<p>What does a college freshman need to do to join a fraternity? Also, what would that person usually do in a fraternity? What are the major advantages and disadvantages? Are the friends for real or fake?</p>
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<li><p>In January, there will be “open rush.” There are a couple of dozen fraternities on campus, so this is where the frats try to convince you that their frat is the best and you should join their frat. Usually they will have lots of free food from good restaurants and other things to entice you. You can rush as many frats as you want, and anyone can attend open rush events. The real point of these events is to get the meet the brothers. Then they will move on to closed rush events, which you can only attend if you get an invitation from a brother. Again, the frat is still trying to woo you, so they might take you to a horse track (and give you $50 to gamble with), take you paintballing, take you to Atlantic City, take you to New York City, etc. Again, your job at these events is to meet the brothers and convince them that you would be a fun guy to have in the frat. Finally, “bids” are handed out, which are official invitations to join the fraternity. Some people will get multiple bids from different fraternities; some people will get one bid; some people will get zero bids. If you get multiple bids, you have to decide which frat you want to join. If you accept your bid, then you must pledge. Pledging lasts several weeks, and pledges are generally forbidden from disclosing what happens during pledging. But I can guarantee you that it will involve consuming lots of alcohol, and doing whatever the brothers tell you to do (memorize the history of the fraternity, pick up dry cleaning for a brother, walk backwards around campus for a day, wear a gorilla suit, etc.). </p></li>
<li><p>Fraternities have many purposes. They are social groups, and they host parties on many weekends. They are philanthropic, and some of the biggest charity events on campus are run by fraternities and sororities (e.g. [Sorority</a> crowns Big Man on Campus at downtown club | The Daily Pennsylvanian](<a href=“http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/node/27489]Sorority”>http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/node/27489)). They help you with academics, and many fraternities have required study hours when brothers in the house must study (fun statistic: the average frat/sorority GPA is higher than a non-frat/sorority GPA). </p></li>
<li><p>Advantages and disadvantages are up to you to decide. The biggest advantage in my mind is that it kind of lays out your Penn experience: a lot of your close friends are in your frat, you can live in your frat house, you do community service with your frat, some frats and sororities have chefs that live in the house and cook for them, etc. So in that list, I covered social life, housing, extracurriculars, and dining…pretty comprehensive, no? You might not want to join a frat if you don’t want to pay the dues (usually several hundred dollars a semester to cover cost of parties and whatnot) or if you don’t like drinking alcohol.</p></li>
<li><p>As far as I am aware, my friends who were in fraternities were very good friends with their brothers and the friendships were “real.”</p></li>
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<p>So the easiest way to find out if a frat is right for you is to rush in the beginning of spring semester. Meet the brothers, and find out if they are the type of guys you would be interested in hanging out with.</p>
<p>I really appreciate the help sunkist7. Thanks man.</p>