Haha. I thought all LACs had a heavy a cappella presence. I thought it was one of the defining characteristics of a LAC. Stay away if you abhor a cappella. 
TBH, what exists at some LACs, maybe especially NESCAC LACs, are sports teams that share many characteristics with greek orgs.
Of course being on a varsity sports team requires some athletic skill and probably a degree of family money (as most sports are fairly expensive to pursue to the recruitable level). Club teams can share those characteristics too, though are often open to anyone who is willing to show up for practice and compete.
The comparison is students at different schools so it’s far from a scientific study. But it’s consistent that students report more difficulties with second semester rush , especially more than they anticipated. students definitely find the idea of first semester rush stressful but many report that once it was over they were really happy not to have to go through it second semester instead. Again very unscientific data.
I will say that the happiest girls I know overall socially are those in sororities who deliberately chose the lowest “ranked” Sororities. These girls all seem to be part of an amazing sisterhood with little drama.
It isn’t just LACs. We had to listen to a jillion a capella groups at accepted student day at RPI and Tufts has a bunch too.
Even if you like the Greek stuff, you must admit that they are excessive in the amount of money they squeeze out of whoever is paying the bills.
“Even if you like the Greek stuff, you must admit that they are excessive in the amount of money they squeeze out of whoever is paying the bills”
Nope. My daughters Greek housing which included meals cost less than the dorm plus dining plan. With her dues added the costs were within 50 bucks of non-Greek option.
Dresses for rush, t-shirts for every event, hair-and-makeup doing, etc ?
“Dresses for rush, t-shirts for every event, hair-and-makeup doing, etc ?”
Dresses for rush were the dresses ( 1 a year…rest of time dues included shirts given for charity round. Other rounds were things like plain white tee and Jorts they wore all year, in other words simply part of their wardrobe. T shirts? There were very few of these in my kids combined 6 years of sorority life. Maybe 2 events a year and definitely a worn repeatedly item so substituted for the HS t shirts ( Pom squad, math team, car wash event shirts, key club shirts) they were ready to stop wearing. Not much different than my non-Greek nieces college dance team.
Hair and make up? I shelled out WAY more for HS dances. Neither of my kids who were at pretty " social " sororities ever had hair or make up done for sorority dances or any other events.
@maya54 It appears to be A Thing for some, I’m sure not all.
http://sisterhoodredefined.blogspot.com/2014/08/how-to-budget-for-your-new-sorority.html
https://sororitygirl101.com/2012/02/02/so-how-much-does-it-really-cost/
These MIT fines are kind of shocking to me:
http://college.usatoday.com/2014/11/17/how-much-does-it-really-cost-to-go-greek/
Regarding cost - My sons fees, room and board are comparable to the less desirable student housing he was in. (T-shirts are included in the fees.) When he decided to join, we told him that he needed to maintain the 3.5 GPA required to keep his small scholarships AND get a job on campus. He has done both of those, so it’s a win-win for us. Oh, and he also got a side job over the summer from one of the frat’s alumni.
Parent should discuss costs with their child before they pledge, as we did. If there is a limit parents are willing to pay, then the student will have to find a less costly srat or activity. Those hard decisions are all part of growing up.
Ours is a lot like @stardustmom. It is actually cheaper than room and board at his dorm. It leaves us $1000 to play with. We told him that If he keeps a 3.5 that is his money for other events and to do with as he likes. If he doesn’t no frat. His grades are above that at this point and he is going to all the frat functions even though he can’t be officially a member until January. Tonight is a theme party he is going to at his girlfriend’s sorority. He is wearing his suit and she is wearing a nice dress. They are James Bond and Ms. Moneypenney. He just had to buy a nice white button-down shirt but he needs that anyway! Costumes can be creative but not expensive.
My experience is from several years ago, but it was actually less expensive for me to live in the sorority house than to dorm. In addition, my sorority house had what we called a “formal closet” with formals, shoes, etc. that everyone borrowed. I had one formal dress (the only piece of clothing I have kept from that era) that went to multiple fraternity formals, homecoming dances, etc at our school and many others. I borrowed several dresses from the closet or from other friends. That was how we did it. No one was expected to have a huge wardrobe.
There have been several threads with pros and cons of Greek life and they all seem to end up with the same people arguing the same points.
While not a fan of this paper, I was amazed to find this report – http://nypost.com/2017/09/23/fraternities-are-at-a-crossroads-amid-outrage-over-hazing-deaths/
And here’s how your frat son might destroy your economic foundation in addition to tender parts of his physique–
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/03/the-dark-power-of-fraternities/357580/
Then there’s this report about Dartmouth –
http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/confessions-of-an-ivy-league-frat-boy-inside-dartmouths-hazing-abuses-20120328
And yet there are still people in the world that defend this as a wonderful way of life for young men and women. I need to point out that people here attacked me for saying that I lower their IQ in my head when I hear they were in a Greek Org because they clearly make bad decisions. That statement was attacked rather than the tendencies of Greek Orgs to kill and maim young people. So, you know, priorities . . . . I guess.
The same Rolling Stone that owes millions for another BS college story?? LOL
I’m plenty conflicted about greek life, but readers should know that 2012 Rolling Stone article about Dartmouth, linked above, was subject to a lot of criticism regarding journalistic methods. Someone interested in learning more about greek life at Dartmouth should research beyond that article.
As a journalism major, we did a study about “The Atlantic” and its biases. I still believe it is good reading, but everything printed in it needs to be taken with a grain of salt as it tends to be more opinion/editorial and less investigative news.