I am extremely interested in Dartmouth, but am a bit worried about Greek life. I am not completely opposed to Greek life, but more so what often comes with it. Before visiting Dartmouth I imagined students to be more preppy, elitist, private school types. When I was there it felt much more outdoorsy and laid back. Is this true? Does this in turn affect the Greek life and make it more open, less cliquey? Thanks!
In my experience there, I want to highlight a few points:
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You can’t rush a house until your Sophomore year. This is really good, because it lets you settle in to college life for a year, get to know the houses and the system, get to know how you fit in and feel comfortable with yourself before you even start thinking about joining a house.
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I found it cliquey extremely rarely. Maybe it’s a byproduct of delayed rush, since you’ve built up other groups of friends by that point, but I had friends in various houses, and others in no house at all. There was no disdain for those that never joined, and no forced Us vs Them isolation between houses, making you choose between your friends or your frat. It was very laidback and people would routinely go visit their friends in their house or my house with no issues. In my own experience, I never felt that my house was the sole definition of who I was and my experiences - it was just another piece of who I was along with my major, my clubs, my sports, etc
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Social life at Dartmouth does kind of naturally revolve around Fraternities (and some sororities). Since there isn’t a large social town nearby, these fraternities tend to take the place of “going out to a bar” to hang out. With that said, there are other things to do on campus besides going and drinking, but you would need to work to fill every evening with something non-greek if you were absolutely against the greek system. Also, each house has it’s own personality. Many houses will have no concerns about you hanging out and not drinking or playing pong with water. Some do, but you’ll just end up hanging out at the houses you feel comfortable at.
In conclusion - in my experience, joining a house that you feel comfortable at and aligns with your personal goals and comfort in entertainment choices is a great experience. You would be better off not joining any house and still hanging out at the houses than joining a poor fit, just to join.
Disclaimer - my perspective is as a male who had no desire to join a “frat” freshman year but joined a fraternity and truly enjoyed the experience. I’d also try to gather a female’s perspective on both fraternities and sororities.