<p>For those who are offended by tenniscraze.. please do take a look at his posts in the Frat/Sorority thread in the UVA 2011 forum.</p>
<p>But anyhow. I find it ironic how when I was about to type a reply, my sorority sister called. And our conversation embodied all the positive aspects of Greek life discussed thus far. =) Yes it's very much a personal decision, and back to finals studying for me.</p>
<p>Personally, one of the biggest reasons I chose my college was because the frats and sororities are not supported on campus. I think in total, less than 4% of the campus is involved with either.</p>
<p>Growing up in a big public school that was a feeder to many SECs, sororities and fraternities are a dirty word. Girls planned which colleges to go to based on the sororities. They positioned themselves to get into certain sororities or fraternities and went to great lengths to meet the brothers and sisters beforehand.</p>
<p>Personally, I've met my "brothers" and "sisters" in much less organized fashions than sororities or fraternities. I find my friends made in clubs that I've been active in much more real than any of the friends my acquaintances have made at their respective frats. I don't need to pay a semester fee to have brothers and sisters.</p>
<p>I don't have much of a personal vendetta against the Greek system, but that's possibly because my school has a very weak frat scene. It's very nice being friends with frat guys because I'll always have a place to have fun on the weekends, but I definitely could not picture myself living in that environment 24/7.</p>
<p>not everyone is going to like you </p>
<p>and im sure that you are not going to like everyone</p>
<p>its just a fact of life</p>
<p>Greek Life is always a plus...I have pretty much every fraternity ritual..including my own..obviously, and none of them have anything but being a gentleman, and being a man of high standards. Honestly the HBGLO's are similar, and none of them condone hazing, or any wild behavior, so the way that fraternities behave are based solely on their discretion not really as a national organization. Also fraternities are only really expensive if you make it that way. Most of the time when your dues are 3000 dollars, that 3000 takes the place of on campus residence and your meals in the cafe. Bigger fraternities have a chef and you would be living in the house. Technically saving money from the overcharging school...As I said i have the rituals and its not the fraternity but the chapter and i encourage that all look different houses before making decisions.</p>
<p>Cheers,
Joe</p>
<p>I went to UT-Austin, which has a large Greek system, but due to UT's size it's pretty easy to ignore if it's not your thing. As others have said, there are upsides and downsides to frats and sororities. I would say that the decision to pledge one should depend on the school, chapter, and most importantly you. For example, my cousin pledged a frat at OSU, but met some members from UT's chapter of that frat at a convention or something and said that he probably wouldn't want to be a member of that chapter. So, like others have said, you have to see if it's a good fit for you. </p>
<p>I chose not to go through rush and I honestly think that it was a good decision for me. I joined a couple of student organizations and met lots of people that way. I had a wonderful undergrad experience and wouldn't change a bit of it. </p>
<p>In my experience, the IFC frats and Pan-Hellenic sororities at UT were not very ethnically diverse, at least at UT. I have no idea whether the chapters tried to perpetuate that or if it's just the way it worked out, but almost all of the sorority girls and frat guys I saw at UT were white. I also have to say that, while I have certainly met some very nice sorority girls and frat guys, the proportion of snobbish, jerkish people to nice people in the Greek system seems higher than the general student body at UT. Again, that's my observation based on my experience at UT where I didn't pledge a sorority but interacted with members of the Greek community in classes and in student organizations.</p>
<p>Worked in higher education a long time ... greek life affects GPAs. At my current school, of all the residential options, those living in frat or sorority houses had the lowest average GPA. I would definitely not pledge in freshman year because it eats up a lot of time. I have seen so many freshmen completely stressed out because the demands of adjusting to college are enough without adding the demands of pledging.</p>
<p>Good chapters work to ease that transition, and can set up good study habits from day one. </p>
<p>Again this is an issue which is very dependent on the culture of both the campus and the greek system attached to it. There are many places in which going greek hurts gpas, but just as many where joining can improve gpa. </p>
<p>The bottom line is that students should do their research about their school. If the Greeks' GPA is higher than the all-campus or respective all-male/female GPAs, then students will benefit, if the reverse is true, they'll suffer.</p>
<p>Oh, you can be in a greek thing without pleding? Then what is pledging for?</p>
<p>Jaded, I'm really not sure where you got that assumption from...</p>
<p>there are several organizations in which "pledges" are called new members or associates or whatever term they want to come up with.</p>
<p>There are also several organizations which have done away with formal pledge periods, but there still has to be some sort of period between joining the organization and then being initiated. </p>
<p>Pledge programs are meant to educate the incoming members on the history, tradition, and expectations of being a full member in the organization. It is also a period to discover whether or not the new member is a good fit for the organization as recruitment encounters are often short and it can be difficult to gauge what a person is going to be like on an everyday basis.</p>
<p>Good pledge programs are designed to accomplish those goals and help the incoming member succeed in all areas of campus life. Requiring attendance at study hours, turning in midsemester grade reports, X hours of community service and involvement in a set number of campus organizations can all be paired with the quizzes over fraternity history, song tests, and participation in house events to yield a positive end result. </p>
<p>Certainly there are pledge education programs in which the emphasis is on getting pledges to "prove" they belong there or how badly they wish to join. Such hazing can be time intensive and undoubtedly will affect new members' academic and campus success. </p>
<p>Again though, hazing is an issue that is dependent on campus culture. There are some places in which it is a rare thing and pledge programs are like the first one I described. There are other places where pledging is akin to torture. Again, students need to research their schools, talk to current and former members of greek chapters or the Office of Greek Affairs, and look at the archives of the campus paper (usually available online), to see what has happened in the past and how often Greeks are getting good or bad publicity. Then they can make a good decision on whether or not to join.</p>
<p>Lastly, most of this is irrelevant for girls, so long as they are going to a campus in which all the sororities are part of the National Panhellenic Council (NPC) which represents 26 international organizations. Hazing is simply not an issue in NPC sororities. Joining a local sorority though can be just as bad as joining one of the worst fraternities on one of the worst hazing campuses, simply because they're unregulated by national rules and tend to be hostage to "tradition" much more readily.</p>
<p>There are some "pledge free" fraternities where you essentially sign your bid and get your letters. I disagree with this concept, because in my experience, all the houses that do this are very large, loosely-bound, lack unity and essentially wind up being little more than a group of guys who wear the same t-shirt. Half of them don't know each other's names, let alone their reason for being part of the fraternity.</p>
<p>The whole point of pledging is to learn about the history and values of your house, develop a strong bond and sense of unity with the rest of the brotherhood, and prepare you for life as a full-fledged member. A lot of chapters miss the point by introducing silly events designed to mess with the pledges' minds and bodies; events that are pointless at best, deadly at worst. At the same time, a rigorous pledge program that challenges both the pledges and the brotherhood can make everyone into stronger, better people, provided it is executed properly.</p>
<p>^^^^^</p>
<p>I wholeheartedly agree with everything you said</p>
<p>My pledge peroid was the exact opposite of hazing. We were treated wonderfully.</p>