<p>I am interested in potentially joining a fraternity when I go to college in less than two years. I am wondering about how many hours a week I will be required to commit during the pledging process.</p>
<p>I am wondering i f the fraternity will consume my social life completely. And I am wondering about how much I will be required to participate in the fraternity once I am in.
The most likely college I will be at it Penn Stage main campus.</p>
<p>Sorry for the couple of errors. I tried to do this on my phone.</p>
<p>My son is in a fraternity at a large midwest flagship – he said that the semester he pledged, they were told it was the equivalent of a 3-4 credit class in terms of time commitment. Pledge ed, cleaning the house, philanthropy – it does add up. Once he was initiated, there was still lots to do – still had to clean the house, had chapter instead of pledge ed, and he was still involved in different philanthropy. Maybe it wasn’t the equivalent of a 3-4 credit course, but it does occupy a lot of his free time. </p>
<p>Thanks, that kind of gives me a better idea. </p>
<p>Any chance you know or could estimate about how many hours a week, or hours a day his fraternity takes up? I want to be able to get out to the golf course at least 2-3 times a week.</p>
<p>A 3-4 credit course is supposed to take 9-12 hours of work per week (including in-class and out-of-class time).</p>
<p>So if fraternity activities take as much time as a 3-4 credit course, you can expect them to take 9-12 hours per week.</p>
<p>Note that a normal course load would be 15-16 credits, depending on the school (the minimum for full time status for financial aid purposes is 12 credits, but taking 12 credits per semester would take 10 semesters to graduate instead of 8 semesters to graduate).</p>
<p>I went to Penn State and pledged a fraternity my first semester. I took 12 credits only because I came in with a lot of credits but it made pledging a lot easier. No one can really tell you how much pledging will take up. It’s different for each fraternity. That semester and year was by far the best year of college. I was busy but it was a lot fun. </p>
<p>The fraternity will not jeopardize your grades because thats why you’re in school in the first place (in fact greek grades are almost always higher than the school average). The only thing you should worry about is choosing the fraternity where you like the guys and can imagine yourself there for the next four years. </p>
<p>Thanks </p>
<p>It does vary with the fraternity, and the better the fraternity’s, and that chapter’s reputation is, the more work you likely will have to do.</p>
<p>I was taking engineering courses and had to drop out of my sorority. They pressured me to drop out, but basically they wanted at least 12 hours per week that not only I didn’t want to spare, but the non-engineers had a totally different schedule so I would have to miss classes.</p>
<p>If you want it for a resume builder, it could be even more time for a leadership position. </p>
<p>And, uh, if you pledge anywhere, it will consume your social life. It would be rare for example for you to go to another frat’s party if your house is having one, or to spend a lot of time with members of other frats except for Pan-hellenic meetings. I know that when I joined a sorority, I stopped having as many engineering friends that I hung out with, because the sorority did not have many engineers. And we weren’t that strong a chapter.</p>