<p>Hi.
I am strongly considering Northwestern and have some questions about Greek life. (I'm male.)
Basically would a guy feel left out if he did not pledge a fraternity?
How much time does the pledging process take and how are grades affected?
How many of the fraternities haze and how severely? Is it generally alcohol, physical beatings, exercise, harmless pranks or being made to do publicly embarrassing stunts?</p>
<p>Depends on how many of your friends end up in the Greek system. Winter quarter tends to suck pledges away simply because pledging requires a lot of time spent at the respective houses.</p>
<p>Pledging processes vary across houses. My house required a meal plan switch (from 13 to 6 meals a week at the university, rest at the house) and a weekly meeting, along with assignments and 1-2 events. That wasn’t much compared to other fraternities. Grades can change depending on how you handle it. I know one fraternity forced their pledges to drop one class for the quarter.</p>
<p>3 fraternities are currently not on probation. Take from that what you will.</p>
<p>I cannot know for sure, but I expect that most houses will haze. There are at least three houses (the ones not on probation) that do not haze. Alcohol hazing is common.</p>
<p>I was in AEPi (I’m far enough removed I don’t care anymore). They didn’t haze at all. Pledging was easy and fun. It did not hamper my grades (but AEPi has by FAR the highest GPA on campus so make of that what you will).</p>
<p>My son’s frat pledging was time consuming but there was absolutely no alcohol or other hazing of any type. In retrospect he should’ve taken just 3 classes that quarter, not 4. Generally, though, Greek chapter GPAs are above the campus average, and my son has given and rec’d lots of academic help from his frat bros.
He initially did not plan on pledging, but went for a few of the free Sunday night dinners in the fall of his freshmen year and changed his mind – and is very glad he did. Go with an open mind…</p>
<p>As for now,</p>
<p>SAE
Pike ZBT
Sigma Chi
Phi Psi
Beta
PhiDelt
DTD Delta Chi
Lambda Chi
AEPi
SigNu
Fiji
DU
Sig Ep
Theta Chi</p>
<p>these usually fluctuate each year based on pledge class and rush</p>
<p>No one asked for a ranking, and your rankings are pointless.</p>