<p>Yes, don’t fall into that trap that you think you have to join a frat to be social. MIT depends on the fact that a significant number of the male population will join frats, so there’s a pretty hard sell to the freshman.</p>
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<p>Yes, but my experience in a frat was that a lot of people there were paranoid about not being “nerds.” And it wasn’t just my frat either. I knew a lot of people from other frats and it was the same thing. Obviously, I don’t recommend it. </p>
<p>The open parties at frats are fun, but you don’t have to be in one to go.</p>
That concept of socializing was practically invented at MIT.</p>
<p>A fraternity (or sorority, or independent living group) is at heart just another kind of living option at MIT. There are definitely some frats and ILGs with nerdy/quirky bents, but ultimately, it’s your choice where you want to live and where you want to belong. There’s absolutely nothing weird or antisocial about living in the dorms.</p>
<p>When you come to CPW, take the time to check out a range of living options – different dorms, different floors of dorms, frats, ILGs. There’s a huge variety of living groups at MIT, which I think is one of MIT’s greatest strengths.</p>
<p>Hmm…MIT students butt heads with admins a lot. That’s normal. But that’s not the same question as how smoothly the bureaucracy functions.</p>
<p>I can tell you that compared to where I am now for grad stuff (a place which I like on many other counts), the MIT bureaucracy is heaven on earth. And it’s better than other places where I’ve taken individual classes.</p>
<p>My boyfriend has been a student, worked at, or otherwise been affiliated with some half a dozen universities of various types. He says that MIT has the smoothest bureaucracy he’s seen, hands-down.</p>
<p>Now, as far as admins go…yeah, like I said, students butt heads with them. But one of the reasons for this is that policy toward students has historically been pretty <em>good</em>, and students fight to keep it that way. Compare the MIT administration and its policies with, say, the BU administration, which is right across the river, and its policies. There is just no contest.</p>
<p>The frats are a different and distinct as the dorms. There is this image of fraternities as a group of beer-swilling anti-intellectuals. Frankly such people would simply not have gotten in to MIT (and indeed the average Frat GPA has remained stubbornly higher than the average dorm GPA).</p>
<p>Every living group has its own characteristics. One dorm has frequently been referred to as “the largest frat on campus” due to its social scene. There are fraternities where Faraday’s definition of “fun” would be welcomed and there are those where it would be spurned. But the same statement could be made about the dorms. Keep an open mind, and I am sure you can find a living group where you fit in perfectly.</p>
<p>“Frankly such people would simply not have gotten in to MIT (and indeed the average Frat GPA has remained stubbornly higher than the average dorm GPA).”</p>
<p>I think one of the reasons they were so anti-intellectual and paranoid about being nerds is because they were intellectual in high school. They were pretty self-conscioius about it, moreso than a real beer-swilling frat guy from a state school–because that guy wouldn’t care so much about it either way. The MIT frats tend to attract middle-of-the-road people academically, not the worst students but not the best. I wasn’t saying they don’t do ok in class.</p>