Is Greek Life Worth It?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Alabama
1

<p>Hi!
I’m a high school senior coming in for Fall 2013. I’m a ChBE major and was accepted to the Honors program. I am an OOS student from south Florida, and I am a little nervous about moving so far away (almost 12hrs) from all of my family and friends. I visited campus over the summer and fell in love with all that UA has to offer, Shockingly, I was also incredibly impressed with the Greek houses. I’ve never considered myself one to join a sorority, but since my visit it has become more and more of a thought. There are a few things that really concern me though:</p>

<p>1.) No one in my family has every been part of a sorority or fraternity. Won’t that be detrimental to me?
2.) How diverse are the sororities?
3.) Will I even be able to put the necessary time forth if I were to get a bid?</p>

<p>I’m just curious if it would be a good fit for me…I’d rather know ahead of time rather than put all of the effort forth and not get a bid. </p>

<p>Thanks so much & Roll Tide!!!</p>

2

<p>Hi! Well first off, I’m also a senior attending UA in the Fall of 2013 as a freshman and thinking of sororities and have virtually no greek-affiliations. but the advice I’ve gotten so far, is that they’re worthwhile, and you don’t have to be a legacy in order to join. It might help with some, but the biggest help having affiliations is for finding recommendations. And as for your other questions I’m not sure because I’m trying to figure it out too.
but good luck girl! :)</p>

3

<p>1.) No one in my family has every been part of a sorority or fraternity. Won’t that be detrimental to me?</p>

<p>-No it won’t be detrimental, although you may have to work harder to find recommendations (recommendations are NOT optional). There is a lot of info out there (Greekchat, sorority101, this forum) to help you. Do NOT go to the sites that discuss tiers or reputations - that will not help you</p>

<p>2.) How diverse are the sororities?
Geographically - some are more so that others, some are predominantly girls from certain high schools in Alabama, some are girls from AL + neighboring southern states, some take girls from a wide variety of places.
Socio-economically - not very, as those houses that impressed you so much are expensive to run, hence dues are very high ($2000 per semester for living OUT). Most sorority members are therefore middle/upper middle class. (And no, you cannot choose the cheaper houses to return to, and cut the more expensive ones. Rush doesn’t work that way)
Ethnically - not at all, panhellenic sororities are mainly white, although there are a couple of girls of Asian, Hispanic and Indian descent in some houses
Religiously/politically - again, not so much - maybe more so in those houses with greater geographical diversity - but Greeks across the country (not just at Bama) tend to lean more right of center than the majority of the student population - and this will be especially true where most of the Greeks are still from southern states. </p>

<p>Having said all this - despite the homogenous impression, there are 2-300 girls in each chapter at UA so of course not EVERY girl will be the same… there is a poster on here whose daughter is an athlete with tattoos and who is in a sorority; another whose daughter is in a hardcore engineering class; both were from OOS… </p>

<p>3.) Will I even be able to put the necessary time forth if I were to get a bid
Sororities are time consuming, especially the first 6 or so weeks during the new member period. You need to ask about this during rush, as no one here can tell you as we don’t know YOU, your class schedule, your other ECs, your time management skills, etc. But remember - a sorority doesn’t guarantee you friends - you need to work at it - the more effort you put in, the more you will get out…</p>

<p>Best of luck - do your research, speak to Adphimommy and others on here for advice about rushing. My top tips:

  • get recs for ALL the houses, preferably from people you know or at least have met for a coffee
  • keep your GPA up
  • practice conversations with friends/family
  • have a suitable wardrobe/ grooming for rush (this need not require a lot of money)
  • understand how rush works: return rates, how it is NOT mutual selection (the sorority chooses, if you are on that list, you go back to that house regardless if you like it or not), bid matching, suiciding, etc - you will hear so much nonsense before/during/after rush that is mainly hearsay…
  • KEEP AN OPEN MIND TO ALL HOUSES (more girls drop out because they get huffy about their invites, than are actually released completely. Don’t be one of them)</p>

<p>And limit all identifying information you post on the internet as people do look up PNMs… keep your facebook, twitter and tumblr accounts clean or on private… actives will research you…</p>

4

<p>^^Great Post SoccergirlNYC!</p>

<p>I wanted to let cassidyreilly know that my D is a freshman and found her letters at an amazing house. She is OOS, had no Greek legacy relations other than a sister in Iowa, and was totally clueless about the process when we started looking at UA. D’s roommate is from California and had no experience w/ Greek Life either and she had a very successful Rush also.</p>

<p>We owe much of our success to aphimommy and her blog sorority 101. Also lots of emails back and forth.</p>

<p>I HIGHLY recommend that you come to the Greek Preview Weekend which is in March, if you can swing it. The girls and parents each get talks about what Recruitment is like, they talk about clothing, about recommendations and the girls get invites to events that some of the houses are holding on campus that weekend. Even being from OOS and having no one at UA that we knew D was invited to a bunch of activities that weekend. Made us both feel more comfortable with the process. </p>

<p>Once we got home we started on recs and resume’s and ended up getting 1 to every house and 2 to about 5. It was time consuming but well worth the effort and postage. We actually met and became friends with some of the ppl that wrote her recs that we never even knew before.</p>

<p>One thing to be aware of that shocked us when we started was the expense of a sorority. Be sure that you fully understand the financial committment before you pledge a house so that you are not disappointed. While the UA Greek Life website lists an average of $3000 per semester, once we started researching we did find out that some are as high as almost $5000 per semester NOT living in. D’s house is about $3500+ a semester including dues, fee’s, food, zap’s (pictures), and dances.</p>

<p>Food - keep in mind that your food is included in these dues. So the $1400 that you are paying to UA each semester gets knocked down to the Greek 50 and you get all of your meals at the house. D loves the food at her house. Every Friday is Fried Friday, and the girls love it.</p>

<p>diversity - D’s house is very geographically diverse with girls from all over the US. Some houses are primarily Southern in geographic representation, but not many. Don’t listen to ‘tent talk’. Where someone will say - Oh don’t pledge XYZ they are bunch of partiers, nerds, uppity, insert any label here…There were approximately 125 girls in each houses pledge classes. There is no way to label each and every girl. You will meet girls in each house that you can see yourself becoming friends with. My D has made close friends with a girl from a tiny town in Alabama all the way to a girl from Manhattan! </p>

<p>Keep an open mind and take advantage to all of the great advice here and on Sorority 101. Feel free to reach out to anyone and we will all be happy to help.
Best of luck! UA, with or without sorority membership is an amazing place-
Roll Tide!</p>

5

<p>does every house have fried friday? i know of two that do for sure.</p>

6

<p>D told us that she knows of at least 6 that do…the girls text each other and compare what they are having. lol D sends us a pic of Fried Friday every week! Just seems like such a Southern thing to us Northerners, I guess I just assumed that every house had FF.</p>

7

<p>Also, for budgeting purposes, soccergirl mentioned $2000 per semester. My D is a freshman this year and our dues for the fall were over $4000 (living out) and will be in the upper $3000 range. That does include ALL activities! I know each house has a different amount for their dues, but like someone else stated, you don’t get to choose your house based on the dues amount.</p>

8

<p>My daughter never mentioned “fried friday” but when I asked, yes indeed her house has it too.
I agree that SoccerGirl’s post really lays out everything quite well. I also followed Sororitygirl 101’s blog and much of her advice since my our family had absolutely no connections to sororities. My daughter secured recommendations to each house and ended up with a full schedule of parties at each round.<br>
Not speaking for other groups, but in terms of multi-culturalism the house my daughter chose reflects the population of the university as a whole for Hispanic and Asian members (about 2% for each ethnic group). Being there for bid day I can say that I saw more diversity than I expected. This is important to me since we are Hispanic.
As busymom said the expense is something you want to be prepared for. Looking at average cost really isn’t that helpful since you don’t know where your heart will be drawn to. Going in prepared for the high end of $5,000 per semester (less $1,400 for the dining plan you’d pay for regardless) makes more sense. Then if the costs happen to be less at the house that you choose (and that chooses you) consider it a bonus.</p>

9

<p>Can someone please comment on costs for fraternities? To be honest, I am STUNNED at the sorority dues. My oldest son graduated from college in 2011 and his frat dues (obviously not at Alabama) ran around $400 per year. What exactly do the dues include?</p>

10

<p>Hey guys!</p>

<p>Thanks a bunch! I’m still going back and forth with the idea… I think my main concern will be a mix of time commitment and the diversity. </p>

<p>I feel like I’m a strong student, and I’m a little nervous about having to choose one over the other, as its pretty obvious which one I’d choose! </p>

<p>More than that, that diversity scares me. I’m half black, but I’m from just about the most white bred town in Florida. I’ve looked at most chapter’s websites and EVERYONE seems to be blonde with the occasional exception of a gorgeous Asian or Latino girl. I’m just a tad bit freaked out about not fitting in. I feel like I’ve got the personality for a sorority for sure but I don’t think I have the look…</p>

11

<p>not all sorority girls are blonde. there might be a couple that seem to be almost all blonde.</p>

<p>my daughters sorority has every hair color represented. and my daughter’s hair is not blonde.</p>

<p>idk if being half black will make a difference for your experience. someone else might know, but i don’t.</p>

12

<p>I’m the mom of the triathlete with the tatoos (and a nose ring). She has the Presidential Scholarship and she is not the only one in her sorority who has it. She is liberal leaning in her politics, although doesn’t discuss them much. There are things about her sorority she loves (mainly, a close knit group of friends) and things that drive her a bit crazy (like mandatory meetings when she would rather be on her bike). The expenses are a bit out of control. That said, she would not change her mind about her decision to pledge last year. You take the good with the bad, and that’s true of any group you might chose to join.</p>

13

<p>My son just got initiated into a top new row fraternity. His dues are $3500 a semester out of house. I think some frats can run as much as $5000. I think these are the ones with brand new houses.</p>

14

<p>IIRC, there was one mixed race girl pledged maybe 8-10 years ago, and no African American girl has ever joined a panhellenic sorority at UA, with the exception of SDT which operates differently to the other chapters (MUCH smaller, housed separately, does not do formal rush, historically Jewish but with non Jewish members). </p>

<p>In fact, very very few AA girls even rush: 2-3 per year out of c.2000 PNMs</p>

<p>[In</a> sororities, integration still elusive | The Crimson White](<a href=“Documenting Justice (Video) - The Crimson White”>Documenting Justice (Video) - The Crimson White)</p>

15

<p>My D and I both had apprehensions about her joining a sorority. She has many different groups of friends at home and didn’t want to be “stuck” socializing with only her sorority. I wasn’t thrilled with the lack of diversity in the sororities and was also worried about the time commitment. She decided to go through rush and see how she liked it. I’m not sure she was commited to sorority life by the end of rush and I think she was still had a wait and see attitude. Now that she has pledged, she is really happy she did it. She said there are so many benefits she wasn’t even aware of until after she joined. She applied for different positions and they helped her with her resume and getting through the interview process. I think the upperclassmen in her sorority have encouraged her look at opportunities that will help her in her career. I don’t think she would have that perspective if she wasn’t in a sorority.</p>

<p>I have been pleasantly surprised by the reasonable time commitment by her sorority. I’m not sure that’s the case with all the sororities (I suspect in some cases it’s not), but my D has had plenty of time to spend with friends outside of the sorority and other activities. The only time she seemed to have a problem with the time commitment was for homecoming. It was only a week and other than a couple days of panicking, she did fine.</p>

<p>My D is an OOS student and didn’t know anyone at Alabama and had 3 bids going into bid day. She had no sorority contacts through family or friends, but still had a successful rush.</p>

<p>Diversity is definitely an issue. I’m hoping that will change and I encourage you to go through rush. It was a stretch for some of the sororities to even consider OOS students before. Maybe with the increased geographic diversity there will be more willingness to also become more culturally diverse. This is something they really need to work on.</p>