<p>Hey, im lookin to transfer next year (currently a freshman) and right now im pledging to a Fraternity...</p>
<p>my question is, if i end up transferring, but don't like the fraternity's chapter at another school, do i HAVE to be in that frat, or can i re-rush??</p>
<p>I believe you can join another fraternity if you have never become "active" in another fraternity. If you're pledging right now, your fraternity may hold activation shortly after winter break.</p>
<p>why bother pledging if you're planning to transfer anyway?</p>
<p>IF you get initiated you can't re-pledge another fraternity. What usually happens is you become a social affiliate of the new fraternity that you like. You pay dues, you may even live in the house, but you don't go to chapter meetings or partake in any of the ritual stuff.</p>
<p>After becoming initiated into one fraternity you probably couldn't join a different fraternity at another school. </p>
<p>However- if you are planning on transferring why are you making a life-long commitment to an organization that you don't plan to be faithful to?</p>
<p>Mr. Bojangles, I believe from other posts of yours that you are Greek. If I am correct, is this how your chapter operates? I have never heard of "social affiliate" status in an organization before. Once a brother, always a brother. I could understand why a transfer may not WANT to be more active than as you describe, but I've never heard of them being pigeonholed into such a role.</p>
<p>hey thanks for the responses guys.</p>
<p>the reason i am(was) pledging is because my current school's social atmosphere is strongly greek and I didn't want to waste a year of social opportunity here and not even get into my transfer school.</p>
<p>Also, at the school I want to get into, their chapter has nowhere NEAR the reputation that the current one I am pledging has (academically, socially, and community-wise). Ex: the chapter at my school is top3 for academic gpa, my transfer school's one is on academic probation.</p>
<p>i<em>wanna</em>be_brown... I think Bojangles was talking about if you transfer schools and want to be in a DIFFERENT fraternity. If you want to be in the same one, all things should be good. the problem is that different chapters of the same fraternity can be completely different, so you might not be interested in the same fraternity at a different school, so as Bojangles describes, you can "join" another chapter without actually joining.</p>
<p>Bottom line: You can't switch fraternities once you've pledged. If you transfer and hate the new fraternity at the other campus, then don't get involved.</p>
<p>Or just wait until next year to pledge- either at this school you're in or at the new school.</p>
<p>You can't switch chapters once you've been initiated. You can still switch if you've started pledging, but haven't finished. If you are sure you're going to transfer and don't want to be involved in the new fraternity, don't initiate. Once you initiate you can't go back.</p>
<p>soccerguy, I don't know how any group would allow itself to have a member of another fraternity paying dues, and acting like a brother even though he isn't one.</p>
<p>Although I don't know everything, so maybe this is more common than I thought.</p>
<p>We accepted a couple of social members into our sorority, but it was only because our school didn't have the sorority where they had been initiated.</p>
<p>
[quote]
You can't switch chapters once you've been initiated.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>yes you can.</p>
<p>^
Not with national chapters, you can;t...</p>
<p>no you definitely can't with national organizations. it's stated pretty clearly in the rules.</p>
<p>i'm pretty certain that if i joined the pi beta phi sorority at carolina, for example, and then transferred to UVA, i could join their chapter of pi phi when i got there, but correct me if i'm wrong..</p>
<p>Yes. you can join the same organization, different chapter. you cannot join a totally different organization. the op was asking about joining a different organization as he didn't like the chapter at his transfer.</p>
<p>although someone did incorrectly phrase it as "you can't switch chapters", which is what caused the confusion. You two are correct.</p>
<p>Toledo, would you mind giving more details about the social member thing. I've never heard of it before, and it just sounds really weird to me. Are you at a school where it's a major faux pas for a greek house to let indies of the same gender hang out with them, so you created this weird pesudo-membership thing? Do they really have all the rights of a member minus the ritual?</p>
<p>I would never do such a thing nor allow my chapter to accept someone into such a position. In my opinion, your membership is for a lifetime, and so if you transfer, and really want to be greek, maybe you should try to form a chapter of your own group there.</p>
<p>Mr. Bojangles summed it up perfectly in an earlier post here. You pay dues, can live in the house, but you can't take part in any rituals. It's called a social membership. Our sorority is Alpha Phi and we took in 2 Kappa Kappa Gammas because we really liked the girls and there was no KKG house on our campus. </p>
<p>This won't work for the OP because his fraternity is on the campus where he wants to transfer. Just because he doesn't like it is no excuse. It seems very short-sighted to join a fraternity, knowing you may only be on a campus for one year.</p>
<p>Yeah, basically every fraternity at every campus is different. If you're a Beta at school A and transfer to school B...the Beta's can be total ******bags at school B and you would want nothing to do with them...instead, the sigma chi's are more like the Beta's at your prior school, so then you become a social affiliate of sigma chi. You pay dues to sigma chi for the parties and the room and board (if applicable) but you're still a Beta, and you can't attend sigma chi chapter meetings.</p>
<p>A lot of times you can't even transfer schools and become a member of the same fraternity. Like if you were a Beta at school A...to become an active Beta at school B, the Betas at school B would have to vote you in. It's complicated, and just goes to show that EVERY greek organization is different on EVERY campus.</p>