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what does it mean to be rejeceted by the duke 500?
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<p>Heh heh.. meaning not getting bids from top frats/sororities.</p>
<p>*not all smart kids are nerdy</p>
<p>but can you still go to the parties? or rather, do you?</p>
<p>First semester- it is incredibly easy to go to parties- everyone goes- it almost gets kind of boring how many parties there are.
Second semester- most frats go through pledging.. so they throw less parties.</p>
<p>Sophomore year- I don't know what this is like yet but by this time- you should have a solid group of friends and if you don't know anyone well in certain frats- I'd imagine it's almost kind of awkward to go to parties like freshmen do unless you know people in the frats themselves.</p>
<p>To reiterate what I said before, most people at Duke do tolerate nerdiness and are somewhat nerdy themselves.
However, many who are heavily involved with the Greek scene choose to not tolerate nerdiness.</p>
<p>If you want to go somewhere freshman year where nerdiness is the norm- there are two places to check.
a.) Common rooms- if there is a video game system- you will find gaming nerds there.. every dorm has them.
b.) Brown- the substance free dorm. I only met one guy in Brown who is 'fratty' and not 'nerdy' but his parents forced him to live there because of his tendencies.</p>
<p>There is definitely tolerance of nerdyness at Duke, make no mistake. Except at Duke we are called engineers. ;-P</p>
<p>That said, mondo is right. Most of us "nerdy people" (not necessarily including you there Mondo, just to be clear) don't really buy into the whole frat system. (or if they do they buy into very specific frats) I really think you'll find though that freshman dorms are quite tolerant of this behavior though extremes at both ends will always look down on one another. (with the extreme "nerds" looking down on the drunken "fratty people" for wasting their lives and the extreme "fratty people" looking down on the studying/video gaming "nerds" for the same reason)</p>
<p>But I'd say most people are fairly middle of the road in that they do what they want to do and don't begrudge others for using their time in a different fashion. I've certainly had plenty of freshmen in my charge who liked to go out and party and such who knew when to crack down and hit the books. (and I've had both extremes as well)</p>
<p>So here is my female, non-Greek perspective on the social scene.</p>
<p>First of all, I've had lots of debates with people from all walks of life at Duke about the social scene. And everyone has their own take. From my "Daddy is a rich CEO Core Four" friend to my student athlete friends, everyone has their own diagnosis of what is wrong with Duke's social scene. </p>
<p>So here's my opinion.</p>
<p>-Duke is great because it's not full of intellectual snobbishness, but we make up for it in the "I'm really rich" kind of snobbishness. Pick your poison.
-The Greek scene is so old and hackneyed. My problems with Greek life are, yes, with the inherent idea of Greek life, but specifically with the role it plays at Duke in controlling the social scene because there are so few alternatives for students to have fun in large groups of friends. I think saying that Greeks at Dukes can be cliquey **<strong><em>bags is ridiculous because independents can be cliquey *</em></strong>*bags too. It's just that we're not as visible and don't organize Powderpuff football based on these cliques.<br>
-Getting a fake is a bad idea, because the risks outweigh the rewards. If you need it, there's plenty of free alcohol around, and you will make upperclass friends too.
-Section parties are lame. Corridors full of people milling around, looking for free booze and not really meeting people... It's an interesting way to pregame, but don't make it the focus of your night.
-I have much more fun at Metro 8, George's, etc. and at parties on Central or in apartments where you can generally talk to people, dance, etc.
-The minority social scene can be way different from the mainstream Duke social scene. Check out some black fraternity parties sometime. The Latino frat also throw good parties.
-As long as you're with a group of good friends, almost anything and everything is fun.
-Go off campus once in a while. Bars, theaters, clubs, coffeehouses... seriously, Durham has a lot to offer, but be safe (as in ANY city).<br>
-Some of my best memories of having fun have been sober and not at crazy parties. Don't feel pressured to get crunk and wild to have a good time.
-I'm disappointed in the way many very intelligent, confident women during the day comport themselves at night.</p>
<p>Just some thoughts.</p>
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Section parties are lame. Corridors full of people milling around, looking for free booze and not really meeting people... It's an interesting way to pregame, but don't make it the focus of your night.
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<p>Hahahaha! This is true!!
I don't know how many times I'm asked.. "Where's the beer??", "Can I have more beer?", "Can you get me more beer??"... guess what! I'm a freshman too and I got to the beer first- I can't help you- leave me alone!</p>
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Getting a fake is a bad idea, because the risks outweigh the rewards. If you need it, there's plenty of free alcohol around, and you will make upperclass friends too.
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NO FAKE!!! BAD IDEA!!!!</p>
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Duke is great because it's not full of intellectual snobbishness, but we make up for it in the "I'm really rich" kind of snobbishness. Pick your poison.
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I think I'm starting to like the intellectual snobbishness a lot more than the "I'm really rich" sort.. at least you have to be witty with intellectual snobbishness and if you're not- screw you- your snobbishness makes you look like an ******* and no one is going to buy into your crap.</p>
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I think saying that Greeks at Dukes can be cliquey **<strong><em>bags is ridiculous because independents can be cliquey *</em></strong>*bags too.
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Agreed. Some of the guys I know that fit this description the best rushed frats and couldn't even get bids because they had a "TOP FRAT OR BUST" mentality. These make up a small but loud portion of independents on campus.</p>
<p>(Disclaimer... parent alert. My daughter is not a CC person.)"</p>
<p>"-The minority social scene can be way different from the mainstream Duke social scene. Check out some black fraternity parties sometime. The Latino frat also throw good parties."</p>
<p>This is interesting. I was in a pretty big deal Black sorority at an HBCU many years ago, and the description of "greek life" at Duke sounds so alien to me. I seem to be more concerned about social life than my daughter, perhaps because I spend too much time on CC . If I understand correctly a "nerd " is a non-drinker?</p>
<p>Generally, the term "nerd" and "non-drinker" are frequently interchangeable because they signify students who opt out of the mainstream conception of the "cool" party scene that is "what college is really supposed to be". They're not one and the same, though. </p>
<p>Black greek life at Duke is a life of its own, one that generally isn't discussed as frequently (I have my guesses as to why, but that's not really relevant). Your alienation, Shrinkrap, is totally understandable and lots of students feel that way. I have friends involved with the student athlete life (all except football) and Panhel/IFC Greek life who make these sweeping generalizations about Duke's social scene that don't apply to me, an non-Greek student of color, at all. </p>
<p>The black fraternity and sorority scene can be just as elite as the traditional Greek scene. The AKAs are the girls with the straight hair (so I've been told), the Qs are thugs, I don't even know. </p>
<p>My point is to take the statements made about "Duke's social scene" with a grain of salt. Most people speak about their own social circles, which may not be ones that you would necessarily want to be part of. I was freaked out that I would find women in baby oil fights at parties (thanks Rolling Stones), but I really haven't been part of that scene at Duke. So who cares?</p>
<p>^Thanks! I think I'll take my leave on that note....</p>
<p>SAE is the most elite frat, right?
And if a non-biased person who has enough knowledge about the frats could give us a little review about each one, that would be great.
I think I saw a thread on this a while back but everyone's answer was totally different due to being biased. Some guy put his own frat in the top tier when it really wasn't..so I have no clue which one is which.</p>
<p>Oh, and how crazy are the basketball games? I could imagine it's pretty fun pre-gaming it then going wild at the game.</p>
<p>Greens, I highly recommend you just check them out for yourself. Reviews and rankings are more the territory of juicycampus and similar rumor-mills. Noone who is truly unbiased about this issue knows what they are talking about. (I'm not even sure if it is <em>possible</em> to be unbiased when it comes to social groups like fraternities, the whole point of them is your personal opinion of people) General advice about the greek system is great but personal experience is really the way to go with opinions on specific groups.</p>
<p>For those who are interested in frats, I have on nugget of advice:</p>
<p>GET TO KNOW PEOPLE!!!!!</p>
<p>These are people you are going to be living with for the next three years.
Talk with the people there and think to yourself, "Could these people be my friends?". </p>
<p>And it's okay if your group of friends does not consist of a fraternity. </p>
<p>Fraternity rush is different than sorority rush (in sheer terms of hierarchy) because the girls don't live together in the sororities. You can make yourself a member of Pi Phi and Tri Delt.. attend a silly meeting once a month.. and don't have to do anything for the sorority. </p>
<p>If you get a bid from SAE and demand to not live with them.. I don't think the brothers are going to look so favorably on that- unless you want to be an RA to get free housing or something like that. Even so, that would tarnish the fraternity experience in itself because you wouldn't be living with them.. as an RA your primary responsibility would be helping the people you live with and making sure they don't get in trouble rather than being a 'brah'.</p>
<p>uhh when im reading about frats I usually get confused with the acronyms and names given to different frats.</p>
<p>can anyone give the full greek name of each frat and its corresponding acronym or nickname? THANKS</p>
<p>Fraternity</a> and Sorority Life :: Chapters & Organizations</p>
<p>Website of frats and sororities at Duke. Click on links on the right for a list of each. You can find their common names as well as official names under each chapter's profile.</p>
<p>Edit: I checked on some of those profiles and the common names weren't so common. So, off the top of my head:</p>
<p>DTD = Delta Tau Delta
ATO = Alpha tau Omega
DeltaSig = Delta Sigma Phi
SigNu = Sigma Nu
Pike = Pi Kappa Alpha
AEPi = Alpha Epsilon Pi
Sig Ep = Sigma Phi Epsilon
KA = Kappa Alpha</p>
<p>what is SAE?</p>
<p>Sigma Alpha Epsilon. So saith google.</p>
<p>According to the SAE Duke website the chapter was officially closed in 2002 due to violations and will return officially spring 2009.</p>
<p>the sae that everyone talks about (especially in reference to "duke 500") was the alpha chapter of sae, closed down, is now technically referred to as alpha delta phi i believe but we still refer to them as sae.</p>
<p>since sae's alpha chapter is duke and it was officially closed, alums everywhere got ****ed, hence a new sae is opening. it'll be a completely different organization than the one that's off campus, who knows what they'll go as now-- rogue sae, the real sae, alpha delt... i'm out, so who cares. </p>
<p>mondo- you're sort of off base. joining sae since it's off campus, you have no obligation to live with the organization-- as a soph/jr/sr, but of course, being in the fraternity, most choose to. i know of saes who chose never to block with pledge classes, but it's rare. girls in piphi/tridelt/kappa tend to block together also (with sae)... its called edens.</p>
<p>Incoming freshman: The underage driniking laws are very strictly enforced both by Duke and ALE--they are pariticualry out in force during freshman orientation--in 2005 150 freshman were given citations--IT IS A studeDuke is very strict a</p>