I am considering transferring to a different school. The fraternity I am in at my current school is not part of IFC. My new school has a chapter there that is on IFC but all my friends tell me that the guys in that chapter hate transfer students and they vote most of them out. If I transfer to the new school and get voted out of the frat, will I be able to join another fraternity? I’ve seen other posts like this but I feel like my situation is completely unique because my old fraternity was not on IFC.
There’s a sort of gentleman’s agreement among frats not to take former members of other orgs. The reason I have always heard for this is to prevent people from joining one group and then quitting with the intention of divulging org A’s secrets and rituals with org B.
Not everyone abides by it but the other IFC chapters at the new school probably do.
My sorority prohibited members of another social sorority* from joining our chapter. This was enforced regardless of whether the student’s original chapter existed at our school. From my understanding, this is an extremely common policy across institutions and chapters.
If you do transfer, of course you can opt to omit the fact that were a brother in another chapter. However this will only work if you delete evidence of it on social media and no one at your new school who might influence whether you get a bid knows about it.
*Academic, professional, and service frats were perfectly fine. We were proud to have members of Phi Theta Kappa in our chapter.
The 26 members of National Panhell Council do not allow someone who has initiated to one house to then resign and join another. Some local sororities do allow it, and someone who was in a local might be able to join a NPC group, but I wouldn’t count on it.
Fraternities make up their own rules, but again, don’t count on it.
They could know people in the other chapter (especially if they’ve been to regional or national conventions) or they could know people outside the chapter at that school. It’s a good point to question the validity of the source but it’s certainly not unrealistic that the friends are telling the truth.
Frankly I think it’s a sign that the chapter is a bad chapter. Part of the philosophy behind being part of a national organization is that you are all brothers. The idea that transfers would essentially be de facto kicked out on arrival points to a disconnect between the chapter’s ideals and those of the national organization.
My friends are in the chapter so I trust that what they are telling me is true. They didn’t say it is impossible but they say that it is very hard to re-affiliate. So what do you guys suggest I do if I get voted out? I have 3 more years of college and I don’t wanna give up greek life. I understand people who think it is completely unloyal to quit a fraternity and join another one but there are two sides of the story. It is also unfair for a person to not be able to join his own fraternity at a different school and then be expected to stay in that fraternity, declare alumni status, and not join another one. It doesn’t make sense to me.