<p>could someone familiar with Wesleyan describe the Greek life at Wesleyan? Is it a dominant part of social life? How many kids participate in it? What are they like? Sorry about the excess of questions!</p>
<p>i'll be transferring to wes as class 09 next fall, but i'm pretty sure that i read somewhere that only 2% of students are greek.</p>
<p>They don't dominate the campus by any means. Think of them more as an exotic subculture among the many that co-exist with theme houses, standard dorms and "wood-frames" (neighborhood houses owned by the university.) Mind you, by fraternity, I'm assuming you're only interested in the died-in-the-wool, preppy/athlete houses of which there are only two that I'm sure of: Psi U and DKE. There are four or five others that run the gamut from freakish to non-descript. The rooms tend to be slightly smaller than the standard dormitory single. A couple have amazing food clubs. All have been known to throw at least one awesome party a year, open to the entire campus.</p>
<p>Anyone who tells you that Greek life isn't an important part of the campus social scene (and there will be people who tell you that) isn't being completely honest - especially if you're talking about freshmen, who tend not to go to "house parties" thrown by seniors in wood-frame houses so much.</p>
<p>There are three all-male fraternities and two co-ed literary societies with houses, and two secret societies that have buildings (whether they're being used or not actively, I'm not sure and generally doubt). There are also other Greek organizations that don't have their own houses and therefore throw parties rarely, if at all, and are mostly social networks.</p>
<p>The three fraternities are, colloquially, DKE (pronounced Deek), Beta, and Psi U. The two literary societies are Eclectic and Alpha Delt (short for Alpha Delta Phi). The fraternities sometimes throw official parties, but more often people go there on weekends unofficially and enjoy the drinking parties that go on there. Eclectic has a "hipster" reputation but throws more official all-campus dance parties with high attendance, and Alpha Delt has attracts smaller crowds and has a geeky sort of reputation. (I'm biased towards Alpha Delt, however, since I pledged it earlier this year, but opted not to become a member :) )</p>
<p>It's not a <em>dominant</em> part of campus life, but it's definitely there and definitely present, and chances are that most people you know may wind up at some fraternity house on the weekends, even if they don't join. It's easy to avoid the Greek scene if you want, but it's not as bad as you might thing - I was staunchly anti-Greek before I got here, and it made me reluctant about applying ED to Wesleyan, but it's completely not what I expected. I don't drink, but I still go to parties anyway. And there isn't the typical hazing that you see in movies.</p>
<p>Of course, the thing that schools WITHOUT Greek life don't tell you is that kids are still drinking and partying, just elsewhere. The reason people wind up at frat houses is because they're great spaces for parties, be them drinking or just dancing or just hanging around.</p>
<p>thanks johnwesley and madjoy. i was curious mostly because most of my friends are looking at places where Greek Life seems to be the absolute center of social life. thanks for your insight.</p>
<p>Well, don't get me wrong though... It's definitely not the center of social life. Most of my weekends are spent at the film series, plays, improv, etc. in the evening (8-10) and then various other fun at night (on nonweekdays), including dance parties and such at Eclectic and Alpha Delt, but also watching movies in someone's room late at night, spontaneous underwear parties or exploring of underground tunnels, watching someone play Zelda while ten people cheer on, going to O'Rourkes or the Athenian late at night / early morning for some diner noshing, random other events, and who knows what else. Everyone's experiences are different, and you'll probably find whatever social scene you're looking for. :o)</p>
<p>Eclectic was pretty cool!
I hung out there for a 'rave' when i was visiting, it was tons of fun :-)</p>