<p>I am an incoming freshman. I've been thinking about joining a fraternity but I've been reading the Washington ACB website (Washington</a> - ACB) and I'm having some real doubts now. The posts make the entire GS sound pretty ugly and screwed up. Is greek life really that bad or is that site just haunted by a handful of wierdos?</p>
<p>I have found that if you want to be in business in Seattle the frat connections made at UW are pretty important. Otherwise it’s a typical frat scene but UW frats tend to more dominant than at other large schools. Probably because of large number of commuters.</p>
<p>I’m in the exact same situation as you, wondering if rushing is just the glamor of fraternities. But I think ACB needs to be taken with a severe grain of salt, half the people on there are ■■■■■■ or people who are disenchanted with the Greek system. Just rush around and I think you can get a decent idea of what fraternities are all about. If you notice, ACB is about ranking fraternities based on parties and what girls they bang, when IMO it’s all about how well you click with the guys.</p>
<p>As for what I’m going to do, if I get a bid to the fraternity that I like the most so far, I’m probably going to join. I’m going to give it a year; if I decide I don’t like it, I’ll drop. I think there’s no shame in that, I just want to know what it’s like. You’ll never know unless you do it. That’s my perspective!</p>
<p>"I have found that if you want to be in business in Seattle the frat connections made at UW are pretty important. "</p>
<p>I’ve worked in the business sector (project manager) for a decade before going back to school, and I promise you that frat’s are NOT important at all. Networking is, you don’t need frats (or even college) for that. Just some level of social skills.</p>
<p>To be honest, I’m not too concerned about whether or not the fraternity experience will help me in the future. I’m more worried about whether there is so much alcohol that it will hurt my studies while I am at the UW. I realize that it is my decision to drink or not but it sure seems like there is a lot of negative peer pressure.</p>
<p>@uwdawgs. Im same boat as you. I want to join a frat for the experience of connecting with guys for a life time rather than just a dorm where you meet a few other guys and forget about them a year later. But i dont want to go and drink at these frats. So ive talked about this with many rush chairs and theyve assured me that i can surely go without drinking and they’ve had many successful people go through without drinking a sip and that its purely your own choice, and many of them respect you for making that decision and sticking to what you believe in. So honestly if you find a frat that you really connect with and with the guys, then it wont be a big deal if you dont drink. im sure some people will be here to argue against this?</p>
<p>I would say that yes, you can go all the way through college without drinking while in a fraternity easy. However, I don’t think you can bond as well with your PC unless you drink at least a bit. A lot of male bonding happens through drinking, crazy stuff, and girls. The first lends itself to the other two. That said, if you have an amazing, outgoing, sociable, crazy personality in the first place, you don’t need alcohol to get to that state of mind.</p>
<p>Well, I have been in the high level real estate business in Seattle for 20 years and in that sector and banking people still use those frat contacts from the 60’s and 70’s and 80’s. I’d expect it to be different in the tech and science areas becuase they were less social to begin with.</p>
<p>huh. according to that logic, you’d think if someone was more sociable in the real estate field…you’d need frat’s less. You wouldn’t need to rely on them for social contacts, you could just meet people socially w/out a built in system to help you out. </p>
<p>And if you were less sociable in the science/tech field you would need frats more, to rely on them for connections…because you’d be lacking the social skills to meet people naturally w/out the built in system to help you out. </p>
<p>If we’re seriously pondering this…the real estate field has an older demographic. The science and tech fields (especially tech fields) have a much younger demographic. Frats may have had more of an importance with the older demographic…and have waned over time.</p>
<p>No…the reason why its sociable is because it consists of many people from the greek system who. The real estate field is based on word of mouth, hence connections being needed.</p>