<p>What are the pros and cons?</p>
<p>Pros:
You get to meet new people and possibly form friendships of brotherhood
You can get networks
You get to go cool parties (lol)</p>
<p>Cons:
Too expensive
You might party too much, hence your grades going down</p>
<p>If you receive a bid and pledge, you have to be prepared to spend all your free time at the house. It is a major time commitment.</p>
<p>Pledging takes up a lot of time, and was a really big reason for my low grades this past quarter. However, it is usually a quarter/semester long so if you sign up for classes with light workloads, it's manageable. Also the whole process of pledging gets you close to your pledge brothers, since you'll be spending a lot of time with them and doing the types of activities that you probably wouldn't have done on your own, and ones that are meant to get you close to your pledge brothers and teach you about brotherhood (since that's a very big part of what the pledge process is about). There is also hazing, which some fraternities do. Mine didn't so I got lucky with that. </p>
<p>You can be a brother and be inactive and not pay your dues. That prevents you from coming to the fraternity parties and brotherhood events, but obviously doesn't bar you from hanging out with the bros. Dues usually are pretty expensive, at least for a college student. </p>
<p>I'd say living at the house is a big pro, as you get close to about 25-30 people right away since you're living in one house with them. It's a lot different than living in a residence hall. I definitely want to live at my fraternity's house next year. Also living at the house, at least at my university, is cheaper than university housing.</p>
<p>In the end, when you become a brother the only thing you really forfeit is the ability to join any other fraternity as long as you stay a brother. That's pretty much it. If you don't like it, you can stay inactive and not be involved in anything. The process of joining, however, is pretty long and hard, but I'd say it's definitely worth it.</p>
<p>Actually, once you've been initiated in any social fraternity, you're forbidden from joining any other social fraternity. It may be possible if you transferred to a location with no national fraternities (only ones that local) that some locals with lax regulations would let you join, but that's rare. It's a one and done sort of thing.</p>
<p>As for the actual decision to join a fraternity, I've never met anyone who regretted it. Most people who have gone through the process will tell you it's the best decision they ever made. I certainly will tell you that it was for me. It's not that you can't have a great time in college being an independent, just that joining a fraternity enhances all aspects of your college experience: more friends, better parties, nationwide alumni connections, hotter girls in greater numbers, better housing, better food, and so on. </p>
<p>I will say that in terms of academics, it does depend on your campus. If you go to a school where the fraternities have higher GPA's than the all campus average, your grades will be better, but the opposite is also true (Fraternities with low gpa's will lead to you getting lower grades). I can personally say that I would not have gotten into medical school were it not for the support, encouragement, and mentoring I got from my brothers.</p>
<p>I pledged this past semester and although it was extremely time consuming, I still managed to get a 3.7 with 6 classes. Like the poster above me I'd also agree it's the best decision I ever made. I was only active for 2 weeks before the semester ended and I'm already seeing the benefits. Pledging actually brought me close to a group of awesome friends many of which I accidentally judged as people I didn't like at the beginning of the semester. Do it, I promise it's worth it.</p>