<p>I am not a fan of greek life or the basic idea of paying dues to some antiquated society in order to have friends. </p>
<p>how entrenched in life at dartmouth is the greek scene?
some people say it's avoidable, some say it's pretty much the only social activity.
does the greek mentality affect other areas of life at dartmouth?</p>
<p>Opinions?</p>
<p>(ps. i am wait-listed and need to decide if i would accept an offer if given one)</p>
<p>Greek Life is huge at Dartmouth, but not as huge as people think. 60ish% of elligible students are affiliated, which means 40ish% aren’t…and it is not at all “paying dues to some antiquated society in order to have friends”</p>
<p>At Dartmouth, Rush isn’t until Sophomore fall…so by the time Rush comes around, people have well established their groups of friends. And certainly you make new friends if you join a house, but its not buying friends. For one, the Greek system is open, so its not like you can’t hang out in a house or go to parties if you aren’t a member. In fact, my favorite thing is that pretty much any monday, wednesday, friday, or saturday, I can walk into any house, go into the basement, go a beer, get in line to play pong, and hang out. And people do that. Also, people don’t only have friends in one house…I’m affiliated, and I still hang out at a number of different houses on campus, because when it came time to rush, my friends joined a pretty diverse sampling of houses. But that doesn’t revent us from hanging out outside the greek system, or at each others houses. I have a good mix of affiliated and unaffiliated friends, and my unaffiliated friends are perfectly happy being unaffiliated. They often come to invite events at greek houses, and hang out. </p>
<p>Greek life definitely is the major social option, though not the only one. People hang out in dorms, off campus, go to boston and montreal, go to sporting events, go to movies (Dartmouth film society kind of awesome), go to arts events (Dartmouth has a ton of strong arts groups and programs) and find things they enjoy doing. But even a lot of “anti-Greek” students are involved in alternate societies within and outside the greek system…a number of coed fraternities, a couple of undergraduate societies, etc. I’d say, if you do get in off the wait list, come up,either before the end of spring term, or over sophomore summer, and see how Dartmouth compares to your stereotypes. Because my high school class would probably consider me least likely to join a sorority, but it has been one of the best parts of my time at Dartmouth.</p>
<p>“In fact, my favorite thing is that pretty much any monday, wednesday, friday, or saturday, I can walk into any house, go into the basement, go a beer, get in line to play pong, and hang out.”</p>
<p>How much does this change if the OP is a guy (even worse, a freshman guy)?</p>
<p>Thickfreakness: It doesn’t change. Our Greek system is completely open. This means it isn’t just girls that get in. As a freshman guy, I can speak, I can also walk into a basement and do all those things if I wish (I don’t do it very often as I’ve found one greek house I really enjoy and go there most often, but that doesn’t mean if I want to go somewhere else I’m not always welcomed in). Dartmouth’s greek system is very unique, and its telling only 2% of entering freshman list the greek system as a positive factor, and after just 1 year of experiencing it around 60% end up rushing. I honestly thought I’d hate the greek system, and instead have had a great experience with it so far and am seriously considering rushing next year)</p>
<p>Doesn’t change for guys at all.</p>
<p>Thickfreakness, actually as an unaffiliated guy, you’re best off being a freshman. Although it’s never explicitly said, it’s kind of weird to be an unaffiliated upperclassman and hanging out in frats, unless you’re really tight with a brother there.</p>
<p>which are the most like “animal house” on campus?</p>
<p>@rigatoni: knee-jerk response to your question: Alpha Delta fraternity, as it is actually the fraternity that inspired Animal House</p>
<p>but I can’t say for certain, since I’ve never been there despite having walked past it hundreds of times over the past two years</p>
<p>As usual, I agree with johnleemk.</p>
<p>AD (the animal house) seems most like the animal house, although Phi Delt is coming along pretty well, too.</p>