<p>Soccermaster25, you seem to have a very limited understanding of Greek organizations. Greeks generally have a higher average GPA, which usually means better job offers. Being Greek is way more than going to “chapter meetings”, you build strong relationships with your fellow brothers/alumni. And while I’ll admit SAA is a fine for networking, a fraternity network would include contacts more willing to help you out. </p>
<p>In addition there’s also plenty of opportunities to develop your social skills. Speaking as someone who was more of an introvert in high school, my experience in my Greek organization helped me become more outgoing in social settings. These skills are invaluable in any professional setting. This is something that I just don’t think I would of gotten from any club.</p>
<p>I don’t mean this post to be an advertisement for going Greek. I just don’t think it’s fair to completely write it off as useless, people should do what works best for them.</p>
<p>Here’s the difference: it isn’t either/or. It’s not a case of internship or fraternity, or research or fraternity. So there’s no reason to compare them. </p>
<p>Most students choose a fraternity and internships, or a fraternity and research, or a fraternity and internships and research. While a good GPA and good internship experience will give you many opportunities, throwing a fraternity affiliation on top of that tends to expand those opportunities. I’ve never seen a case where the fraternity affiliation closes doors. So from that perspective, the subset of outcomes from joining a fraternity is at least a supremum of the subset of outcomes from not joining (and that statement should validate my GT credentials).</p>
<p>As far as SAA, again you can join a fraternity and SAA and network with different individuals in each. And I wouldn’t say that it as a track record. It was founded last year and may or may not continue next year or the year after.</p>
<p>Ganno24 writes “Greeks generally have a higher average GPA, which usually means better job offers.”</p>
<p>That certainly wasn’t true in the past at GaTech and probably not true anywhere else in the country. Perhaps your particular frat is especially studious?</p>
<p>Fall 2009 grade report: non-greeks averaged .02 higher than greeks.</p>
<p>Somebody with more time than me can dig through to see just how often the men and women (I’d look at them separately with more time) did or did not have higher GPAs.</p>
<p>This is not an argument worth much time, as there are many greeks with good GPAs, and many independents as well. If you want good grades, go for it. Some people don’t do well with distractions, and the Greeks provide/require plenty of them. If you have the discipline to deal with them, you’ll be fine. If not, your GPA might place you in the square root club. ;-)</p>
<p>That report is pretty suspect: average Greek GPA 3.01, average non-Greek GPA 3.03, average of all students 2.98, how does that work out? So depending on how you look at it, Greeks averaged lower than non-Greeks or higher than the average undergraduate student. Semantics.</p>
<p>I agree, though, that it’s not worth arguing. The numbers are usually very close in both directions. But that disputes the argument that being Greek hurts your GPA.</p>
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<p>Virtually all Greek organizations initiate during the same semester a person pledges, so the vast majority of pledges are full members before they see their first grade at Tech.</p>
<p>Edit: that sheet releases the GPA of fraternities with 1 member. How is that not a FERPA issue?</p>