<p>Can anyone shed some light on this? I assume that they would be different from fraternities at, say, Uconn.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, and which ones are the best ones?</p>
<p>they vary a lot... the best way to find out is probably to visit as many as possible during rush...</p>
<p>are there distinc differences between the personalities of most frats? Like with dorms?</p>
<p>MIT fraternities (I can't say much about sororities b/c i'm not in one) are unlike any other university. There are about 30 houses and each one does have distinctive differences between their personalities. (Some are more preppy, a few are considered solely Asian, jock frats, etc.) All the fraternities have houses on or off campus (the majority of them live in brownstones in Boston) and MIT allows the frats to govern themselves through the IFC. The result: 50% of undergraduate males choose to live in a fraternity after their freshman year. A huge percentage of frat boys compared to any university in the nation. MIT frats are different b/c (in my perspective) they are almost like living groups, you live with a number of guys who you eat dinner with, they can help you on your homework and you go out and have fun with. This is MIT and the focus is academia, so our frats are not the "Animal House" type where we drink and party starting on Wednesday. All parties and events happen on weekends b/c we are busy doing work all week. So please don't come to MIT thinking fraternities are either a whole bunch of nerds who don't party (we have a frat for that) or a wild group of drunken people (we have a frat for that) b/c there are many groups in between that spectrum that may interest you. (Hey either end of the spectrum may interest you too, nothing wrong with that lol) </p>
<p>To be fair, I did come to MIT against joining a fraternity but when I saw the structure of rush and how MIT frats aren't the stereotype I knew, I rushed, pledged, and became a brother of a house. I decided not to name my house to be unbiased and answer any questions about frats.</p>
<p>which ones are the best ones? the ones that appeal to you, obviously.</p>
<p>as for sororities, (disclaimer: i'm not in a sorority, but have several good friends who are greek, and have some knowledge of the system), they're different from the frat system in some important ways. there's only 5 of them, and they're generally larger (like, twice to three times the size?) than a fraternity chapter. this apparently can contribute to a looser feel to the social network, as opposed to the slightly stronger sense of brotherhood i often get from fratboys i know. the sororities also have somewhat divergent personalities, but it's not highly pronounced. there's an emphasis, like in the frats, on academics, but they're also much like other schools' sororities, throwing mixers and formals and such. the structure of rush is different for the sororities, taking place in the spring rather than a few weeks into fall term, and is much more, um, complicated. i think that's about all i'm going to say about sororities, without further specific questions.</p>
<p>The... best... ones.</p>
<p>Unfortunately for high schoolers who have been raised thinking there's a Princeton Review list for everything, there is no definitive ranking of MIT frats, sororities, dorms, or ILGs. </p>
<p>Thank heavens.</p>
<p>oh, but there should be...</p>
<p>in Voodoo!
damn, that might just be a good enough idea to make it into the next issue. woah.</p>
<p>I can't even imagine what would replace "peer assessment" and "alumni giving rate" as criteria...</p>
<p>That could be wickedly funny.</p>
<p>I did not mean 'best' as in rank, I meant 'most regarded among students.'
What do some of the frats make you do to get into them?</p>
<p>I don't really know if a "best" or "most regarded among students" exists.... each frat has a different personality and all are generally respected. I think I know what you are talking about though (ex. Tufts had a frat Delta Tau Delta thrown off its campus last semester for new member training involving alcohol, a pledge was resuscitated after being forced to drink inane amounts of beer) We had two frats over the last few years (Sig Ep and SAE) have alcohol problems and were thrown out of the IFC. Beyond that, I think the rest are generally respected and everyone has their own biases toward different chapters.</p>
<p>
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What do some of the frats make you do to get into them?
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</p>
<p>I think the frats at MIT are considerably more egalitarian than you (or most people) suspect them to be. Pretty much, if you want to get into a certain frat, you hang out there during fraternity rush, and they give you a bid. </p>
<p>To maximize their membership/fill up the beds in their houses, many frats have been known to give bids to any male freshman they recall ever having been anywhere near the premises, so, to my understanding, there's no "OMG am I going to get into XYZ?" There are 28 fraternities at MIT, so there's pretty much something for every would-be frat boy.</p>
<p>you could probably say that some are stronger and some are weaker. although that probably fluctuates over time.</p>
<p>This is a link to a Report called Project Aurora on Fraternities and Independent Living Groups at MIT.</p>
<p><a href="http://web.mit.edu/dsl/aurora/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://web.mit.edu/dsl/aurora/index.html</a></p>
<p>It has a lot of data on MIT Fraternities.</p>
<p>that report's a bit dated in some areas, of course, but yeah, it gives an overview of the system and what it means in the larger context of MIT. agreed, that different groups of people value different living groups for different reasons, and frats are no exception. it should be noted that in the past few years, sig ep and sae certainly haven't been the only houses slapped with sanctions for liquor, and that sig ep's problems stemmed more from having low numbers and their nationals then shutting them down, as i recall. also, sae got kicked out of the ifc b/c they were already on probation, being in the process of reinstating their chapter from the last time they got kicked out. <em>shrug</em> a search of the tech archives can tell you who else has had problems recently, which doesn't really say anything useful, but may give you a better sense of how things go around here.</p>
<p>but yes, it really depends on who you are and what you find estimable in a group of people, how well-regarded you find a fraternity. me telling you the only house you'll ever find me partying isn't really going to help you :)</p>