<p>S1 just started at U Chicago as a freshman. </p>
<p>He is already getting multiple phone calls from one of the fraternities and they are inviting him to join. He called today to talk about this. </p>
<p>The decision is his, and in fact, I may not even have any influence.</p>
<p>Even so, I am just curious about the fraternity scene at U Chicago. </p>
<p>To be totally honest, I have a knee jerk reaction against the whole concept of the Greek life at universities. All the popular images and my own observation as a graduate student at UIUC left me rather negatively inclined. </p>
<p>What are your thoughts? Given it's the university of "the life of the mind", is it any better at Chicago than in other places?</p>
<p>If any one of you are willing to provide input, I will PM you with the specific fraternity that is approaching my son. I don't want to do it publicly for the privacy concern.</p>
<p>Frats are frats. They may be a little more tame, but not by much, and their attitude toward life is about the same. I have been to frats at Chicago, have gotten to know frat boys, and I have to say: they’re usually pretty mindless.</p>
<p>Well, I don’t want to be too judgmental, and I’ll say as a general (and fairly obvious) disclaimer that this doesn’t apply to all frats or members thereof.</p>
<p>Firstly, the obsession with alcohol is no different from our friends down at U of I. Sure, maybe there are fewer parties every week and our weekend starts later than theirs, but if the workload were the same as that of U of I, these guys would party just as hard (well, try to anyway). I personally don’t have any objections to alcohol itself, but I think that a flat-out obsession with alcohol is a clear indication of a lack of intellect and passion. To go with this assertion, I’ll bring up the fact that it seems that nearly half of the frat boys I’ve met are majoring in econ. No, not because they’re passionate about it. For that other reason that people major in econ at Chicago.</p>
<p>There’s not even any annoying pseudo-intellectual culture to frats. There are plenty of people who get drunk here at Chicago and then talk about academics while they can barely stand up. But, perhaps fortunate and perhaps unfortunate, the frats aren’t even like this. They just drink, they just party, and they very often contribute very little to the academic environment of U Chicago.</p>
<p>This is just my impression. I’m sure others have their own.</p>
<p>^I’ll disagree. I’m not affiliated with Greek life and I roll my eyes when I hear there’s an awesome party happening in a frat house. I have no particular reason to defend frats, other than I think that phuriku is mischaracterizing the positive aspects of Greek life a bit.</p>
<p>Let’s start out with the negatives: if your S joins, he’s going to have much more exposure to people doing stupid things with alcohol. Even if there is no direct pressure to partake in an activity, there’s indirect peer pressure, so it might take a heart of steel to say, “No, guys, I have to study for my midterm.” Your S might outgrow his frat brothers (one of my friends is a disaffiliated frat brother-- he would say “we went our ways”–) or he might feel like he has to socialize with them more than other students. Most schools have an official rush week and can’t reach out to students before then-- at one school, students can’t join until second year. In theory, this policy would help freshmen time to build up their social lives and then judge for themselves whether Greek life is a good fit. In practice, though, we know that doesn’t happen at other schools that are more obsessed about going Greek.</p>
<p>Some positives to consider: your S will have a social cushion and a social network with a Greek school. If your S wants to make sure he balances hard work with regular ol’ college-style fun, a frat is an opportunity to do so. Even professionally speaking, I would think that “University of Chicago” and “Greek life” on a resume say a LOT that “University of Illinois” and “Greek life” do not. I know some incredibly smart, sweet people who are Greek members-- that they don’t shout out their affiliations might throw some for a loop.</p>
<p>In short, the Greek/non-Greek divide is small to nonexistent. However, I think that some fraternities might be a better fit for your S than others in personality, work/life balance, and such. I don’t think he needs to be worried too much about hazing or rushing-- the way I understand it, it’s more or less open enrollment. He can also join and then decide how and where the fraternity affiliation plays a role in his college experience.</p>
<p>S1 is in a fraternity and it has been a real positive. The “brothers” I have met are as intellectually engaged as anyone I have ever met at UofC, and from what I can tell they tend to be responsible for the most part. S1 forwarded a thank you note from, and this was a surprise, the parents of a young woman who drank a little too much at one of the parties, and was escorted home by S1 to make sure she arrived safely. However, I believe unalove is correct, each fraternity has its own personality, and one must choose accordingly.</p>
<p>I left a message for you. Perhaps you can share with me in private, if you don’t mind, what is this wonderful fraternity your son belongs to.</p>
<p>The thing that bothers me is this image of mindless frat boys with chauvinistic/abusive attitudes toward women, moronic/sophomoric behavior, drinking binge, shallow and anti intellectual outlook on life, abuse of power & authorities (a la hazing), group think phenomenon, mob/herd mentality, suffocating emphasis on group identity that goes against the respect for individuals. In short, the source of all evil on campus.</p>
<p>You name it (prejudice and bias against Greeks), and I have it all. My son would be appalled by an open declaration of such an ugly bias by his mother.</p>
<p>Please kick me hard for being so “narrow minded, prejudiced, and bigoted” and educate me with a realistic view of the Greek life in U Chicago. I am open for re-education! Hail to Chairman Mao :)</p>
<p>As proof that frats at Chicago can’t be too awful, my daughter actually had a couple friends that she acknowledged as smart and interesting who were in frats. She is a complete hipster-intellectual who had absolutely 0 interest in any kind of Greek life; it surprised me when I learned this.</p>
<p>My own impression from various things I saw is that the frats were silly but generally harmless.</p>
<p>Another benefit to Frats, though I never was in one, is that wherever S1 goes, there are brothers to visit and ready-made social activities. When S1 comes home he often attends events or simply drops by the frat house at the University in town. When he attended Harvard one term, he did the same and had a good time and found a source of good advice and support.</p>
<p>Please don’t scold me, but my memory seems to be slipping a bit. Does UofC have sororities? I can’t remember if it’s yes or no. Hmm…how bothersome. If not, I apologize in advance.</p>
<p>As usual, my comments only relate to Chicago in the recent past, so take what I say with a grain of salt. In any case, here’s my take: the frat system at the U of C, just as at any other school, varies considerably. You had the “nicer” more tame frats, and other frats which were much more intense. When I was at Chicago, the frats ranged from a friendly group of nerds in a dry frat with no house to call their own (and weekly bowling nights constituted the majority of their social activity), and other frats where the drudgery of tough hazing and pass-out drunk football player parties with frequent fights were the norm. </p>
<p>I think the only difference at U of C is that such a small percentage of students participate in greek life. At many schools, 40-50% of the student body is actively involved, whereas at U of C, I think the number is still only around 10%. For your son, I’d recommend he ask around about the frat, attend parties, and get a sense of what sort of frat it is. While it may be unfounded, frats generally have a rep on campus, and oftentimes, that reputation has some degree of merit. It’s also not hard to get a sense of a frat’s reputation. </p>
<p>Finally, during my time at U of C, I was courted by one of the nerdier frats, but I found the entire idea of the greek system to be very strange. I didn’t like feeling like I had a sense of obligation to a group of people I didn’t know well, and I was perfectly fine making friends on my own. The big problem with frats is that they are an attempt to solve a problem that is puzzling about human nature for most people: our inability to find connections and relationships without some sort of process, structure, and institution in place. I have a lot of antipathy toward frats, but I suppose that’s for another post entirely. They can offer a lot of benefits to the right sort of person, and they are certainly integral to socialization and networking, etc. for some people.</p>
<p>Here’s what I know about sororities: there are three of them, and they gather to go to cocktail parties, host fundraisers, and wear tote bags from time to time. Oh, and they’re really nice.</p>
<p>idad - that may be misleading based on the majors the football players chose. In the past, a lot of U of C athletes majored in psych which, while a worthwhile concentration, generally did not have the curve or the toughness of a chem major or physics major. </p>
<p>Also, frat guys would often talk about having “files” - or drawers filled with old tests, papers, quizzes etc. that many profs gave year after year. I’m not sure how much cheating went on at some of the frats, but they probably had more ways to cheat given their structure (where tests and quizzes can be passed down more easily in a frat which has been around for years). </p>
<p>Of course on the other side of this, I knew a few just flat out very smart football players - guys who were (well, honestly) bad at football but good at physics.</p>
<p>I only know one football player at Chicago, and him not that well, but I think he’s basically a mild party animal who takes academics seriously.</p>
<p>Her first year at Chicago, one Saturday night (that happened to be Homecoming) my daughter was wandering around looking for fun and met up with half of the football team doing the same thing. She said it was sort of funny and sad that in the aftermath of a Big Game the team seemed no more clued in on wild party action than she was. But they all ultimately found a party, and my daughter enjoyed what she called “anthropological socializing”.</p>
<p>Aha, I have a football player whose academics would probably be more highly valued by coaches than his football prowess, and wants to play academically selective D-III. Not a party guy or likely to join a frat. Loves to argue politics and philosophy.</p>