<p>Hi. I am a black student wishing to attend Mississippi State University. I am wanting to join a sorority but not sure if I should join a 'white' sorority or a 'black one. I would consider myself kind of preppy and was wondering if their is much diversity in the sororities down there.</p>
<p>I think you should join which ever one feels best for you. Color should not matter.</p>
<p>Caveat: I’m not in a sorority, but I have friends in both NPHC sororities (the historically black ones) and in NPC sororities (the historically white ones).</p>
<p>Southern schools’ sorority systems do tend to be relatively segregated, with most black students joining NPHC organizations and most white students joining NPC or IFC groups. However, that doesn’t mean that’s always the case. There are always a few black students who join NPC groups, and I’ve definitely seen pictures of white girls in NPHC sororities! (There’s a new show on VH1 - and I am not recommending it at all, because I heard it’s bad - but one of the cast members is a white woman who’s an alumnae member of a black Greek organization.) I am not familiar with Mississippi State specifically, so I couldn’t tell you how segregated the sororities are there. But if their chapters have websites and those websites have photo galleries, you might be able to use that as a rough proxy.</p>
<p>One thing that you should know, though, is that the rush/joining process is completely different for each one. NPC sorority rush is kind of predicated on the idea that you might not know which organization or chapter you want to join, but that the sororities are kind of similar in their mission and values, so during Rush you get the opportunity to learn about all of the sororities and the process is supposed to be a mutual decision between you and the sorority you eventually get a bid to. The process is also much earlier - most SEC schools have sorority rush very early in the school year, sometimes even a week or two before classes and formal orientation for freshmen begins, and you can rush as a freshman. Generally speaking by the beginning of September of your freshman year, you’ll already be a new member in a chapter and will be learning all about the sorority and preparing for your eventual initiation.</p>
<p>NPHC sororities have a completely different rush process. For one thing, there’s no testing and trying out several different sororities. They expect you to know which one you want to pursue before you pursue it, and you have to be “discreet” with your pursuit - which means you need to do your own research beforehand. Once you start showing up at one sorority’s events to express your interest, expressing interest in another one can get you excluded from both groups. There’s also a lot of smaller silly rules (like not wearing the sorority’s colors if you go to any of their events). And the pledge process is very unique and different. You also need to have at least a semester of undergrad before you can join, and the earliest you can join most of them is your sophomore year. But that’s because NPHC sororities expect more of a commitment post college - the alumnae involvement level is very high. IN fact, I know lots of friends who joined NPHC sororities in their senior year right before they graduated college, or after they graduated altogether, and are still very active in their sororities in the community.</p>
<p>There are lots of preppy black women who join NPHC sororities, but there are also preppy women in NPC sororities. That alone isn’t a factor - it’s really, where do you want to spend your time, and what kind of sorority experience do you want to have? They are quite different from each other, and the experience you’ll have will be very different.</p>
<p>I don’t quite agree with “color should not matter” for greek orgs. Well, maybe it shouldn’t but it is definitely going to matter in the eyes of some of the other people in the greek org and it could absolutely give you big time issues. I can’t speak for Mississippi State but I can tell you that at UT there’s been racial incidents every year here involving the traditionally white fraternities and sororities doing something negative to minority students (more commonly black students). We have a good amount of traditionally white greek orgs here so maybe research can be done to show that a few of them do not actually discriminate heavily against minorities. I like Juliet’s idea of looking at the photo albums. I know that back when I was in high school I felt like it was one of the least segregated places and people never judged you or treated your differently based on your race but since I got to college 3 years ago I can tell there’s definitely (here at least) a higher percentage of students that will judge or discriminate you based on race. So maybe it would have something to do with you just needing the right group but you cannot walk around campus and think that every student there is going to be colorblind.</p>