<p>I'm thinking about rushing, but i really dont know anything about any of them. Any information would be great!</p>
<p>Sorority demographics tend to change every year. I’ll put in what I know about some of the houses – but you shouldn’t pick based on stereotypes. If you like a house and you think you’ll fit in well there, you shouldn’t care what anyone else thinks! You want to be happy, don’t you? Don’t settle for a house because it’s “popular” or “trendy.” Pick the house with girls you’d get along with and like for the next 4 years! (Trust me, people pick based on parental legacy or “popularity” of houses all the time and end up really miserable…)</p>
<p>I wasn’t in a house, but I had a lot of friends who were. Similarly, since my boyfriend was in a frat, I also got backhanded info on the various houses and what guys on the row knew of them…</p>
<p>Please no one slam me for this. Feel free to add your own insights and opinions. I feel it’s good to know every and all stereotypes!</p>
<p>KKG - 1st tier house. Most selective. Very wealthy girls, spoiled girls, a lot of ‘Jappy’ (Jewish American Princess) type girls. High legacy rate. Super pretentious, very into their physical images, a bit vapid.</p>
<p>A Chi O - 3rd tier house. Not selective. The nerdy reject house. Known for taking all girls rejected by other houses. A mismatched collection of very religious girls, social misfits, “unattractive” girls and awkward people.</p>
<p>A D Pi - 3rd tier house. Not very selective, does reject sometimes. Takes a lot of girls rejected by other houses, but looked up a tad more highly than A Chi O. Genuinely nice, sweet girls who are really committed to sisterhood. Coolest looking house on the row.</p>
<p>Tri Delt - 2nd tier house. Selective. Used to be popular, slipped over the years. The “blonde” house. Lots of not-so-bright girls, lots of frat girlfriends. Hardcore partiers.</p>
<p>Alpha Phi - 2nd tier house. Very selective. Weird mix of slightly “cool” girls with the usual image-obsessed sorority stereotype. Moderately smart house, known for being “fun.” Reputation pretty OK. The house I would have wanted to be in if I rushed.</p>
<p>Delta Gamma - 1st tier house. Most selective. “Pretty” girls, lots of not-so-nice people. Image-driven. Big party contingent, had some drugs issues when I was in school. Well-known. Not much going on upstairs.</p>
<p>Gamma Phi Beta - 2nd tier house. Moderately selective. For some reason has a lot of Asian girls. Known for taking rejects from 1st tier houses that are too “good” for the 3rd tier houses. Odd mix of girls – some very smart people, some not-so-smart. No “bombshells,” average girls. OK reputation.</p>
<p>Kappa Alpha Theta - 1st tier house. Selective. Known for having very attractive girls. Occasionally known as “*****y.” Prevalent religious contingent. Very sought after, very popular. Pretty good reputation, few scandals – good PR. High GPA.</p>
<p>Pi Phi - 2nd tier house. Selective. Slipping reputation. Hardcore partiers. Known for having prevalent cocaine usage. Lots of stereotypically attractive “blondes.” Not known for being particularly smart. </p>
<p>SDT - 3rd tier. Jewish sorority. Was in its first year when I was a junior/senior.</p>
<p>Zelda,
You have posted so many stereotypes here it is sad to read. I hope some of the women in these chapters take the opportunity to respond.
As a non member how do you know how selective these groups are? Have you seen their return percentages? One of the groups you wrote was merely “selective” received a national award for their high returns.
On a national message board you have accused women of being spoiled, drug users and nerdy rejects. How would you feel if you were described as being unattractive, awkward and a socia misfit? You have no real evidence for these accusations, only hearsay. How can these women defend themselves from your unkind remarks?
Another chapter you accuse of being not-so-bright has been near the top or first in scholarship. Last spring it was first with a chapter GPA of 3.5 and had 44 women with a 3.75 GPA. or higher.
Zelda, no group of college students is perfect. However, this post is filled with negative stereotypes, groundless accusations and erroneous comments, in my opinion.</p>
<p>Zelda, since you were never in a sorority you truly don’t know the ins and outs of a sorority. I believe that you could write a stereotype about any house and find one girl who fits that type. But, is what you have written true? No. Example: SDT is an historically Jewish house. At USC it is very diverse. A freshman going through recruitment might be very interested in SDT, but because she is not Jewish she might not accept a bid. And that would be wrong. I could tell you all the fallacies in your breakdown, but in general you are generalizing/cruel/incorrect.</p>
<p>From you previous posts you made it clear, with an imperious tone, that in your major only one of you was in a sorority due to the workload and the specialness of your work. Wasn’t your major screenwriting? I would suggest several things: do research on subjects prior to opining. If you start a post/screenplay with the words, “don’t slam me” let that little voice in your head say stop/replay/rethink.</p>
<p>To quote Groucho Marx I think that you believe one of his favorite maxims: Any place that would have me as a member, I don’t want to belong.</p>
<p>Not that I’m saying Zelda’s stereotypes are accurate, but the stereotypes Zelda mentioned are the same exact ones you hear on campus. Ask anyone in the Greek system who feels that they know a good deal abut sororities and fraternities, and they’re likely to give the same response. Despite being riddled with stereotypes, Zelda’s reply is the best you’re gonna get it. The issues lies not with Zelda so much, but with the Greek system and how most people involved in it will typically stand by with the stereotypes mentioned above. It’s all really superficial and shallow stuff.</p>
<p>Wow. Everyone here needs to get off their high horses and RELAX. Especially you, Georgia Girl. Instead of being so self-righteous all the time, why don’t you just…oh, ignore what I say if you don’t like it? Let’s not bring up the fact that you previously berated me and demanded I remove a statement I made about sexual assaults in fraternities – yet when I showed you numerous examples of news stories from national and University media outlets describing the assaults, you had no words for me. </p>
<p>Your Greek bias is obvious and apparent, so of course, to you, the Greek system at USC is perfect and full of sunshine and rainbows; to go around promoting such fallacies, I think, is horribly irresponsible. As I have said before, there are numerous benefits and drawbacks to the Greek system and I think it’s important that the positive and negative characteristics of sororities and fraternities at USC should be openly discussed – especially on a non-USC operated message board – and not swept under the carpet for ‘good PR.’ Freedom of speech, blah blah blah.</p>
<p>Someone asked about the houses. I gave a rundown of how a large portion of the student population familiar with the Greek system (and even some Greeks themselves) view the various houses. Note that I didn’t say, “Oh, you shouldn’t join such-and-such house,” but instead prefaced my post by saying these ARE stereotypes and shouldn’t be used as “be all, end all” indicators of what house someone should be in. But, as the previous poster mentioned, these are prevalent and well-known attributes to the sororities at USC – and if someone wants to consider the public perception of certain houses before rushing as a part of their PERSONAL decision-making process, then so be it. </p>
<p>It’s not like I made these up and it’s not like a lot of these are 100% my personal perceptions of the houses; I never said, here is what I think of these houses and these are my opinions and my opinions only. If someone posted, “What does the US population think of Barack Obama?” I could have written that a majority of US citizens think he’s a foreign-born liberal goon driving this country into the ground with socialist ideas – but does that mean I personally think this? Probably not. </p>
<p>If you have any issue with these stereotypes, may I remind you that it’s wrong to shoot the messenger? Take up your grievances with the countless students who say and believe even a portion of these generalized rundowns.</p>
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<p>I did say this – but not sure what it has to do with anything? I’m assuming you were trying to say I knew nobody in a sorority except for this girl. Are you only friends with people in your same major? I didn’t socialize with students in my program outside of class out of personal preference, and instead made friends across all majors and years, both graduate and undergraduate. A sizable portion of my friends were in sororities. (And, surprise! Some of them belonged to houses with not-so-favorable public appearances, but they were still my friends. In fact, a lot of these “stereotypes” came straight from them – NEWSFLASH! Sorority girls talk meanly about other houses all the time.)</p>
<p>I am approaching this debate with an open mind and welcome other opinions. What I won’t tolerate, though, is senseless chastising from sanctimonious posters who think they’re fit to give me a lesson on “playing nice.” Anyone else is welcome to give their opinion/the general campus opinion (both negative and positive) of the houses because I know mine might be outdated since I graduated a year ago.</p>
<p>And to the original poster – sorry your thread was derailed by the Happy Police!</p>
<p>Is it just me or do others find it offensive when you use the term Jappy? FYI, it is offensive. So, in your opinion the “richest” house has a lot of spoiled Jews? Jews have all the money? Jappy versus prevalent religious views? Not much going on upstairs? You don’t think that you offended and misrepresented houses and people?</p>
<p>I know that you didn’t make up the stereotypes. But they aren’t necessarily true in totality. In every stereotype you can come up with a grain of truth. Doesn’t make it so. And to propagate stereotypes is to do a disservice to everyone.</p>
<p>For anyone going through recruitment: Meet people in your rush group and in the houses. Decide for yourself what feels right to you. Decide IF it sorority life is for you. OP, if it is information about houses specifically that you seek go to USC Panhellenic. Look at the chapter profiles. You will get an idea of the charities/majors/activities/ that each house participates in.</p>
<p>Oh, and what difference or influence does the fact that you were too busy and your major too involving to join an activity that you consider trivial? Lots.</p>
<p>I’ve ■■■■■■■ this board for a long time, since I was going through the admission process and never felt the need to join or post until I read this post. I don’t mean this as a personal attack at zelda because I understand your intention was to answer the OP’s question, but as a member of of PHC sorority I feel offended not just for my own chapter but for all of the sororities you described. These stereotypes are very prevalent on campus and no doubt the op will come across them before rush anyway, but this board is not the place for them. These are discussed and debated everyday on the sleazy gossip sites, but this is somewhere people go for reliable information. These stereotypes are what takes the true purpose out of the rush process when you get a bunch of “top 4” crazy PNMs who drop out of recruitment if they don’t get one of the houses they think has the “best” reputation. If you really wanted to answer the OP in a way that would be helpful, which I honestly believe was your intention, it would have been much more beneficial and much less controversial to list only the positive characteristics of each house, as there are MANY for each. It simply depends on what you want out of the sorority experience. I don’t mean this to be confrontational, just wanted the OP to know that this is in no way what USC greek life should be about. If you really want to know the breakdown of the sororities, go through recruitment with an open mind. Everyone I’ve talked to who went through recruitment agrees that if you follow the process the right way and trust the system, you will end up in the right house. Don’t get set on a house based on a stereotype, and don’t drop out of recruitment just because you don’t get the house you thought you wanted. Best of luck!</p>
<p>Does anyone have anything else? </p>
<p>The reason I’m asking (and, most likely, the reason the OP asked in the first place) is because we want to have a general idea of what the USC sorority system is like from people who’ve seen it firsthand. Rushing will help us make the right decisions, but with so much information presented in so little time, it would be nice to have an inside view as to the pros of the different sororities.</p>
<p>I agree with Victoria. While I appreciate that you all want to maintain integrity and abolish all stereotypes, we really just want info!</p>
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<p>This, again, makes no sense. I never said sororities were trivial. I’m neutral on the Greek system, as I have said many times. I think, for some students, they’re useful and good experiences; for other students, it’s an unneeded element of college.</p>
<p>The reason my major (and other BFAs on campus, not just my program) tells students to not rush is because our degrees require a higher unit count than most other programs in the school. My degree required 128 units, while something in CLAS – such as English – requires something around 60 units.</p>
<p>The way you initially phrased the sentence made it seem as if you were saying I couldn’t know anything about sororities because I only knew one person in sororities. (Re-read your sentence; it is not clear in any way.) Unfortunately, what you’re trying to say again still isn’t clear and doesn’t make any sense. Yes, I had a higher workload than most students – but I wasn’t oblivious to campus life, I socialized, was involved in my own demanding campus organizations and (shocker) had friends! Woooo!</p>
<p>This:
is the biggest load of b.s. i’ve read in a long long time. Zelda…are you seriously expecting us to say that it’s ok to say whatever you want, and hide behind “don’t shoot the messenger”. As if you are simply doing truth-telling, and how dare we question it? It is clear from your put-down laced diatribe that somewhere along the line, one or more sorority girls dissed you somehow…at least in your mind. </p>
<p>If you don’t like a selection based living community, just say so. Many people don’t. My Dad didn’t…but he did respect my choice, and supported the outcome of these living units. It’s ok to not like the greek system…but to hide behind a chicken-shxt list of putdowns is really extremely low.</p>
<p>I’m a grad of a midwestern university with a strong greek system, was president of a fraternity, and active in intrafraternity council. My daughter will likely attend USC in the fall, and I already know enough just from some brief contacts with current and former USC sorority members, and parents, that USC’s system is strong. </p>
<p>For you to position greek houses that way is no better than you saying “all math majors are geeky asians who are socially inept and wear taped glasses”. No kidding, you make me spit up in my mouth. You sound like the UCLA co-ed who dissed her asian classmates on you tube. Perhaps the only difference is that she sounded more intelligent than you do. Believe you me, every greek house has its faults. Any living community does. But what I know about many greek systems (and clearly USC’s fits here) is that they normally have higher GPA’s as a group than the all university average, normally learn good leadership skills, and normally contribute to their university community in philanthropic ways in greater percentage than the general student population. Those aren’t stereotypes, they are facts supported by metrics.</p>
<p>Again, I would like to emphasize that instead of more criticisms of Zelda’s post, I would really like answers!</p>
<p>I understand that Zelda’s words offended some posters, but wouldn’t it be easier to eliminate those stereotypes by helping two entering freshman (and who knows how many who aren’t posting in here!) learn more about their options instead of just cyber-fighting? </p>
<p>Almostthere asked the question because, well, it’s a legitimate question. I have the same one. Obviously, there are strong feelings about sororities! But either way, the fighting is just a bunch of conflict without any attempt to help us learn more. </p>
<p>I completely get that some of you are offended-if my sorority were spoken about in a negative light, I’d probably be aggravated, too!-but can you all set your conflicts and biases aside momentarily to help us out? If you’re proud of your house, we want to know why! :)</p>
<p>i totally understand why you girls want as much info as possible before rushing, but those of us who are arguing against zelda’s post are just trying to protect the integrity of the recruitment process. if you want info, check out the sororities websites and facebook pages. they have a lot of info and photos that can help you get an idea of what they’re all about. trust me, after orientation and welcome week you will have heard PLENTY (good and bad) about each of the sororities from other girls. in general, the so-called “top 4” houses are those with the fullest social calendars who have events with the “top” fraternities. the so-called “bottom” houses generally attract the girls who aren’t as into the stereotypical sorority scene and are joining more for the bonds of sisterhood than for the social aspects. “middle” houses are a combination, but that is not to say that all houses don’t have amazing sisterhoods. most girls are very proud of their houses. don’t get wrapped up in tiers and rankings because it does not matter nearly as much as you might think. hope this helps!</p>
<p>Although this might sound just as bad as Zelda’s post, people need to actually step back and realize that without the general “stereotype” Zelda posted, every sorority house would honestly sound something like 80% the same and nothing would be gained by the OP. I’m not really encouraging Zelda’s post nor am I advocating using stereotypes but before anyone else goes off, try to actually define each house without using at least one of the general stereotypes you guys are berating Zelda for using and you’ll find it pretty damn hard. That’s also probably why if you haven’t noticed, no one but Zelda has actually given a descriptive (albeit slightly offensive [well some see it as over the line but I only see it as slightly]) analysis of the USC houses.</p>
<p>Stereotypes exist, regardless of whether one considers that as unfair or unfortunate. There are generalities of every type of group however one chooses to categorize it.</p>
<p>To OP, PM me, or ask current students at SC that are involved in greek life (preferably not the frats).</p>
<p>To the 2 new girls: too much information can be dangerous…</p>
<p>Clearly most of the respondents are ok with the stereotyping, so I’ll make this my last post here, and let you discuss which house is the most blond or the most whatever. But I have to make this last attempt. Zelda’s assessments below (quotes taken from each description she had…verbatim)…include all of the houses. </p>
<p>Gee, which one should I join? They all sound so good! Thank you Zelda for this important and informative look at the USC Greek system.
</p>
<p>If you still believe that Zelda is being “helpful” then I give up. I agree that greek houses do take on charactaristics. But the list of “charactaristics” above, if applied to any other group of people in life, would at minumum get you mocked and ridiculed, and at maximum would get you fired, or hauled into court depending on whom you said it about. The fact that it’s ok to say it about sorority girls simply tells me that its reverse descrimination run amok. Must be PC about the poor the downtrodden. But it’s ok to fully rip on the “white and rich” greek system. </p>
<p>Have at it you all. I’m just trying to show our original poster that there is some decorum, some dignity within the greek system. We don’t stereotype ourselves, and when we see it from others, we call it out. See ya.</p>