<p>I'm not sure what section this would fall under, so I'm putting it here. If I'm wrong, crucify me. </p>
<p>I was recently accepted into a university (I'm going to withhold the name) with a Petro Engineering as my major. I'm super excited because this is exactly what I want to do, and I think this is the college for me, but I've also heard the social life of the college is somewhat ran by frats and sororities. I don't want my college years to be shut in studying and doing homework (I don't think PE is a rigorous as ME or CE), but I also don't want to fall behind because I was up too late and didn't want to go to class the next morning. So what's your opinion on this? Would it be possible to be active in a frat and still do well in engineering?</p>
<p>PS: If this is the wrong section for this question, let me know and I'll repost this someplace else.</p>
<p>I know a kid who is in one of the “top frats” in my school, and he’s a ChE. He does really well, makes it to his 7:30 at least half of the time, which is better than most people in the class, and he spends a ton of time in the library. Sure, he probably wasnt this together during pledging but it’s definitely possible to do well in school while being in a fraternity.</p>
<p>One of our friends’ kids was an engineering student on a nice merit award. He decided to join a frat & had to drop out of school–is now selling used cars. His twin brother went to a different U, stuck with studying, got his engineering degree & now is working as an engineer. Not saying this would ALWAYS happen & one of dad’s friend’s D’s joined a sorority & still got her bachelor’s & master’s in engineering, but be sure you keep your priorities straight.</p>
<p>For the record, from a parent’s point of view, making it to class “at least half the time,” is very troubling and a waste of my money. I’m hoping my kids are not missing school often & would be extremely disappointed if they were.</p>
<p>It also depends on the school itself. In undergrad a decent number of my friends were in fraternities, many of them also active in sports, and were all able to maintain a solid GPA. It’s all about time management and how the organization itself views academics. If you’re at a school where even the football coach knows academics come first you shouldn’t have a problem.</p>
<p>My sophomore S is a MechE major at UC Berkeley and the VP of his fraternity. Is he the best student? No. Is he the worst student? No. He DID manage to land a nice summer internship after his freshman year. As a parent, sometimes you have to let your kids find THEIR best path…</p>
<p>I got my BS at UIUC, which has one of the largest and most ridiculous Greek scenes in the country. I knew quite a few engineers who were also in frats, and not just the Triangle fraternity either. I mean it, there were a lot of them, and most of them did just fine. Moral of the story: you can certainly do both.</p>
<p>A word of caution, fraternities are not for everyone, so don’t join one just because you hear that the social scene at the school is dominated by them. Actually take some time to make an intelligent decision about whether or not you actually like the lifestyle they lead and whatnot. I guarantee you that there are still more social activities than you can possibly participate in that are not related to the Greek life.</p>
<p>A lot of it depends on the culture of the fraternity, the greek system at a particular school, and the school culture. At Carnegie Mellon there were/are a few fraternities that made it a point of pride to have try having the highest average GPA every semester, kicking out members who failed to pass muster.</p>
<p>Just an FYI: Triangle fraternity does have a large population of engineering majors, but is NOT just for engineering! Everyone always thinks this is true, but it is not. There IS an all-engineering fraternity at Purdue, and I believe it is Theta Tau.</p>
Some of my classmates are in it and they seem to be doing ok, although nothing spectacular lol.</p>