So I was wondering if anyone knew a lot about Fraternities and how they work at American University. Im thinking about rushing but I just don’t seem to get how they work. They don’t have houses on campus but instead have many different apartments off campus? Since rushing is in the spring do pledges still live in there dorms for the rest of the year then join an apartment the next year? I don’t know it seems confusing to me and was wondering if anyone could clarify. Also other than the housing situation is there any other differences that can be seen between American University frats and frats from other schools? Just wondering to see if it is something that I would be interested in.
@OdeszaMusicEct - You have a lot of good questions, but you really won’t have to worry about any of this stuff until you actually pledge.
AU doesn’t allow (or give) fraternities houses. I forgot why. Some fraternities buy houses together otherwise they rent houses together and call it their frat house. Since no fraternity can live altogether in one house, not all brothers live under one roof. Each year, depending on who’s leaving and how the fraternity chooses for people to live in the house, new people might move in. However, for the most part, people don’t live in the frat house but rather live in apartments close to school.
If you pledge and get initiated, you might be able to join the frat house. Otherwise, there is no apartment housing for all fraternity brothers to live together in one consolidated area like some schools accommodate for. But you can try to arrange to live nearby or close together with your fraternity brothers.
Honestly, there’s nothing to be confused about. Most people don’t live in the actual frat house like you see in movies. If you’re looking for that real “bro” experience and really want to live in a frat house, I’d suggest looking at some large state schools. The only real difference between AU and other schools is that AU does not have a frat row and fraternities are not as big of a thing as they are at state schools.