<p>I would especially like to hear from current Davidson students who are not in fraternities/sororities. Is life for non-Greek enjoyable on campus? Davidson has so many components which are attractive to my D, the only thing being that she's not enthralled with the idea of a dominant Greek culture. She's more a live and let thrive type, non-exclusionary. Could someone characterize Davidson's social life, both for independents and Greeks? Thanks!</p>
<p>My D gave the eating house thing a whirl her freshman year, but didn't continue it because it was just too time-consuming with her other commitments. She is somewhat introverted, but didn't find the eating house experience exclusionary or troublesome. Basically, except for a couple of "formal" parties, all of the kids can go to all of the parties, whether members or not, and they apparently do.
All of the kids at the school seem very very busy. The biggest problem they face is time organization. If you want to commit your time to social organizations, you can. If not, many students do other things and still go to the parties, and many students do other things and avoid the party scene altogether. Caveat--this is a parent's perspective.</p>
<p>I'm sorry. I don't know much about this greek stuff. What exactly is the Eating House Thing? How does it work?</p>
<p>Eating houses are similar to sororities, but they are not on a national level. Further, the house you become a member of is determined by a lottery system--there are no bids to join a particular eating house. You can cluster with up to four people and you are guarateed to be in a house with them. You then rank your houses, and a computer system determines who gets into what house, based on how they were ranked and the number of members a house can accept in a given year. There are Frats here, but I am not as familiar with how they work. I do know that bids are given, but they are still largely open. There is also an anti-hazing policy here that is pretty well ienforced. </p>
<p>I chose not to join an eating house, and don't regret my decision. Virtually all of the parties, except formals, are open to anyone with a campus ID card. As far as percentages of people who join, I think around 70% of women and 40-50% of men join some sort of Patterson Court Organization(an eating house or Frat). </p>
<p>Except for court selection weekend, when you find out what house/frat you got into, I have never felt excluded for not chosing to join a house. I have good friends in a house, and not in houses. I chose not join because a)I'm not a big partier, and just don't really care about that scene, and b) because most of my best friends here did not. If you want to join an organization, they are certainly there, but there is a good contingent of students who remain unaffiliated for all four years at Davidson, most of whom have no regrets.</p>
<p>Is it true that a member of one of these eating houses lives in the eating house with other members? How many are there on campus? How many fraternities? Do the eating houses ( for girls) /fraternities (for boys) have standing reputations?</p>
<p>The eating houses are not residential. You can find more information on the Davidson website (look for "Patterson Court"). Since the new membership intake is not until the spring semester, you will have ample time to determine which group suits you best, if at all.</p>
<p>Neither the the eating houses nor the fraternites are residential. Members of Patterson Court organizations live in dorms and apartments jsut as nonmembers do.</p>
<p>I am 'social chairman' of my fraternity-and I enjoy my association with the fraternity. However, my best friends at Davidson do not belong to a fraternity and this has never been a problem. I am intensely preparing for medical school applications and the MCAT in April and have little free time at present, but enjoy the 2 meals a day I eat at the house and catching up with the frat brothers-but then its back to work. The frat scene at Davidson is just a social alternative and not exclusive, take part or not, no big deal, one way or the other.</p>