Fraternities @ UCLA: Pro's and Con's?

<p>IFC fraternities (also known as "social" or "traditional" fraternities) are mostly white though, even though there is no racial requirement to be in them. IFC sororities however, seem to be more diverse.</p>

<p>kfc4u, that's a terrible assumption. I'd be more inclined to believe you, too, if you hadn't said IFC sororities. IFC is short for Inter<em>fraternity</em> Council. </p>

<p>You're probably thinking of Panhellenic Council sororities, which I would argue are less or equally diverse as IFC fraternities. IFC fraternities and Panhellenic sororities were traditionally white because they're very old and most of their founders were white (as were most American residents between 1850 and 1910, when most national fraternities and sororities were founded).</p>

<p>Each house is different at each campus. When I was pledging, my pledge class did "row walks" where we visited each Panhellenic sorority house and sang our song, "The Rose," to them. Some of the houses are very diverse, especially with Asians, while we went in a house or two where every single girl at dinner was blonde--except for one Asian girl, who one of my pledge bros only half-jokingly noticed had blonde highlights.</p>

<p>For guys and girls coming to LA in the fall, just remember that each house is different and you can usually find a place for yourself in one of them. Don't judge the whole greek system by one house, because you wouldn't want your whole race or your whole high school judged by a few individuals.</p>

<p>lkrfan77,</p>

<p>sorry i meant Panhellenic council.</p>

<p>i think you made a good post. from my personal observations though, i just see more asian girls wearing panhellenic sorority letters than i see asian males wearing IFC fraternity letters. but yeah, i do also notice from pictures that some sororities are a lot more diverse than others. lkrfan77, which IFC frats and panhellenic counicl sororities do you consider to be the most diverse?</p>

<p>kfc4u, I see what you're basing your judgement on. Fraternity guys tend not to wear their letters as much as they should. Sadly, fraternity rep stems a bit too much from the location of the chapter's house and the size of the parties.</p>

<p>I don't want to guess at which houses are diverse, because it's difficult to tell and IFC and Panhellenic don't take any numbers of such. Just rush and find out!</p>

<p>Also, there's a few types of diversity. A house can be racially diverse, but everyone acts the same--similar personalities. There needs to be something that clicks between people in a house, but they needn't all have the same personality. There's also "appearance" diversity--not everyone's blonde, not everyone's cut like an AnF model, etc.</p>

<p>i think it's funny when people speak in terms of "white" and "asian"</p>

<p>i'm mixed: half korean, half white...LoL so where do i fit in? haha</p>

<p>You're a "hapa," as we call them at UCLA. The boys are gonna love you. haha</p>

<p>Yah, trying to label things by a distinct race these days presents a lot of problems with all the interracial marriage, and really exposes the irrelevance of labeling by race.</p>

<p>I try to avoid saying "white" fraternities, and when people say this they are usually referring to IFC fraternities. UCLA is pretty diverse (when it comes to Asians, Indians, and caucasians), as are most IFC houses.</p>

<p>The Asian fraternities call themselves "Asian-interest fraternities." Pixiedancer, (I'm assuming you're a girl) you could join some of the Asian sororities or a Panhellenic sorority, or one of the large number of professional and academic sororities.</p>

<p>LoL i've never heard of the term "hapa" actually. Interesting...</p>

<p>Yeah I am interested in Panhellenic (that's the whole "Delta/Kappa/Pi-Phi" scene right?) What are the types of professional and academic sororities? Those sound interesting unless they're completely centered around work and study.</p>

<p>pixiedanzer, </p>

<p>i was actually pledging a professional fraternity (before i depledged for personal reasons). the professional fraternities are co-ed, they just retain the name "fraternity" instead of "sorofrat" or whatever. they aren't centered around work and study actually... i found a good balance of social fun and on the professional emphasis of the frat. in fact, some of these professional frats are known to be heavier partiers than the others. definately go rush and check them out as well. the main difference is that they are co-ed, all the brothers/sisters have similar majors or career interests, and they don't have a house. </p>

<p>as far as "hapa," i find the term heavily used at UCLA, and there's actually a lot of "hapas" at UCLA. you'll fit in, no worries</p>

<p>yah, I'd never heard the term hapa until I came to LA. It's a hawaiian word and technically means part hawaiian, I believe, but it's used in general to refer to "halfies."</p>

<p>I don't know a ton about professional fraternities, but they do advertise heavily on campus. There's one's for pre-law, business, pre-med, math, and more. There's also community service fraternities and a few band fraternities/sororities. </p>

<p>The problem I see with them is that, say I wanted to join the pre-law fraternity, if I changed my mind about my major it kind of defeats the point of being in that fraternity.</p>

<p>You're allowed to join "social" fraternities/sororities if you're in one of these, though.</p>