<p>Arbiter, I second your feelings on Pike. I really don't understand what all the fuss is about. Before they got a house, they seriously let every person who walked in their door get a bid. I haven't had an engaging conversation with a Pike, ever. Now, they think they're top 3? I don't see what the big deal is.</p>
<p>First in intramurals (and philanthropy)!</p>
<p>:facepalm:</p>
<p>I'm affiliated but like everybody else, I'm not gonna say at which house. I'm gonna echo arbiter and cerebral's comments and say that wary's frat descriptions are some of the more sensible (read: not RR or ACB reflected). A few comments:</p>
<p>I concur with Cerebral about Lambda Chi. They should be grouped with Phi Psi and Phi Delt because all three share a similar culture (chill, eclectic, laid-back albeit somewhat awkward & nerdy) and the kind of guys they rush (that have these qualities). To me, when ranking, quality is more important than numbers and I think others would agree. Case in point, DU is often grouped as a "top" house although they have recently fallen in numbers (yes, they had ~16 pledges this year but that was after they bid about 10 of them on the last two days when they realized they were so low on numbers). Also, there's a big difference between the 9-12 or however many members LCA got compared to Theta Chi's usual 2-4. That's one house being, at the very least, twice the size of the other (definitely more if, as you said, they were at 24 a class at one point). So, even number wise, they shouldn't be in the same category.</p>
<p>I also agree about Delta Chi, some pretty genuine guys but they come off as desperate (after meeting some at a sunday night dinner, they took down my number and continually called me whenever they were doing anything remotely fun. It was too obvious that they were rushing me).</p>
<p>Also, finally somebody agrees with me about Sigma Chi and Beta. I really do not like either of these houses- Sigma Chi thinks it's the new SigEp and Beta, well, Beta is really "bro" but in the "bro-rape" way: they try to act all manly to the point I get the feeling they're closeted gays trying to compensate (work out bro, listen to some jack johnson bro. maybe some gamecube and big black dildo bro?).</p>
<p>Also, might I add, ZBT is pretty damn awesome IMHO. They're Jewish, but have a lot of kids who aren't Jews (couple asians stand out). They also rock philanthropy (namely DM) and are, for being "cool" guys, are genuinely nice and good guys. Much better than SigEp or SAE in the personality department. Sucks they're on probation for a year though (but who's not, nowadays).</p>
<p>As for sororities, well, everything I can say has pretty much been said. There's the common rankings by RR and ACB which is based solely on looks and there's wary, cerebral and arbiter's insights on personality. Personally, there's some truth in all of them (sororities are not homogenous regardless of their characterization- there's 100+ members in all of them). There are extremely *****y/catty girls in all of them, fun ones, hot ones, crazy ones, ugly ones, yes every sorority has girls all over the spectrum. </p>
<p>One thing I will say though- I don't like the direction Pi Phi's going. But that's just me.</p>
<p>wow… I’m trying to decide between NU, U of C, and Macalester. NU would definitely be my top choice, but the most recent posts “ranking” sororities make me really nervous. i’m sure you’re all smart, deep people, but to know that women in sororities are so freely categorized is frankly frightening.
anyway, what i really wanted to ask was how much it costs to go greek. perhaps this is a taboo question, but i want to know if i’d be financial able to choose to join a sorority if I wanted.</p>
<p>yes, this is indeed frightening.</p>
<p>I had to drop out because it cost so much. Almost $500 a quarter is too much for me.</p>
<p>Anyway, I think these rankings (at least in the circles I hang around in) are really arbitrary and don’t really affect anything, unless you’re looking for people like that, who judge. Then again, I never really got too involved before I dropped out, so I don’t know how much being in a certain “tier” affects your relationships with the other houses.</p>
<p>
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<p>Then you should be really nervous.</p>
<p>Go to any college campus and the upperclassmen male students “rank” the incoming frosh girls off of facebook (the female students do it as well).</p>
<p>It should also be noted that ranking of the greek houses isn’t necesarily (though most of the time is) a ranking of of the attractiveness of the girls (physical and otherwise). I, for one, meant that as a ranking of the general selectivity of the houses (this is CC after all), their desirability for most freshmen (deserved or not) and how well the organization is run- same goes for Fraternities.</p>
<p>Take what you hear about the “elite” of NU with a big heaping helping of salt. The only people that actually care either a) Aren’t worth talking to and/or b) are part of a very small, very vocal, and not very influential part of the campus. </p>
<p>Think of it like the Student Government kids- they’re high exposure, and they think they’re really important, but in reality, no one cares.</p>
<p>Not true that the fraternity/sorority people aren’t influential - or Student Government people - or newspaper people. The people who are involved in ANYTHING are the types of people who become involved in life. You will see more and more of these people as you age (I say that as a long-ago graduate.)</p>
<p>What you need to realize, if you see yourself as separate from the “elite”, is that they are just people. They don’t look down on other people, they’re merely living their lives and everybody is welcome. My fraternity/sorority friends did not choose to avoid people who weren’t in a house. That’s just another descriptor like hair color, major, etc…</p>
<p>My point was that they don’t influence anything on campus other than their own little bubble. As a current student, I’m pretty sure I know the swing of things around here a bit better than you, no?</p>
<p>Arbiter, maybe you do know more than me, maybe you don’t. We all see things through the curtain of our own experience. Keep an open mind as you go through life and take time to look for the insight from another person’s point of view. </p>
<p>In any case, involvement in sorority/fraternity does not preclude involvement in things that influence the “swing of things.” Unless this has changed, some of my greek friends were in Student Government, in theatrical productions, wrote for the newspaper, played on the teams, etc… Is this not the case today?</p>
<p>To be clear, I’m very pro greek-life and actively participate in my fraternity as well as around campus. My point, to once again clarify, is that the people I have known who have put a large amount of stock in the “rankings” and who’s “in” the social scene have not had, in THOSE capacities, any real influence on the goings on of campus life for any given average NU student. While I do not personally know anyone who fits the “rumor royalty” mold and is actively involved around campus, I’d be surprised if no one was.</p>
<p>My point was merely that the rankings and other things you see trumped around campus have almost no physically manifested influence beyond whether or not you are included in that self-same social elite- something to which, knowing what I do about its “entry requirements”, I would not care to partake of.</p>
<p>I’m fairly sure we agree more than we disagree NUGraduate- I think we’re just misunderstanding one another.</p>
<p>nah they got rid of it last year (the greek scene)</p>
<p>I am the same age range as NUGraduate and know her personally (we were in different Greek houses at the same time) and I see arbiter’s point. He’s not stating that the people who are in Greek orgs aren’t movers and shakers – I do agree with you that they <em>tend</em> to be (tend, of course, being the operative word). And of course nothing about being Greek precludes someone from being active in other campus organizations.</p>
<p>I think that his point is simply that the “rankings” need not scare away prospective freshmen – as only the people who care about rankings care about the rankings, if that makes sense. </p>
<p>IOW, if someone goes through rush and likes a house that may have been quoted on here as near the bottom of the list, that shouldn’t preclude that person from joining the house if he or she likes the people in it. You’ll still have a grand time with your friends and no one at NU <em>really</em> sits around all the time and thinks about whether the AChiO’s are better than the ChiO’s or whatever. It’s just rather irrelevant and apropros of nothing. Yeah, there are a handful of people who care … but so what? It’s not going to matter to your life.</p>
<p>And to k&s’s point … yes, years ago, the guys looked at all the girls on a real, paper facebook (wish I’d kept my copy, for laughs if nothing else!). Nothing’s changed in that regard.</p>
<p>To put it another way: I’ll pick a house I wasn’t in - Theta. The kind of guy who will only date Thetas - well, I’m not interested in him anyway, so why do I care that he wouldn’t want to date my house? His loss, not mine.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, you’re an alum? i can’t believe you’re still engaging in debates about the Greek system haha. how long ago did you graduate? i hope i won’t be so engrossed in my alma mater’s greek house disputes when i’m 30+ haha.</p>
<p>brebeuff - when you are 30+ I hope you can look back on your past and care. When I was in college I could not understand why there were so many women volunteering to help at my sorority house - didn’t they have their “own” life? Well… we DO have our own lives as alums, and the more successful we are - the more we like to share the wisdom and security we’ve gained over the years. If the younger person doesn’t care to listen, so be it. But it is a positive thing to want to help.</p>
<p>My sorority sisters who couldn’t understand why alums were still involved? They are now on the house board of my sorority, helping with rush, etc… As for me? I just joined an alumnae group in the area I moved to, in order to meet new people.</p>
<p>Pizza girl - you are great! If they don’t appreciate your advice, that’s their issue.</p>
<p>brebuff does not equal “they” in this instance, as far as I can tell.</p>
<p>I agree- involved alumni are a huge asset to any house.</p>
<p>for the poster above who thinks no one from the old “rumor royalty” mold participates on campus outside of greek life…rumor royalty (the author) was the president of NCA (the Northwestern Class Alliance), so that comment could not be more inaccurate. </p>
<p>greek life is an amazing way to be involved on campus and a great way to meet tons of girls/guys you would not have gotten to know otherwise. sure you can have a social life outside of greek life, but it isnt the same. </p>
<p>as for the houses, rankings are arbitrary and change with every new pledge class. the houses can be grouped in tiers though pretty easily and no one on campus would disagree:</p>
<p>for sororities</p>
<p>top = theta kappa tridelt
good = aphi pi phi DG
meh = gamma phi, zeta, kd
bad = achio, chio, dz</p>
<p>for frats</p>
<p>top = sigep, lodge
good = pike, zbt, sae, beta
meh = sigchi, DU, phi psi, figi
bad = delta chi, theta chi, lambda chi, AEpi, phi delt</p>