<p>As a Greek, I never called anyone who wasn’t Greek a GDI. I called them by their names. Just like I did the other Greeks! Go figure.</p>
<p>“Badge worn with pride” is the whole point Hunt is making. On a relatively chill Greek campus, non Greeks don’t need to “wear a non Greek badge with pride” since there"s nothing to take a stance against, any more than non tennis team members have a term denoting them as such. On higher intensity Greek campuses, you’re either “with em or against em” and that’s where frequent use of GDI comes in.</p>
<p>I think the bottom line on Greek systems is that they are not all the same. They vary a lot on how competitive they are, what role they play in the campus social scene, etc. You can’t always tell what the role is by how many people are involved. You have to find out more about the scene at the specific school that interests you.</p>
<p>Right, and there’s enough smoke around USC’s intense Greek system to suggest that there may be some fire. Which doesn’t mean that it couldn’t be a fine choice, but it’s something that the student needs to be aware of, and ideally visit and draw her own conclusions. If she’s cool with it, then great, problem solved. </p>
<p>But there’s enough smoke from my friends / acquaintances / their children who have gone there to say that for me, as a parent, and as someone who was / is generally supportive of Greek life, I’d want my kid to be very aware of what she/he might encounter at USC - that it’s not as simple to write off as the “eh, if you want to do it, great, if you don’t, no big deal” scenario that accompanies Greek life elsewhere.</p>
<p>there’s enough smoke around USC’s intense Greek system to suggest that there may be some fire. </p>
<p>OH pulleeeze!! You know of a few kids at USC, ignore the input of ACTUAL USC PARENTS, and continue to extrapolate through your Greek lenses and defective olfactory glands that there MUST be a lot of interest in the Greek system there! . You make me laugh !
As I said before, I would never dare to presume that I would have a more accurate insight into any U that my kid did NOT attend than an actual parent. But you seem to think you somehow do know more about another U’s overall feel and culture based on the input of a few students. Right…
Get over it PG. You REALLY dont know USC these days.</p>
<p>How may campuses where whites are in the minority have a BIG Greek presence? USC UG population is 60 NON White. Think about it…</p>
<p>Just for example, last year there was an incident when some dense frat boys sent out a highly offensive email, especially to the asian population, which is large there. In response, there was a huge rally on campus, supported by the administration, in which thousands of women attended and spoke out, including the Dean of Women’s studies and the Provost. This was no "tsk, tsk, boys will be boys type of response. The Frat is on suspension [again] and is 1 step away from being expelled.
Stick with schools that you actually know more than just a little about.</p>
<p>This is such a kick. i am subscribed to both this thread and one in the Lehigh forum and both are discussing the exact same issues of Greek life and their influence on whether they define the social side of the schools. So i guess it is a bicoastal issue. :)</p>
<p>DD’s college had less than 2% students who were Greek. The frats and sororities were NOT on the campus, and were not part of the university in any way formally. They had been in the past but were not by the time DD got there. She had many good friends who were in fraternities and sororities…and who were not.</p>
<p>AND they all got professional manicures and pedicures on a regular basis.</p>
<p>Did this make me think negatively about DD’s college? Absolutely not. I’m a huge fan of the school and have said so many times on this forum.</p>
<p>I think one way to get a bit of a read on the Greek scene on a campus (as well as a lot of other things) is to take a look at the campus newspaper, especially editorials and letters to the editor. That gives you a feel for what people are thinking about. For example, here’s something from the USC paper: [Rushees</a> need to adjust |Daily Trojan](<a href=“http://dailytrojan.com/2011/08/23/rushees-need-to-adjust/]Rushees”>Rushees need to adjust - Daily Trojan)
Now, this suggests that while Greeks may not dominate at USC, there is some division on campus between Greeks and non-Greeks. But I’ve got to say that when I took a similar look at Alabama’s newspaper, there was a lot more stuff there about Greeks, and more controversy. This is just another tool you can use to find out about colleges.</p>
<p>One issue is whether a lot of the kids with whom YOU are likely to socialize are going to be involved in rush, pledging etc. There was a large non-white population at one of my kids’ schools, but much of that population tended to spend many more weekend hours in the library than socializing. That was a fact. So, if you eliminated a large non-socially oriented segment, you got down to a much larger percentage that was involved in the Greek system. It was very much felt.</p>
<p>Sometimes, even at schools where the Greek presence is relatively small, Greek letter organizations dominate student government because they are an organized entity, and are often mentioned in the campus newspaper for that reason.</p>
<p>My son noticed this pattern at UMCP – a campus where a relatively small Greek community speaks with a very big (and often united) voice.</p>
<p>this news ought to shed light on how USC views the typical behavior of Greek societies these days. All Frats were on probation last year and new members HAD to attend these 'how to behave" sessions. </p>
<p>"All new members of Greek organizations attended workshops about how to represent their community appropriately during their first annual retreat Sunday.</p>
<p>The mandatory event was one of several recommendations by the Greek Task Force, created last semester when the university put The Row on a social probation. When Vice President of Student Affairs Michael L. Jackson lifted the ban Sept. 7, he said it was because of the planned implementation of this event among other measures, such as building a stronger relationship with the Dept. of Public Safety and strengthening risk management teams.</p>
<p>“We definitely had tension with the administration and they had to pull the reins back on us,” Choi said. “For all the new members, especially freshman coming in who don’t know what’s going on, we want to help them get a positive start.”</p>
<p>The social probation on fraternities has been lifted effective today, according to a letter sent by Vice President for Student Affairs Michael L. Jackson. </p>
<p>Parties are still only permitted on Friday and Saturday nights while classes are in session. </p>
<p>The ban has prohibited informal gatherings at fraternities on Tuesday and Thursday nights since April 2011, after several negative events occurred within the Greek community. </p>
<p>LOL, my business partner, with whom I’m practically joined at the hip most days, is one of those USC parents (and a USC alum herself). She’s “actual” too, you know!</p>
<p>Well, maybe you should be! If you have solid information, why not share it? That’s what a discussion forum is about. People are free to weigh the credibility of each poster. Your information is filtered through the lens of your kid and your experience, the rest of us have other filters. Yours is not necessarily better, but it might be.</p>
<p>I don’t have a Vanderbilt undergrad graduate in my family, but I have a lot of exposure to the school and I feel very qualified to offer information about the culture at Vanderbilt.</p>
<p>Menlopark, in discussions with POIH, I seemed to recall you talked about a whole bunch of Silicon Valley-area high schools, both public and private (naturally, they all blend together to me and I’m sure to most others who don’t live there, but whatever). Did you have kids attending all those high schools?</p>
<p>We are all biased.
But, we only reveal our “behind the username realities” in bit and pieces.<br>
Some like Greek, some got a bad taste, somehow, and others just don’t want to be bothered by anyone elses’ hoo-hoo rah-rah. </p>
<p>Should our feeings about Greek life or who likes LA and who doesn’t override the positives about USC for OP’s daughter? Those related to her experience in art and desire to tackle new media?</p>
<p>Nope; I said upthread that USC is a great school; like any other school, there are things to be vetted about it, but it’s hardly as though it’s a poor choice or a place that won’t provide enough opportunities, whether in the student’s interest area or in other areas should her interests change. And I stand by that.</p>