So I was wondering whether the greek life is heavily dominate in this school? because I don’t want to join a sorority, but iI love the school
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Once you are a student, it becomes highly apparent that greek life dominates the social culture of F&M. If you are a male student and choose not to rush or do not receive a bid, you cannot attend most, if not all, social functions (frat parties, formals, etc) past your first semester of freshman year. This limits you to social functions that are affiliated with the school, which are minimal and generally not populated with many students. The other option for social functions are loft parties, which are affiliated with sports teams and are often shut down by public safety quite early in the night. If you don’t have a friend on a sports team, you probably won’t know where they are at anyway. If you are a female student involved in greek life or not, you can gladly attend all frat and loft parties. However, past your first semester of freshman year, the divide between you and your friends involved in greek life will widen. They will have other social functions to attend and will have separate mixers with frats and sports teams that you will be excluded from. It’s quite obvious that those involved in greek life control the social culture of the school, which is interesting considering they are mostly populated with upper middle class caucasian students. If you do not want to be involved in greek life but enjoy staying in every night and not really doing much, F&M will work for you. However, if you think you will get bored or depressed with that lifestyle, look elsewhere. The academics are great here, but if you’re feeling miserable, it’s not worth it. Also, despite the fact that F&M tries to put on a persona of “diversity”, students who do not fit into a certain demographic are deeply marginalized and ostracized by the broader student body. There have been many issues this academic year related to racism on campus, which I do not see being quelled in the near future. If you are wealthy, white, athletic and involved in greek life, the school is exclusively set up for your benefit and your benefit only.
guitargirl8597 - You indicate your disappointment with fraternities on several posts. Maybe you could find something else that interests you?
My child did not find Greek life a necessity at F&M at all. Lots of other groups to belong to - theater, music, etc. As with any smaller community, to some extent, you make your own social life. If you look for people with similar interests, you’ll be happy and busy. If you wait for life to come to you, maybe not so much.
And the college is now among the most diverse as far as international students and intent on improving in areas like socio-economic status, race, and geography.