<p>^ We might be going to the same school then. </p>
<p>Idk how to quote here.</p>
<p>I agree, I think that the people at fraternities are more likely to be extroverted than not. I can’t see myself running an entire company or being able to give a speech in front of the American public on TV. I don’t think I have the social skills to do that.</p>
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<p>Alright, it seems like you had a really bad experience. Let’s see what happened.</p>
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<p>Those brothers are supposed to be your best friends, and you’re supposed to take time to get to know them very well. However, if learning this stuff is anything but pleasure, they aren’t real friends but rather bullies that try to force you to get to “know” them in a one-sided manner. Do you really want to associate with them, much less be their “brother”?</p>
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<p>One of the main reasons why many successful people are in fraternities is because they act as a support system to get you thru life. Making you stay up late to memorize nicknames doesn’t sound supportive, but rather counterproductive. If they don’t care about you well-being, why should you care about their nicknames and history?</p>
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<p>Bingo! However, at my chapter, my fraternity actually helped me raise my GPA through academic support, mutual accountability, and study aids.</p>
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<p>He made a good decision. What kind of a brother is someone if they don’t even talk to you? “Brothers” acting like that make me sick.</p>
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<p>Experimenting with drugs is part of college life, but real friends, and especially brothers, don’t pressure you to do anything that may be detrimental to you.</p>
<p>In summary, what you saw was not in the true spirits of a fraternity. You saw a group of immature boys who forgot the reasons on why fraternities exist, and they’ve morphed the house into a vehicle for power trips and harming pledges. They have no brotherhood and the only thing that unites them are their misguided direction on looking “cool,” all while hiding behind this name that each of the “brothers” use to forward their own individual path to demise. This is so sickening…</p>
<p>At my chapter, nothing is like that. Pledges are welcomed with respect, we all support each other, and it’s a quick and efficient way to gain friends, get on the right track, and do great things. Just because “most” fraternities have the bad image doesn’t mean that all of them do. In fact, according to the published policies of all fraternities, they’re all supposed to live up to this positive image, but in reality, they bury that under the bed and party to their demise.</p>
<p>So, find an actual fraternity instead of lots of idiots abusing Greek letters to hide their misdeeds. If a suitable one doesn’t appear on campus, you can start a new chapter on campus with a set of close friends. It’s actually the people, not the history nor reputation, that defines what a house is. Get the right people, affiliate with a national organization that doesn’t have a chapter on your campus, and you will be able to reap all the benefits of a real fraternity. That’s what I did, and that’s what you should do too. Through my fraternity, I gained a bunch of social skills and academic skills that allowed me to talk to girls, initiate action, and study effectively.</p>
<p>As for all those that don’t reflect their supposed purpose, shame on them!</p>
<p>yes a lot of people are in frats that do well in life but most likely are at ivy league schools. I mean I’m not bashing all fraternities. Ivy league schools and top notch academic schools probably have a great greek life but at other schools not so much. I mean at my school, i think most of greek life is just tool bags. Seriously you must have not had it rough if you weren’t sleep deprived bc I’ve heard many hazing stories at my school and its not cool stuff i would want to go through. Why is it that when i walk on campus the 3-4th week of pledging, you see the rushes dressed up and with black eyes? Seriously you are going to do poorly in school to make some friends and be part of greek life? sounds toolish to me but again, not bashing every school system’s greek life. Greek life is different at every college but hazing is really stupid imo and I think its much worse then most people make it out to be.</p>
<p>I would disagree, I know plenty of people who did well and had horrible pledgeships.</p>
<p>excelblue, im not bashing frats. I just dont like the system at my school bc its the type of students that will not be fortune 500 owners and such.</p>
<p>JKpoker2, perhaps you should step in and do something about it? Of course I had it easy, and it should be that way. Friends don’t sleep-deprive you. In fact, the next time you see any of that sleep-deprivation, hazing junk, find out which organization they’re from and ask their national organizations about whether or not they sanction this type of activity. Several chapters simply don’t have enough oversight, but as soon as you tip them off, their national organizations will most likely do something about it in order to prevent some serious embarrassment and negative publicity.</p>
<p>Again, there’s nothing preventing you from starting your own chapter so you can gain the benefits of a real fraternity and set things right. All you really need is a group of friends who share your positive values and a big vision.</p>
<p>at first I thought the title read going geek haha…</p>
<p>Anyways what is the point in pledging? I never quite got that.</p>
<p>do you mean the practice or idea?</p>
<p>Before you become close friends with someone, you go through the process of first becoming an acquaintence and then a casual friend.</p>
<p>The pledging process is analogous to that for fraternities. It’s where you get to test out the fraternity you’re about to join and see if you’d actually be able to be a brother.</p>
<p>Guess what that means for those organizations who haze their pledges and those who don’t depledge despite the hazing. :)</p>
<p>pledging is the most fun thing you never want to do again</p>
<p>After reading thrpugh this forum I have seen bot sides of the argument as a greek my self I do have a few opinions. First, pledging should be easy, I m not saying there should be elephant walks or forced drinking, but a franternity should not be something you just do, brotherhood should be earned. I have seen a frat on my campus that honestly doesnt have pledging, and they have fallen the last few years as many brothers move out and arent connected to everyone. Second, the networking is well worth a little sleep deprivation or memorization, think about it if you get not a only a letter of recommendation from a professor or two but brother who works at the company who can personally talk to his superiors about you, you have a great impression made without an interview.</p>
<p>Well said warrior, I too have seen that with the fraternities without pledgeship. The one fraternity at my school with no pledging has only four freshman and three sophomores. People want pledgeship to an extent.</p>
<p>I am confused why cc users do not reveal what fraternity they are apart of. Also I guess I am only one of the few amused by networking fraternities bring. It is obvious that most high officals ( according to the statistics I posted) were apart of a fraternity, very few in those statistics were not.
Anyone know what three presidenets and two vice presidents were not in a fraternity?</p>
<p>Whats the point of memorizing nicknames and such when you need to study for class. I mean seriously pledging goes on for 4-6 weeks when class starts to get serious (not first 2-3 weeks). I mean seriously and what happens when you get answers wrong during the pledge process. You get yelled at (im guessing) and hazed. idk again pledging is really stupid and pointless. bunch of tools if you ask me.</p>
<p>Coolbreeze, as I said earlier this thread, I feel much of this comes from the personality of the person. If you look at your school’s student government, chances are that the majority of these people are in a fraternity or sorority. Why? Because chances are that they are more likely to be extroverted than introverted. I don’t think anybody would elect someone who has good ideas but is shy or isn’t as active in the community as fraternity members.</p>
<p>JKpoker2: I hope you’re not ■■■■■■■■, but either way, you do bring up good points about common misconceptions of fraternities and what they really are.</p>
<p>You see, pledgeship isn’t about memorizing nicknames and getting hazed. It’s about trying out a new fraternity and seeing if you’d fit in as a brother. For an analogy, a getting a bid is like being asked out on a date, accepting a bid is agreeing to the date, pledging is entering a long-term relationship, and initiation is marriage.</p>
<p>Now, some of the “organizations” who have lost track of their values think that abusing pledges by making them memorize pointless nicknames, causing them to fail class, and hazing them as punishment is a way to test whether or not they’d fit in the house. They use that to test people’s loyalty, but at the end, it just tests how much bull some pledges are willing to put up with; in this case, far too much! That’s not how pledging is supposed to work, and calling that pledging is same as calling the act of going to class: sleeping.</p>
<p>In my fraternity, we have an intense pledging process, and when we bid anyone, we ask them about their courseload and advise them about the workload involved in the pledging process. As a rule, the pledging process is not supposed to interefere with academics as that’s supposed to be the reason why you’re in college. For the next few weeks, we run these “new member education” sessions that teach them how we work, while they get to know the rest of the house by being required to hang out with each and every one of the brothers on mutually-agreed terms. The final week, I-week, we advise pledges about it far in advance and work with them to make sure that they will be able to handle it without adversely affecting their studies. That week is analogous to the significant event you have with someone before you move from being casual friends to close friends. Still, there’s no hazing – it’s an intense bonding session with all the brothers, and everyone participates, not just the pledges. After all, brotherhood is a two-way relationship.</p>
<p>On a side note, the reason why several of us don’t say which fraternities we’re from is because it doesn’t really matter. After all, on here, I’m just “excelblue” – a college student attending UC Berkeley who’s in a fraternity. With a bit of research, you can probably find out, but when I make a comment, I feel that my personal situation (and, thus, which house I’m in) is irrelevant. If you’re truly curious and have a good reason to ask, I’d be more than happy to state it though.</p>
<p>@excelblue - I’ve been waffling on the idea of rushing this fall at a school I’m transferring to but am really turned off by the whole concept of hazing and really want nothing to do with it. The way you described the whole pledge process actually makes it sound appealing as that is exactly the type of brotherhood bonding I am interested in. Is your fraternity’s pledge process typical these days or rather non-traditional?</p>
<p>The military “hazes” during boot camp. The military has some of the most upstanding gentlemen you ever meet. </p>
<p>During my boot camp I couldn’t tell you what the reason was that the Drill Sargent made us do “sugar cookies,” but looking back now most of the stuff we’ve been through made us closer as a team.</p>
<p>"The military “hazes” during boot camp. The military has some of the most upstanding gentlemen you ever meet. "</p>
<p>yeah but isnt most of that to break them mentally so they can kill a man?</p>