I’m a freshman premed student and this upcoming fall I’ll be taking 14 hrs worth of classes. I’ll also be working part time as an EMT and want keep up my volunteer work. I already have a list of several clubs I want to join and in addition I’m thinking about rushing. I think it’ll be fun and help expand my passion for helping others through philanthropy. However at the moment I don’t really have the means to pay for all the associated expenses. Do you think I’ll have enough time to be an active member in a sorority without my grades suffering? Should I or not worry about the costs? Or should I not consider joining a sorority at all?
The money really depends on the school. At some schools it is several thousand dollars while at others it is about $400 per semester. For one of my daughters it was actually cheaper for her room, board, and sorority dues than living in the dorm.
As for time, that’s up to you too. I was in a sorority where there were pre-meds and a lot of top engineers. The president of my D’s house was also president of the electrical engineering fraternity while earning a 4.0 and getting full ride scholarship offers to Columbia, Georgia Tech and two others.
Having learned this lesson myself, I strongly encourage you not to overload yourself. Ask yourself these questions:
- Does this activity benefit my future career aspirations?
- Does this activity enrich my personal life or grow me as a person?
If the answer isn’t “yes” to either question, then reconsider if you need to be doing it. If you overload, you will be burned out and your grades will suffer. I think your best chance is to pare down your activities to things that you genuinely enjoy, regardless of whether it will help your case for med school or not. Ultimately, this will shine through on your applications later and you will be a more genuine (think attractive) MD applicant. A sorority may or may not be part of that, only you can decide.
See if you have connections to any of the sororities you’re interested in and talk to them. Every school/chapter is different.
This is definitely a personal decision, but if you don’t have the funds – that should be a starting point. Some sororities will have scholarships for their members, but this is definitely something you should look into. Joining a sorority or greek life in general is a heavy time commitment, and you should ask yourself that would it be worth it to you for the investment in time and/or money if you can’t put your full time into it because it is more intensive than your average club. Also there are other ways to get involved socially and with philanthropy if that’s what you are interested in. Start with the funds inquiry and then go from there. What many of my friends have done is hold off until rushing until after first semester freshman year to get their footing, and then do recruitment and stuff later.
This really depends on the school and chapter. Large state school Greek life is much different than smaller private school Greek life. Personally I know a lot of sorority members that are pre med and have great grades. It’s all about time management and understanding when to not attend an event to study or do school work. Greek life is very expensive in most schools and can cost thousands of dollars a semester or quarter. Not paying means you will most likely be removed. There are also a lot of hidden costs too like going out on weekend trips and outside spending.
You need to look into the sorority requirements and see if you can do them with your premed classes and EMT. Often sororities have mandatory weekly meetings, mandatory rush functions and mandatory social commitments plus a ton of other social opportunities that will be competing for your time. The good news is a lot of sororities have study hours, study groups and also compete for scholarship recognition on campus. The latter making them want you to study and be successful in your classes. It can be done but it is a delicate balance when you have a demanding major and a part time job already