<p>Can a current student or the parent of a current student talk about the Harvard final clubs? What's their role, how significant/strong is their presence on campus? Do they feel like fraternities and sororities?</p>
<p>from this thread: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/256287-ask-about-harvard-life-here.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/256287-ask-about-harvard-life-here.html</a></p>
<p>"Thefishofsorts: Finals Clubs are like small private frats. There are 8 men's clubs and 2 or 3 women's. The men's club houses are scattered between Mass Ave and Mt. Auburn St. There is only one female club house I think on Mt Auburn St. They can all have some pretty wild parties, but a downside is that they're not really accessible to the entire student body. Generally it's easier for girls to get into a club party on a regular night. For guys, it's best to find a friend who's in a club and see if you can get invited in. The clubs also hold larger parties in downtown boston on occasion that anyone can by a ticket to. Other larger parties are invite-only. Each finals club has a very different atmostphere, from Euro to waspy to plain gross. Overall, they don't really control the social atmosphere on campus but they do have a presence. A club party is almost always fun to be at, but this might be only everyone once in a while."</p>
<p>My personal perspective: Got "punched" for a couple clubs, didn't take things too seriously or get very far in the process. Have friends in clubs, so I could go to parties there, but rarely do... just not really my scene, and more than enough other places to drink/dance/etc.</p>
<p>Definitely very, very different feel than a place like Vanderbilt where frats/sororities are the entire social scene. Final clubs are much less dominant @ Harvard.</p>
<p>In her four years at Harvard I don't think I've heard my daughter mention final clubs more than once or twice. They played no role for her.</p>
<p>I think they're mostly significant to the small percentage of students who are members or who want to be and are pretty insignificant to most of the rest of the college population. My D has been to some parties at some of the clubs, but that's not anywhere close to the main part of her social life. I think she prefers to socialize with friends in other settings.</p>
<p>I sent you a PM.</p>
<p>please forward this pm to me since it does interest me as well...</p>
<p>Thanks, all. I'm relieved that they don't play a significant role in campus life.</p>
<p>The hell I'm joining this, lol. </p>
<p>F______
Retarded
Alcoholic
Teens</p>
<p>Fill in the blank....</p>
<p>piccolo, there are many people here who choose not to drink (especially freshman year) and no one judges them for it (unlike High School). In general though, the hostility I've noticed you exhibiting towards those that do make the choice to drink might be something to reconsider. </p>
<p>No one will make fun of you or judge you here for choosing not to drink (and in fact, I know several final club members who don't actually drink themselves). Along the same lines, you should probably show students who do choose to drink the same respect (as long as they aren't obnoxious about it). If it really bothers you too much, just ignore them.</p>
<p>Yeah, how retarded can Harvard drinkers be?</p>
<p>Lol you missed the point.... it was just a silly little acronym I made up. -___-</p>
<p>I might want to reconsider my facetious-ness though. Some people are too serious.</p>
<p>some people are not funny.</p>
<p>lol you made an account just to say that?</p>
<p>Anyway, to the OP: IDK if you were up at cambridge this past weekend but final clubs aren't too noticeable. I wouldn't have even known about them had my host not pointed one out to me.</p>
<p>I wasn't just talking about the acronym (which I actually did find somewhat funny, although ultimately irrelevant to Harvard which lacks any semblance of a true frat scene). It's your posts on threads like "convince me not to start drinking this summer" "do you judge your peers who smoke/do drugs" and many others that led me to make that post, and I really didn't mean it as anything more than a little food for thought (I guess it should have been PMd in retrospect).</p>
<p>All I'm saying is that statements like 'If you're one of those epic failures who says "drinking = living a little" then I offer my condolences to your entire family' could probably be rephrased in a slightly less inflammatory fashion. More power to you for choosing not to drink though.</p>