<p>Hi, I've heard so many mixed comments about greek life and it's effect on a students experience. Do greeks actually do community service or is it more of an elite social group. Pros and cons?</p>
<p>Neither. At many schools, fraternity's are just a random sample of average guys. Far from elite.</p>
<p>Depends on the school. I loved the guys in my chapter, but I wouldn't have joined a chapter of my fraternity at some of the other schools in the area. The greek system is typically a microcosm of the whole campus.</p>
<p>My advice: Rush is usually free and, at least for males, not a hugely structured event. Go and check it out; what's the most you have to lose? An evening where you'd be watching tv and a dinner at the dining hall? Check it out, make your decision there, not before you come in. Ask questions. If you care about community service, talk to the chapter's chair. And then talk to other people. Basically, do your research, and make an educated decision.</p>
<p>Will you also go to school in the north or south? Some campuses are virtually dominated by greek life while greek life in other campuses are only a very tiny portion of campus.</p>
<p>Definitely spend the time to rush if you are even remotely considering Greek life. You'll have nothing to lose, and even if you don't join you got a free week of food and fun, and will have met plenty of new people.</p>
<p>My school's rush is structured differently in that we have to wait a semester after we get here, then when we do rush the first night we have to visit all five fraternities on our campus. I had plans to join either one of two, but I joined one completely different from what I had planned on. I'm really glad I did. You'll develop such a different bond with your pledge brothers than you will with anyone else, and the rest of your brothers for that matter. </p>
<p>As far as community service, the events/projects we had this past semester were Bowl-a-thon, Relay for Life, a book drive, a blood drive, and Laps for Life. This next semester, our community service chair is trying to set us and another sorority up to help out with Habitat for Humanity, and we are all genuinely excited about that.</p>
<p>I'm not sure what kind of school you're going to, but at my school the Greek life is certainly not elitist. But I know it's not that way everywhere. I was talking to some of my friends who went to State U., and when I said that I could freely go between parties at different fraternities at my small LAC, they were confused since the fraternity/sorority they join is the only one they can really hang out with since there really is no mixing.</p>
<p>whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer
the slings and arrows of hazing and being told what to do
or to take arms against a potentially boring social life</p>
<p>i'll be honest, for "some" chapters, any community service(or anything really) is done for public relations. </p>
<p>being able to put out info that potentials(or more so, their parents; and further your campus and international) that says something like "we rasied $25,000 to help <em>insert philanthropy here</em>" can't do anything but help during recruitment. a lot of shady dealings happen behind closed doors...</p>
<p>What fraternity are you in, Easy?</p>
<p>Rush is usually free for frats? Are they usually free for sororities too? Cuz they send me an invite to rush, but I have to pay like $155 to actually attend.</p>
<p>If it were free, I would go. Since it's not, and I'm not really interested, I'm not going.</p>
<p>I've thought about joining, but wouldn't be be kinda pointless since my school doesn't have any houses for them or anything? I'd also only be able to be there for around a year.</p>
<p>I'm not in a frat.</p>
<p>The sororities at my college didn't have houses, so they'd rent a ballroom downtown or elsewhere when they wanted to have social functions.</p>
<p>$155 to attend a rush is absurd. Think about what the membership fees must be.</p>
<p>Rush parties are fun to try and get a feel for greek life and get some free food/beer. If you find one you like try and get to know a couple people that are in it (preferably people who just went through rush) and see if you can get a feel for just how bad that is. Some frats don't haze at all, others... do. I didn't end up joining one just because of a lack of time but there were one or two that I really think I would have fit in and had a good time at. A lot of my friends pledged and nobody seems to regret it. Some do more service than others, it's going to vary based on school/frat.</p>
<p>My D is kind of shy at first. Do you think joining a sorority would be a good way for her to meet people and have a group of friends to hang out with or do you think the whole rush process would be difficult for her? She's not like Unibomber/loner shy, just not an extrovert.</p>
<p>What school does your daughter go to? Be wary, a lot of sororities are just assemblages of girls who are looking to validate themselves.</p>
<p>Why pay for friends?</p>
<p>D is just finishing up her junior year in high school. We've been doing the college visit circuit, and the Greek system came up in discussion. Seems like some people have some very strong feelings about it.</p>
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Do greeks actually do community service or is it more of an elite social group. Pros and cons?
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<p>Im not in a fraternity. My roommate and several of my hallmates last semester were in various ones, though. I know very little about sororities, so Ill limit my post to frats.</p>
<p>Yes, Greeks actually do community service. My roommate normally slept in on Saturdays, like most other college students, but there were definitely a few Saturdays where he got up early and told me he was off to volunteer. However, if I had to estimate the ratio of volunteering hours to partying hours for an average social fraternity, Id guess its 1:10. Keep in mind that these are social fraternities; they are not service ones.</p>
<p>Pros of Greek Life? Youre guaranteed to meet people. Moreover, youll be a part of a network that can give you connections. For example, one of my roommates frat brothers works for a company. He put in a good word for my roommate, and my roommate got an internship at that company despite having a fairly low GPA.</p>
<p>Cons? Do not listen to what frats say about time commitment. They lie, big time. During Fall semester, I almost never saw the guys on the hall who pledged; they were always at their frat houses. I only saw them regularly during Spring semester after they had already become brothers. When youre a pledge, you pretty much have to be at the house all the time, otherwise you can very easily get kicked out.</p>
<p>If youre thinking about Greek life, go to rush. Be aware that all houses are dry during rush; they contain no alcohol. That is NOT an accurate portrayal of what theyre actually like during the regular semester. Nevertheless, by talking with the brothers, you can get a feel for whether its a fit for you.</p>
<p>On costs...you may have noticed that hardly any of the houses will put their costs on their websites. I did find this one...Tri-delta (sorority) at Cal Poly SLO charges $385 per quarter which covers everything, tix to dances, t-shirts, monthly dues etc. HOWEVER...there is a new member fee which covers registration and your pin...no price mentioned on that one. This is also not a sorority that has a huge house like you may find at Cornell, Purdue wherever. Look before you leap...ladies read the book "Pledged" , you should get a better picture of what the scene is going to be like.</p>
<p>What?? How dare you point to literature that smears our beloved sororities?! Sorority sisters, quickly present some knee-jerk defensive anecdote to counter this heresy and silence this heathen!!</p>