<p>Following up on Nrdsbr’s post: It is hard to imagine a person of any gender having trouble finding fun in Austin and at UT. I mean, really. Granted, I went there as a graduate student (and I am a woman). But, still. The town is bursting with things to do for people with all kinds of interests. If your idea of fun begins and ends with frat parties or parties in the style of frat parties, that’s another story.</p>
<p>I would add my $0.02 to your question, if you are still reading this forum - there are not a huge number of traditional (i.e. non-religious, non-military) schools out there that have no fraternities or sororities whatsoever, and even if your child is concerned about the frat culture of colleges in general I would urge not to rule out schools that have a greek scene. However, as others have alluded to, at most schools there is a critical mass of students participating in Greek life beyond which one would feel left out of the social scene if they were not Greek affiliated themselves. Although it is impossible to say, I think that this number is approximately 30%.</p>
<p>Note that schools that are in cities are also more favorable to be at if one is not Greek, because there are more social options off-campus and because urban schools tend to attract a lot of students who are not interested in the Greek scene to begin with. Furthermore, at schools where the density of Greeks is not that high (below 30%) and there are a wide variety of non-Greek social options, the hazing and “meathead” factor at Greek organizations tends to be lower, because pledges do not feel that they are under a lot of pressure to join a Greek organization because there are so many other social options, so they are not going to tolerate much abuse just to belong to a Greek organization. I only mention this because at such schools the Greek culture does not tend to be as ‘abusive’ and does not have such a large spillover effect into non-Greek socializing on campus.</p>
<p>Lastly I would say that southern schools, and to a slightly lesser degree midwestern schools, definitely have a much more “animal house” Greek culture (contrary to what a prior poster wrote) and in general the social norms about acceptable Greek behavior in those regions are far looser than what they are elsewhere. Greek life has never been a huge part of northeastern university life (Dartmouth and a few other schools notwithstanding) nor at west coast universities. Just something to keep in mind.</p>
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<p>Why bring back a post from a year ago? Trust me, greek life will be debated over and over again on CC.</p>
<p>This thread is over a year old!</p>