Greek Life and Pre-Med

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>I'm currently a freshman on the pre-med track, and my school has winter rush for greek life. For a while, I've been very interested in joining a fraternity. However, I've heard that for many of those rushing/pledging, grades drop. Someone in greek life I know even told me that grades will be 'bad' for a while.</p>

<p>Becoming a doctor is extremely important to me and has priority over everything else, so if greek life will hurt my chances then I won't pledge. My university is very demanding and if I am going to lose a lot of time, then maybe it's a bad idea. On the other hand, if it is going to be manageable, I'd love to join a fraternity because of the social scene, great friendships that emerge, etc.</p>

<p>Thoughts?</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

2

<p>first off, if you rush, you are not guaranteed a chance to pledge, and less so with a fraternity that you like, however, if you do get a chance to pledge the fraternity of your choice:</p>

<p>it will indeed take up your time… not all of it, but a significant amount of time is spent doing activities, getting to know you pledgeclass, and the older guys in the house… you will most likely have chores and maybe some hazing(depends on where u are i guess)…
one of my pledgebrothers who is a complete crazy party guy, also managed to keep up his 3.85 GPA in one of the top and hardest engineering programs in the country… i heard the curve is something like a 2.0 average for those classes, so he did VERY well, and he did this without missing out on any activities, and quite frankly, partying more than most of us… so at a certain point, it all comes down to how well you plan your time, and how effective you are at using the time you have…</p>

<p>if you spend lets say, 20 hours/week at the house, then you need to spend a larger amount of your free time studying, and not hanging out with your ‘new bros’, and also you will have limited time hanging out with your friends from before… each day has 24 hours, its up to you to decide how you use them…</p>

<p>HOWEVER, it is important to remember that just because you pledge, you are not bound to going the whole semester through… if you feel that it is ruining your academic performance, or hurting you in any other way, you can of course drop out of pledging… if it is something you really want to try, i think a good idea would be to check it out, go to rush and talk to the people, and have your concerns in mind, and ask… many houses will be happy to have a pledge who actually takes schoolwork seriously, you are there for college after all… and good academics helps the house out :slight_smile: and if you get a bid for pledging, then feel it out, see if its for you or not!</p>

<p>if you really want to know, but you never do it, i feel you may well regret it for the rest of your life, because u only really have college to know what its like… and it may well give you some amazing contacts that may help you out tremendously with med school(especially alumni)… :)</p>

3

<p>I think also the grades take a hit because pledging is freshman year and freshman are bad at time management. The semester I was president (my junior year) I got straight As. I doubt I was putting in less hours on house stuff that year compared to pledging (I listed my fraternity at 25 hours/week on AMCAS)</p>

<p>If you are at a highly ranked school than the majority of the students, including the Greeks, are high calibre students. Many of my brothers are/went to med or law or grad school and there are kids in my class who were Greeks at other schools. Since only 2% of college students are Greek, it’s technically over represented.</p>

<p>I think the above response summarizes things pretty well. A lot of the onus to balance your time will be on you.</p>

4

<p>Much depends on how demanding your school’s fraternities are with their pledges. If pledges are expected to be nearly at the “beck and call” of the Actives, or attend several functions a week (in addition to meals and meetings), then grades can take a tumble.</p>

5

<p>I went to undergrad at a big state school (25% Greek) and was in a sorority for a few years. I don’t think it negatively impacted my school work, but that’s because I always prioritized school–and sometimes had to miss Greek stuff to do school stuff. I can think of at least 12 guys in my med school class (there are 55 total guys) who were in fraternities, and they are all fine gentlemen in my opinion. </p>

<p>My younger brother recently pledged a fraternity that is represented well in my med school class. This particular chapter of this fraternity seems to value academics, and have had top grades for pledges and all-house by a landslide for as long as these stats have been published. His GPA (calc 3, physics, other engr classes) during pledgeship was fine. During rush, I think you should ask about academics and grades, but take everything they say with a grain of salt (because they’re almost certainly making themselves look better than they really are). Check your school’s Greek life website to see if they publish fraternity GPAs–you might be pleasantly surprised to find some do really value academics.</p>

6

<p>Kristin makes a good point. There are some fraternities that really value academics. There are a few at my kids’ undergrad that have high stats pre-med students and national award winners (Hollings, Goldwater, etc). </p>

<p>Much depends on the school and the culture of the fraternity.</p>

7

<p>I have asked my D. (almost MS3) many many times what UG classes / experiences have helped her the most at Med. School. Her answers vary a bit from time to time. The latest one indicated the her Sorority experience along with her job as an SI and very unusual for pre-med volunteering are her biggest assets currently. She feel more mature (despite being one of the youngest) in respect to communication and human skills. both are extremely important. She feel that focusing strictly on academics and not paying attention to developing your personal skills is a drawback that she see in many others around her. Keep in mind that everything is important, D. has never neglected her academics, graduated with straight As (Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa) but she absolutely made sure that she grew as a person during her UG years and it paid off so far. She was on Sorority Board, was nominated President (declined for the lack of time), went to national convention, made lots of friends and currently is overlooking her younger “sister” at her Med. School.</p>