Greek Life: Worth It?

My DS is coming from OOS and I am unsure about rushing sorority. I know greek is very big down at UA, but I am scared she will be strapped for money considering how heavy the financial burden of being in a sorority is. Will she be left out if she is not in one? She is one for a good balance between school work and party scene, but majoring in Chemical Engineering in the honors college. I don’t want her to feel too stressed either. What do you guys think? Will a sorority be mentally and financially draining? Or will the social outlook be beneficial considering we are coming from New York and she will not have any friends from near home attending.

From what I’ve gathered, it can be very difficult to get admission into the sororities at Alabama. It’s very expensive, and some girls are devastated if they don’t get into a house. It is very competitive at Alabama. Sororities do come with a heavy time commitment.

My personal opinion is that there are so many groups and activities at Alabama that you wouldn’t necessarily have to participate in Greek life to find a way to get involved. I believe I read that only 35% of students actually participate in Greek life, so that means that the majority of students do not.

Fraternities and Sororities have their pros and cons, and each person has to weight it carefully to see if it’s something they want to do. If the main reason is to find friends, then there are other, less expensive and stressful ways to do it. For an Engineering major, there’s Theta Tau, which is a co-ed professional society that is part of the Greek community. There are also 500+ other groups to join. I think the chances are excellent that your daughter will find a place to meet friends at Alabama, sorority or not.

As mentioned above, your daughter should look into Theta Tau. It is a fraternity but has male and female members. My sons Big is a female. They also are a great source of help with engineering classes.

It is not difficult to get into a house, but it is competitive to get into some of the oldest houses or a particular house. Two years ago, there were something like 2500 girls who started Rush and 2200+ bids given. Of those 300 not getting a bid, most had dropped out voluntarily or decided to join non-Panhel groups.

It is extremely expensive at Alabama to be in a sorority. They all eat at their houses, and I think there is a discount for the dorm meal plans, but still expensive. There are a lot of parties and t-shirts and trinkets to buy. It does vary widely by house as some have very high initiation costs. They have a booklet that spells out the costs for each house.

My sorority had a 40th reunion two years ago. I was really surprised how many of my sister were engineers from 40 years ago, and how many of them are very successful (running projects for NASA, winning awards, patent owners). I knew we had a handful of engineering majors when I was there but just never paid that much attention to how many of them were. They were/are very organized individuals and seemed to make it work.

My daughter was in a sorority while in civil engineering but honestly she wasn’t very involved in the sorority. For her, it was just for fun and socializing. The president of her house was also president of the MEng society, worked on the jet car team, had a perfect 4.0, and got 4 full scholarship offers for her masters. Some people really can do it all.

I would not call it “difficult” to go through rush and get and accept a bid for a sorority at Alabama. It is a process with many factors-- a good GPA being the first and foremost. Clean social media, open-minded attitude and a positive, friendly personality are also necessary. If a girl has all these qualities, IMO she will have no problem rushing and accepting a bid to a sorority that will be a good fit. As stated above, it is a big school and there are plenty of other options for a girl who choses not to rush but she needs to seek out those opportunities and get involved.

@maitotoxin: Your daughter should make lots of friends in the honors dorm freshman year.

Also, the University of Alabama is populated mostly by non-residents. US News lists it as just 40% from in-state. Your daughter will be very happy whether or not in a sorority.

@twoinanddone

I was referring definitely to wanting particular houses and not being invited back to those. I’m basing my observations on e comments from the Bama parents groups. I’ve seen several discussions about tearful daughters not getting invited to the same house as friends, or getting the one house that they didn’t want.

Since Alabama has so much to offer, if a sorority doesn’t work out, or if it’s not really something the daughter wants, there’s loads of other things to do on campus.

Although not at UA and not a female, S attends a Greek heavy southern school. He decided against joining a “social frat” after getting a bid because he sensed he would have to be all in and didn’t want to remove himself from other things on campus. He joined a business frat, AKPsi (coed and not just for business majors, lots of majors represented) and really enjoys it. They meet every week (he has a second meeting every week as he’s on an exec committee), have parties / formals, etc. He thinks of it like “Greek Lite”. Has made very good friends there but it’s not overwhelming like he perceived the frat he rushed (his freshmen roommate rushed the same frat and spent his whole 2nd semester pledging. Literally never saw him. He loves it now, but admitted later that it was a big time drain)

As others have said, there are alternatives to traditional Greek life that are fulfilling and fun. S also plays on the Club Baseball team which practices twice per week with games on weekends so I’m not sure how he would have fit the frat in anyway.

Like above not at UA and not a female. S is Greek. He is president of his fraternity. He met lots of presidents at a leadership academy and said in particular that he would not be in his fraternity if he were at UA. It was just too party oriented. He loves a good party but he also is pre-vet (takes all pre-med classes) and has a 4.0 so studying is important to him. His gf is a Kappa, pre-med with a 4.0. Both have lots of engineers in their houses with good GPAs. It is possible.

The cost in the south is crazy. Where he is with dues and living in the house it is cheaper than living in the dorm! Fairly odd but how it is there. Your D will be fine with or without a sorority but it is much more cutthroat in the south. Make sure she asks exactly what the norm is for rush. Where S is it is much lower key (big 12 school in midwest).

As S’s gf said you don’t have to participate in everything in a sorority. Once you get through rush and pledging the time commitment is less. There are some mandatory meetings but after that you can be as involved or uninvolved as you choose. If she has to study that comes first and they understand that. Not sure if it is because there is a big push at their school to have the highest GPAs.

A girl definitely needs to be open-minded about all houses. Going into rush with a heart set on a particular house will almost always lead to disappointment. Good GPA, good attitude and open-minded girls have an almost 100% chance of getting a bid.

Based on my D’s experience, it is more of a financial burden than a time/mental burden. She loves it (and we love ti for her) and is taking a very demanding set of classes and degrees. It is a significant financial investment/cost. It does not seem to be too significant of a time commitment. The Rush process is all condensed into a very stressful 10 days period before classes start that is very challenging, but I feel my daughter grew a lot from that experience. One idea would be to spend time with the Greek/Sorority office at UA. They have Greek Ambassadors that give tours to prospective students, and you can learn a lot. The other thing to do to learn more is to try and find a student from your local area who is in a Sorority at UA, and have your daughter make contact. My daughter found a girl from here high school how was heading into her Senior Year at UA and was a 4.0 student in Greek life, and chatted with her a few times. It helped to be able to ask questions and learn in a non-formal setting.

I just re-read your initial post, and would emphasize that you should not be worried about a sorority interfering with studies, in fact it might help as many sororities put a high emphasis on academics. My two cents, if your kid is going to do well in school, they will do well regardless of the activities.

If your daughter is academically oriented, but has a robust social life as well, I would think Sorority life would be a. great way to grow that part of their life, and she will make many new friends, and have plenty of options of things to do socially at UA. She can also find these types of social opportunities outside of Greek, but it would just be different and require more exploring and identification.

The big thing to consider is cost.

Hope this helps.

Plenty of good advice here. Among freshman women, about 50% wind up pledging a sorority, but as the year(s) go by, many decide that sorority life is either too restrictive or just not for them, so overall it’s more like 33-35% Greek. Is it expensive? Frankly, yes, because the sororities all have big houses, which have expenses. However, a good bit of the money pays for meals, Monday breakfast through Friday lunch. There are some other expenses - T shirts, special dresses or outfits for formal recruitment the next year etc. For me, if I had not pledged a sorority, I would probably have sat in the dorm alone most of the time. Being in a sorority also offered me a chance to serve as an officer, which I wouldn’t have done anywhere else. I met women from across the country and did some things I wouldn’t have tried otherwise. But my daughter did not serve as an officer. I think she didn’t get as much out of her experience as I did out of mine. If your daughter would like to wait a year and pledge as a sophomore, she could do that. Lots go that route. Grades really, REALLY matter so please don’t feel that a sorority would distract your daughter from her studies. If she stays open to all sororities, she should have no problem getting a bid. Really you’ll have similar experiences no matter which one you choose or who chooses you. Best of luck and Roll Tide!