacks, indians with indians, etc. The Malaysians talk to absolutely no one aside from there own little community and this is no more obvious than in featheringhill.</p>
<p>I remember being in the featheringhill lobby and I felt like I was in a different country. All the tables were occupied by the Malaysians and they never spoke a shred of english lol. But if you want to join a frat and your asian you shouldn’t have a problem, but it may be easier to befriend people who are already more comfortable with you because your asian. I think this is the main reason why Vandy is how it is, not because people are racist but just a comfort thing and being accepted more easily.</p>
<p>So Vandy is socially divided?</p>
<p>-_-</p>
<p>While visiting many schools I’ve noticed in schools that are very diverse the students of different cultures tend to hang out together and don’t mix well. In schools with little diversity I see kids with different backgrounds spend more time together. This may be out of necessity. It’s odd that schools with less diversity have more interaction of students with different backgrounds. Has anyone else noticed this?</p>
<p>@magentaturtle Yes Vanderbilt is “in general” socially divided, and anyone who says otherwise is lying, but in my opinion this division is a byproduct of how much greek life matters at Vanderbilt. Of course there are exceptions to any sweeping statement like that but for the most part it holds. This isn’t to say that you won’t get along with people and you won’t make friends with other races, but there is a clear divide and you’ll just need to work harder to break that barrier.</p>
<p>That makes sense on some level bud, but it doesn’t always lay out so nicely like that. I mean, I guess that at a school where a minority group forms between 20-40% (like Asian/Southeast Asians at Emory, Duke, Rice, and Berkeley, and many UC schools), those students cliquing up w/each other is simply much easier to do. If you are completely a minority in every sense (like at schools like Vandy where not even Asians may have hit 10% yet), it’s probably not as easy to get the ideal social experience w/o hanging out w/those outside of that particular ethnic group. In addition, at schools w/more diversity, the minority groups tend to have more “clout” in a sense, as they essentially are the base of the various cultural events and organizations that are more abundant on such campuses. Given that there are so many of these organizations (and that they are so large), these organizations usually end up as serving as community building options for certain ethnicities, and via these organizations, the students from that single ethnicity tend to clique up. I know at Emory, if it wasn’t for things like MORE (multicultural outreach program), the crossroads trip, and religious organizations, the various ethnic groups may not mix as well as they do. In addition, you need to be careful what is observed when visiting campuses. For example, at Emory, where you may observe tables at a particular cafeteria during lunch time being rather monotonous ethnic wise, outside of that setting, the social groups are extremely diverse and are nowhere near as uniform (exception: Korean International students). Basically, observation of certain settings may misrepresent the overall dynamics of the social scene (I know that many people have pre-judged my school as self-segregated because of what is seen at the main cafeteria. In reality, such a visitor should have gone to a library or tried to sneak in a dorm room or a frathouse. Frathouses here are extremely diverse, even ones that are almost all white at most schools). Overall, I see how the claim is sensible, but it depends on where the observation is made. This question may have to do w/the dynamics of the social scene/culture at different schools as well (as in, what makes it). It seems that more academically oriented schools (like many Ivies and some other schools, where sports and greek life play less of a role in social life. I mention the Ivies, because, while they have D-1 sports and greeklife, it is often said that they hardly influence the social culture. Instead, it is influenced by academics, intellectual ECs, and volunteer work, and perhaps more vibrant arts scenes) are more likely to have social groups that transcend ethnic boundaries because most people form friends in class, and then through HW assignments, study groups and projects initially (nobody cares, consciously or unconsciously, about your ethnicity if they find you competent or useful academically at such schools), and then these relationships persist at parties, frats, campus events, etc (as opposed to the other way around). This is at least what I have observed. There are just so many factors that play into multi-cultural interaction and “actual diversity” indexes, so no generalization (including my own) works that nicely.</p>
<p>MLK comes to mind… not so much in the sense of “equal rights”, but in the sense that no matter how much we try to engineer integration, people often tend to stick with those of their own color. Things are better than they were in, say, the 1940s… but we’ve still so far to go.</p>
<p>When are we going to judge each other on personal merit instead of color? Or… should we care? As long as rights are equal, or as equal as they can be, should liberty prevail, allowing everyone to hang out with anyone whom he chooses? </p>
<p>So as long as folks are with those they enjoy being among… should we care?</p>
<p>Personally, it would be great if we could just ignore the color. Problem is, sometimes with color (or class, creed, ideals, etc. – this ain’t just about color really…) come shared experiences/culture. And those are often the ties that create attraction and lead to the ties that bind.</p>
<p>Anyway, I’m sure Vandy admins would love for the poor to hang out with the rich and for Asians to hang out with Latinos. </p>
<p>So get everyone drunk at Jackson’s or the Villager and you’ll have your integration… aside from the angry drunks, most people become pretty friendly with a few beers in them. Beer helped lead to civilization; it might also be one of the keys to breaking racial, socioeconomic and other divides. Hehe</p>
<p>Yes, we’re getting better. No, we’re not fully <em>naturally</em> integrated yet; we still require prodding.</p>
<p>This thread just evolved into something much bigger than just fraternities.</p>
<p>Really, all I was wondering was if I, as an Asian, albeit a white-washed, would be accepted by fellow “white” peers if I attempt to reach out and interact.</p>
<p>Yes, most likely, you would.</p>
<p>If you were not, it would more likely be due to differences in personality than differences of race. </p>
<p>(i hate that this question is necessary – i know, it is what it is, but we put homo sapiens on the moon; can we not put our uncontrollable differences aside?)</p>
<p>I don’t think there’s any explanation for it. It’s self segregation. People tend to cluster into the little groups they are comfortable with and choose to not branch out. At top schools where people are less likely to be social, it becomes more evident. There are certainly many minority students that are integrated into the general Vanderbilt culture, but there are also many who choose not to integrate themselves. At the same time they form their own social circles and enjoy the campus either way, but it makes them much less likely to participate in things like Greek life.</p>
<p>It’s SO true of the Malaysian population and that’s probably one of the reasons Vanderbilt recently ended the Malaysian recruitment program; they have remained almost completely self segregated.</p>
<p>To answer the OP’s original question, yes there are Asians in the “top tier” fraternities, but if you spend any time speaking with them blindfolded, you would be hard pressed to distinguish them from the other brothers in that fraternity. The Asian fraternity brothers are clearly not just “off the boat”. As for actual numbers, from memory I believe there is 1 in KA, 3 in DKE/Pike, 0 in SAE and maybe 1 in Beta. I’m not sure about the other fraternities. I do think there are more Asians than blacks in the IFC fraternities.</p>
<p>The Malaysians are another issue, separate from Greek life, I personally am glad that Vandy decided to stop that recruitment program. I have nothing against the Malaysians, but I don’t think having them on campus did anything positive for the University community at all. If they should renew the program to involve another country, hopefully they learned from this experience and do a better job of it.</p>
<p>Also keep in mind that each fraternity only recruits 15-20 pledges for the spring semester. If you do the math that’s only about 30-33% of the males in that class, contrast this to the sororities that reach 50%.</p>
<p>How diverse are the sororities in general. Aside from just Asians how many minorities are involved at all?</p>
<p>Based ONLY on my observations, there are more minority women in sororities than guys in fraternities. Given the higher percentage of women joining sororities, around 50% vs 30% for men, it makes sense. A typical sorority pledge class is around 50 while a fraternity’s is only 15-20. Having said that, the percentage of minorities in Panhellenic sororities is small. The school may or maynot keep such statistics.</p>
<p>If you are friends with people of other races in high school, you will probably be friends with people of other races in college. If you are an asian who tends to stick with other asians, then you will probably trend towards that in college, and being the only asian in a fraternity would be uncomfortable for you. However if you are an asian with a lot of diverse friends, naturally you will probably make diverse friends in college and rush fraternities with some of them. I know multiple asian men throughout the years who have joined fraternities, however they were very americanized so besides looks there was no way of telling them apart from any other dude. Also, there are many more asians at Vanderbilt now so it may be more commonplace. </p>
<p>Your personality is much more important than the way you look for fraternity rush.</p>
<p>My stats are decent and I plan to major in biomedical engineering. I’m also Indian, but I’m a little white-washed coming from a pretty white town. The only thing from stopping me form ED’ing to Vandy (if I do RD good chance I’ll get rejected) is the racial aspect. Will I be accepted into the more popular (probably mostly white0 frats? I know we discussed asians, but indians a little different. thanks</p>
<p>Personal opinion: I think chances of Asians getting a bid > Indians getting one when it comes to frats.</p>