<p>i feel like johnleemk is painting a picture a bit bleaker than it really is. also, it’s more like 60-70% of the eligible student body is affiliated … they take the stats in the fall, so the sophomores haven’t rushed yet and obviously freshmen are not allowed to be affiliated, so … we get figures like 30%.</p>
<p>anyway, there are more than enough ways to make a lot of friends at Dartmouth without belonging to a greek house. Yes, you meet a lot of ppl during pledge term, but I wouldn’t necessarily say you make a lot of friends during that term except w/ kids you are pledging with … who, for the most part, you will already know prior to rushing, you might just get to know them better. I would say you are much more likely to make new friends during your sophomore summer.</p>
<p>that being said, the greek scene does dominate ORGANIZED campus social life, and people’s partying in general, especially for freshmen and to some extent, sophomores. And to the extent that upperclassmen identify themselves by their greek house … that’s true, kind of. It’s rarely what people are most likely to describe themselves as, it’s more that greek houses are how we tend to label people here. Upperclassmen tend to be identified by their greek house. They tend to identify themselves by their other activities, which usually are more important to them.</p>