Hi, I am a senior in high school and have been accepted to SMU. I am definitely considering it as an option for me, however I heard if you don’t join a sorority at SMU that you may feel out of place. At this point I cannot imagine myself in a sorority just because my interests do not align with most of them. Do you think this will have an impact on my social life/fitting in at the school? Is it true that girls dress up for class in heels and dresses all the time?
Thanks!
I actually have the same concerns right now. Though SMU is my first choice for financial reasons, I’m worried that everyone will join sororities and leave me in the dust lol! What will your major be out of curiosity?
I am an alumnus of SMU. I graduated nearly 20 years ago…so things have likely changed somewhat since then. I never pledged Greek. Then and now, a lot of the student population at SMU was Greek. I was in the Honors program lived in the Honors dorm (don’t worry, the dorms I lived in no longer exist, they were horrible). I had many non-GReek and Greek friends. College, wherever you go, is what you make it. If you are a social person, you will find that you will make friends relatively easily. If you are more introverted, like me, it can be harder. SMU can be a bit of a bubble given its location in Highland Park. Now, did I ever go to sorority or fraternity parties? No. Did I have some problems fitting in with the Greeks? Yes, but those were problems of my own making. Namely, I entered SMU as a sophomore (AP credits) and did a junior-year abroad (SMU-in-Britain). Upon my return, most of my friends had graduated. My problem, not a Greek problem. So, what I would advise anyone going to SMU, or any school with an active Greek scene, is to understand that it is there, it will likely control aspects of student government, but you will be fine provided you take ownership of the opportunities the university and the people there give to you. Finally, to answer a direct question, I had friends in sororities that were models and Dallas Cowgirls…no one wore dresses and heals to class.
@Peruna1998 - I’m guessing you were also in Letterman Hall? I graduated in 1992. It is now a parking garage, haha. I was also in the honors dorm freshman year (as an engineering student though, not part of the Honors program). I was not in a sorority but I had friends that were and I knew guys that were in the fraternities. I felt like I made the right decision for me but we were still friends and I went to their parties. I like that rush is 2nd semester so that friendships can be formed without all of that getting in the way. You can use that opportunity to get to know a wide range of friends so that when some get busy with Greek life, you’ll have others that are not. I really think you can find plenty of opportunities to make friends that are not involved in that, but like mentioned above, you might have to work at it a little more - join more organizations, perhaps a professional fraternity (I was involved with the engineering fraternity) as well as Program Council, Catholic Campus Ministries, and worked a lot with the admissions department. My core group of friends from my freshman dorm still are very close, 25 years later (1 in a sorority, 4 were not). We meet somewhere in the US every year for a girls’ trip - we all came from different backgrounds. I’ve been on campus a few times over the past years and i have not seen dresses and heels. I felt the student body, as a whole, did not feel like a “snobby money school” and everyone was very “normal”. There is still an element of that though, but I think you’ll see that just about everywhere. If you haven’t already, I recommend visiting and checking out the feel for yourself. My daughter just got back from Destination SMU and met lots of new friends.
I keep forgetting that rush was Spring semester. That fall went by fast. No, I was in McSomething. It was in the old freshman quad and is gone (sad really, my kids shudder when I recount the stories of dorm life). Then I was in Mary Hay (Hey, Mary Hay!) for two years. They tended to move the Honors dorms around for awhile. They’ve redone them all. I graduated in '98.
I went to a private high school in Colorado and SMU recruits heavily there. Year after year, the only kids that wanted to attend SMU were the whiney, snobby and annoying rich kids that everyone pretended to like only b/c they threw great birthday parties and other events. And 99% of the time they all ended up in fraternities and sororities … they lacked the social skills and wherewithal to navigate college without paid help/friends.
The more serious students and well-rounded students who wanted to attend college in Texas usually went to Rice or UT Austin. And if they somehow ended up at SMU, they always transferred from my observation … the greek life at SMU can be very isolating and suffocating. @greenhorse
@abcole I’m majoring in political science but also plan to do another major and most likely a minor! I think we will still be able to fit in and socialize without rushing 
If you’re doing polisci and he’s still there, take a class with Professor Kobylka.
i had the same fear when i came to SMU - but I joined a christian fraternity, because i like brotherhood but didnt care for drinking or whatever and wanted to grow in my faith. I have noticed since the inception of the commons that there tend to be less and less people going through greek recruitment. And those that do didnt all come to smu to do so. Many got involved and made friends (me) who got them to go through recruitment. The reason why some of the alums on this page recount their time as they do is because it honestly was way different back then. Not to say that it still doesnt exist as it is seen on tv, but those folks are in 2 fraternities/8 and 3 sororities/9. There numbers keep decreasing as smu becomes a more difficult school to be accepted to. Moreover, a bad reputation is built by those fringe members. My girlfriend is in charge of overseeing her sororities philanthropy and volunteer hours and thats what she really enjoys doing and why she joined a sorority here in the first place.
Hope this helps and if you have any questions message me - I may not be the most help in terms of girls in greek life, and I’m not going to say that many people don’t choose to be a member - but its not the same as it was. Also I will try to respond but am overall pretty bad about getting back on cc since i graduated high school
The SMU of even 10-15 years ago is probably no more. People my age (graduated in early 90s) thought of SMU as Greek-heavy and a bit snotty (and it kind of was). If you look at old Common data sets, even in about 2000 SMU’s ACT range was like 22-27, compared to 28-32 now. Many of the snotty punks I knew back when could never get into SMU today.
@BooBooBear Obnoxious rich greek-obsessed kids are a staple in SMU culture. SMU is a private school so their admissions process is not transparent so they can “buy” their way in. And high standardized test scores doesn’t denote serious college students, it denotes someone who did well on a test.
Too often I’ve seen your assembly line of affluent suburban/ private school high students with 28-32 ACT scores get into SMU and coast through with mediocre grades and effort … they spend most of their time and energy with their respective greek orgs (greek orgs can be a major distraction). And so we’re clear SMU is far from being considered a prestigious school … hardly any highly prestigious international fellowships (Rhodes, Truman, etc) are won by SMU students.
@NuScholar–seriously, you are going to bash SMU on the basis that standardized test scores are not meaningful? If that is the case, then the entire rankings-machine that most of College Confidential obsesses over is itself meaningless, because test scores are one of foundational bases of their rankings.
My point was simply that SMU used to have a snotty/Greek/rich kid reputation, like many mid-tier private, and especially southern, schools (some of which was unfair–I, as a southerner, found northeastern schools full of pretentious loudmouths lacking in manners). However, in the last decade or so some of those schools, like SMU, have dramatically increased the academic quality of their average student, so the atmosphere is quite possibly different today than in the past. Maybe today they just have snotty rich kids with better grades and better test scores–I don’t know. Who cares? If you like the campus and enjoy your visits, it may be a good fit and good for you. That is all that matters.
It looks like SMU is pretty diverse these days in many ways. I imagine there are all kinds of kids. Speaking of sororities, is it hard to get into one if you don’t know anyone? My D’s high school doesn’t really send anyone there.
@NuScholar I am a bit offended by your remark. I know you aren’t an SMU alum. But, I am. I was not in any Greek organization. I have many friends that were. They were not in any way like the people you describe. In fact, the only pretentious person I’ve seen recently I am directly responding to at the moment. As for you misrepresentation about post-graduate scholarships, let me set the record straight. I earned a Fulbright to the UK. I have friends that are SMU alums that earned Truman scholarships and Fulbrights to other nations. Those are facts.
@Peruna1998 most people don’t like for anyone to say anything negative about their alma mater so I’m not surprised. I’m being very candid and of course that will always rub someone the wrong way.
Most experts agree that the best way to determine the quality of a college is not so much input (standardized test scores, GPA, rankings, income level of students, selectivity, etc) but more output (competitive and prestigious academic fellowships won by the institution, alumni giving rates, graduate/professional school matriculation, prominent alumni, student happiness, ground breaking research initiatives).
SMU does better on input than output. And SMU has hadn’t a Truman and Rhodes Scholar in quite some time unlike truly prestigious Texas schools like UT Austin and Rice. Not to mention a significant number of the women at SMU are not that ambitious and career driven, they’re basically looking for a wealthy husband to marry and become “ladies of leisure”/housewives.
@NuScholar Wow, just wow. So much wrong here. I haven’t seen sexist drivel like that in ages. See this link. It took me about five seconds to find: http://www.smu.edu/provost/nationalfellowships?utm_medium=alias%20redirect&utm_source=smu&utm_campaign=%2Fnationalfellowships Facts undermine innuendo all the time. These are the post-graduate external fellowships for Truman, etc., for SMU students and faculty in the past year. No, there are no Rhodes scholarships. But, then there are only about 20 of those per year. And no, SMU isn’t Rice. It has never claimed to be an engineering and science powerhouse that was home to a Super Bowl. But, it is a fine academic institution that has an excellent business school (best in the region), wonderful arts school, great theology school, strong arts and sciences, and developing engineering school. I don’t know what SMU has done to you personally deserve these ad hominem attacks, but they certainly have shown us what you truly are.
- There hasn’t been a SMU Truman Scholar in 2017 and 2016 (I just checked) despite the increase in standardized test scores and GPA of applicants in the last 5 years. And let’s not even talk about the last time there was a Rhodes Scholar … it’s been an embarrassing long time considering SMUers consider themselves to be among the elite institutions.
- Far from sexist, SMU alums told me about the mentality of many of the women there. In fact, the most famous alumnae of the school is Laura Bush who is best known for being the wife of the wealthy George W. Bush … no super ambitious and accomplished career record to speak of unlike with Michelle Obama.
- I never said SMU was bad, I’m saying it’s not a prestigious and impressive as some on here claim it is.
- And UT Dallas, a public university, business school is ranked higher than SMU’s despite SMU being way more expensive and older according to the latest U.S. News graduate B-School rankings.
UT Dallas B-School Ranking - #38
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-business-schools/university-of-texas-dallas-01371
SMU B-School Ranking - #52
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-business-schools/southern-methodist-university-cox-01214
@NuScholar Man, that chip on your shoulder is unhealthy. It’s gonna prevent you from doing great things! Your remark about women is so out of line and I’m sure you would find it offensive if you were a woman. My daughter, who is graduating in May, is a 2017 NSF Fellow (look it up). She’s also in a sorority. This particular sorority has the highest GPA on campus and believe it or not, most of them are not husband hunting. They are going on to law school, med school, Wall Street and like my daughter, to prestigious PhD programs. You should know better than to stereotype a group of people based on where they come from, what they look like and where they go to school.
@citymama9 We are from Georgia. My daughter was the only one from her high school class of 750 to attend SMU. We found the requisite letter writers/recs from each house, but only one was an SMU alum. The great part of Spring recruitment is that the girls meet and get to know each other and the houses during the fall semester. There are organized socials, like “cookies with chi o” where the members genuinely want to meet new girls. I almost think it was in my daughter’s favor that she didn’t know anyone beforehand and had a fresh start. There is also a business fraternity (co-ed), an engineering fraternity (co-ed) and multiple other “fraternal” like organizations. My daughter joined Engineers without Borders and traveled to Peru her sophomore year. It’s significant because most other universities only let grad students participate and SMU’s group is mostly undergrad. She had an opportunity to work with a professor in her lab for 2 years and traveled on research trips to the Mohave Desert. These are opportunities that come because the faculty is truly invested in each student’s outcome. Pay attention to those that have personal experience and watch out for anyone who’s “an expert” because they can read a USNWR rankings list.
wow, volatile thread! No, girls do not dress up in heels for class. The official uniform, I think, is actually a large men’s Tshirt and running shorts or yoga pants. We did think it was odd at first, that girls do wear dresses to football games, but when you feel the 90 degree September heat, it makes perfect sense!
Yes, Greek is big at SMU, it’s lots of fun, they actually do philanthropy work in the Greek world, and in the larger SMU community too. You can definitely get in without knowing anyone, rush is in January. It is not pre-destined from birth like at the large SEC schools. There is a wide variety of houses, something for everyone, even if you don’t think you are Greek “material”.
And, half the school is not Greek, just choose a different organization or meet friends in your dorms. The new commons set up encourages lots of activities within the dorms. Wonderful school, loads of opportunities.