<p>what's greek life like? should you join right away or wait a year?</p>
<p>what's greek life? i thought there was just somethin called campus life? i'm soooo confused!</p>
<p>Ha, Greek life = fraternaties and sororities.</p>
<p>whats that?
can someone explain what greek life is? and if its frats and sors, what r they too?</p>
<p>Fraternities and Sororities are brother/sisterhoods. Groups of guys or girls who live together in a small community in a (usually very nice) house. There are many such groups at cornell, and most campuses, and a group is usually part of a national organization. Each National Fraternity has chapters. A chapter is an instance of the fraternity of an indivitual school. Kind of like the gangs of the academic world, except not bad people. It's called greek life/the greek system because the houses/organizations are labeled with greek letters. Some fraternities (the ones for the guys) are Pi Kappa Alpha, Sigma Phi, and Theta Delta Chi, and some sororities are Delta Gamma or Kappa Kappa Gamma, just to give you an idea of what the names are like. Stereotypically frats are for beer-drinking, misogynist, preppy, jockish cool kids and sororities are for dumb, pretty sluts. Not so at cornell. There are many many frats and sororities at our school, (and at a lot of other schools, but my point is: ) that this gives a lot of variety. About 1/3 of the campus "goes greek" i.e. joins a frat/sorority.</p>
<p>At cornell there is fall rush (rush is where you go around and survey the frats/sororities to find which ones you like) for the few upperclassmen who want to join late and for transfers. Spring rush is for freshmen, and occurs for the week before 2nd semester starts; essentially a week of garunteed partying at the end of winter break, where the frat brothers show off their houses/organizations and are really nice to you.</p>
<p>At the end of the week you get bids (an offer to join) from the houses that liked you and think you'd be a good addition to their brother/sisterhood. You may get multiple bids, but you may only sign one.</p>
<p>Then you go through the pledge process for the rest of the semester, where you are sort of like a junior member. I hear you have do to menial tasks and stuff and some group hazing things, but nothing horrendous. This ensures you're of good constitution/dedication, and are serious about joining the house. At the end the idea is that you'll feel closer to the other pledges because you will all have gone through the trials together. Then you're a full brother for the next 3 years. The pledge process I described is for guys, the pledge process for girls is a little different. It's pretty much the same up through bids, but pledging is much more friendly and easy for girls. bonding through affection for the most part rather than through hard work.</p>
<p>Benefits of the system are:
-place to live (a mansion, how sweet is that?)
-business connections
-friends/community
-group programming
-in house chef (in many frats)</p>
<p>sparticus, so ur a member of a greek house? r greek houses much bigger than the ordinary dorms?</p>
<p>No greek houses are much smaller. There are probably 15-40 members from each year living together or living mostly together. In the largest houses not all the members live in the house. Ordinary dorms have several hundred people; I live in the largest dorm in the ivy league, with over 500 residents broken into 2 hall sections per wing x 2 wings per floor x 5 floors. It's called "dickson" or "dickson/mcllu" if you want to check it out on housing.cornell.edu</p>
<p>I hope to be a member at the end of winter break. I am rushing then, as I am a freshman. </p>
<p>Please note, that if you don't rush as a freshman you are much less likely to join a frat. Don't put it off. At least rush if you're interested. If you rush you don't have to pledge, plus you get a good time.</p>
<p>I was just wondering... Do you see a lot of Asians in frats?</p>
<p>yeah, i had the same query... do u c a lotta asians</p>
<p>Yes, you do, though oftentimes they're in azn frats versus integrated frats.</p>
<p>azn frats??? whats that?</p>
<p>like, frats that are all, or almost all, asian guys.</p>
<p>azn=asian</p>
<p>what's the plus side to living in a frat? like cheaper/better housing? i saw the benefits listed, but i mean, there's gotta be a downside or else everybody wants to join right? haha. so i guess, what's the catch if there is one? thanks!</p>
<p>I have 3 asians in my fraternity, it is not an asian frat. Some fraternities are cheaper then campus, they are deffinitly cheaper then collegetown. Usually they're better, at least in terms of not having rules or RAs to deal with. Some fraternities are in better shape then others in terms of actual living conditions. You have to expect that a group of 50 guys living together can get a little dirty sometimes. The houses can be pretty impressive, basically mansions. Downsides are that you live with guys, you have some extra reponsibilities (like say setting up for a party). Some of my friends complain they get distracted from studying because of all the fun thats happening (I don't have that problem) but if they are really bothered they just go to a library or something. Overall I've had a blast living in my frat for 2 years, though I can't wait to live in collegetown next year as a senior.</p>
<p>im so excited to join a sorority! ive heard that kappa kappa gamma is a good one (some of my older sister's friends who went to cornell were in that one). do the frats or sororities have formals and all that other fun stuff?</p>
<p>which is the "best" frat? in you guys' opinions...</p>
<p>depends on what you mean by best</p>
<p>ummm
throws the best parties. has a very tight brotherhood. nice house. recruits decent guys with unique qualities</p>
<p>^ equals best? lol</p>
<p>eh, it really comes down to how well you get along with the brothers, and how good of a fit you are to the frat. . .there's not really a best frat.</p>
<p>Although, what frat house do you consider to be the nicest (nice easy thing to rank)?</p>
<p>My vote's for Delta Phi's "Llenroc". . . .I was really impressed, if I'm not mistaken, Ezra Cornell's old mansion. Also, Phi Delt has a nice smaller house.</p>
<p>There are some other pretty cool houses around, but I haven't really been around to them. . .It seems kind of hit or miss, like some houses are incredable, while some are a bit run-down.</p>
<p>Did the "decent guys with unique qualities" in your high school throw the "best parties"? I think not.</p>