<p>I recall reading someplace that Dartmouth reports the percentage in frats based on calculations made in late September or early October so not only are all freshmen excluded but so are the sophomores because they have not yet joined any frats by that date. It would be more accurate to state that about 68% of “eligible” students join frats- double the number that they report.</p>
<p>momofrower is right, I believe. 50% is way too low.</p>
<p>That’s interesting, because almost all of the descriptions say that certain frats are associated with certain sports…so does that mean that males at D who are not on a varsity sports team or ultimate are regarded as losers and outcasts by almost everyone else?</p>
<p>Frankly, the descriptions of the frats make all but Sig Ep sound pretty obnoxious, and I’m beginning to wish S had chosen to go elsewhere. 
I hope it isn’t as much of a downer as everyone makes it sound.</p>
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<p>Let’s just say that you have a much better time if you are on a varsity sports team.</p>
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There aren’t any losers or outcasts at Dartmouth. The worst that can happen is that you’re benignly ignored. This isn’t high school. Xanatos can tell you more about how being on a team raises your social cachet, but not being on a team won’t lower it – it’ll just make it harder for you to stand out. Also note that this primarily applies if you’re the kind of person who rages at the Wheelock Street frats – you don’t need to be an athlete to chill on frat row.</p>
<p>This might be me being stuck in the Dartmouth bubble too long, but I don’t see what about most of the frats sounds so obnoxious. Compared to other schools, our frat scene is extremely benign and open, which I think is why so many people pledge.</p>
<p>the descriptions sound obnoxious-yuck.</p>
<p>Consolation,</p>
<p>I am the parent of a current frat president at Dartmouth. He is not a varsity athlete, and neither he nor his house is “pretty obnoxious”. The brothers have a great time together doing all sorts of activities: pong, soccer games, trips to Montreal, and holding events for local families at various holidays. And, I might add, my son has managed to keep a very respectable GPA while living at his house.</p>
<p>how much does he pay for dues? What is the cost?</p>
<p>I think people might be projecting their image of frats at other schools onto Dartmouth. There are a handful of frats known for their frattiness, but the majority of frats are decent places to hang out at. Most frats are open to any Dartmouth student – being closed is the exception. Looking at tycosaurus’s descriptions, the only frats I’d find potentially scary are those on Wheelock Street and maybe Chi Gam + GDX. I know brothers from almost all the frats, and they’re all good guys – it’s often the tools who have a hard time when they rush, because few (if any) houses want them. AD and Heorot are very ragey, it’s true, but that’s something you’re perfectly capable of avoiding.</p>
<p>Like most people, I have issues with the Greek scene at Dartmouth – I’m actually an unaffiliated upperclassman. But I think the Greek houses are getting an unnecessarily bad rep here. A lot of problems in the first place have nothing to do with the Greek system and everything to do with larger systemic issues (like Dartmouth being a small, rural college situated in a country with the deadly combination of a ridiculously high drinking age and bad cultural attitudes towards drinking).</p>
<p>b’smom,
DS pays for his own dues out of his summer earnings so I truly do not know what they run. I will text him and ask, but I know he’s studying for finals so I may not hear until tomorrow.</p>
<p>My S has not yet started at Dartmouth, so all I know is hearsay. But I know 3 recent male grads (09, 08, 05), all smart, personable, and none pledged a frat. All say that the influence of Greek life was not a negative for them at all, really a nonissue. They went to some parties, had friends in some houses, etc. but also had lots of other friends and activities. One was extremely active in DOC and ski patrol. Talking to these guys was part of the reason that my S chose Dart. They all loved being there and enthusiastically recommended it to him. Hoping my S feels the same way.</p>
<p>I agree that the fraternities at Dartmouth get an unjustified bad rap from outsiders, especially considering that the vast majority of actual Dartmouth students view the greek life in a positive light. For those interested, the frats at Dartmouth provide a varied and open social venue, and for those uninterested, it is, as mbsmom acknowledged a nonissue.</p>
<p>I can see how the frats at Dartmouth amy seem obnoxious to some, and I’m sure my particular house is at the top of that list, but it’d be a mistake to discount a house and especially an individual brother based solely on a loose characterization. The stereotypes do a decent job of characterizing the house at large from an outside perspective, but from personal experience I can say that getting to know brothers on an individual basis and joining a frat really changes your perception of the establishment.</p>
<p>As for sports, I don’t believe being an athlete or nonathlete is the big issue some make it out to be. I am a former serious club athlete and current nonathlete in one of the “jockiest” houses and don’t see it as a problem at all. Certainly sports teams are an immediate social network freshman year, and for some, constitute a large part of one’s social life but the social scene and greek houses specifically aren’t typically separated by those divisions. And other organizations and clubs are just as prominent and tight as sports teams on campus (as someone mentioned earlier, DOC and Ski Patrol are two great examples).</p>
<p>As for dues. I am in a local frat so I don’t pay national dues to any organization so can’t speak on that (though I don’t believe those costs to be paifully high, correct me if I am wrong). For us (and similarly for most frats) we pay between $100-200/term in house dues for brothers not living in the house, a little more for brothers living in (plus boarding costs of course). And then we pay social dues of about $350/term, though it varies on need…pledge term for most houses costs more in dues, for us it was $500. I believe these costs are about average for most frats.</p>
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<p>Thanks, runmanstl, for your reassurance. I knew guys at one fraternity at MIT (a national org) many years ago, and they were a nice bunch of people. So I would never assume a negative about a house as a whole or about individual brothers. But for some reason, almost every description of the various houses at D I’ve found seems to concentrate on negatives.Perhaps it is sardonic adolescent humor? :)</p>
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<p>Every fraternity/sorrority stereotype is ALWAYS over-exaggerated to the negative. For every house. The whole point of stereotyping is to get people upset over it.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, you have to remember that these students are all shades of one color (Dartmouth Green). Students don’t vary in personality type as much as you would think from the frattiest to the least fratty houses. There is also always a huge range of personalities within the brotherhoods. For this reason, I haven’t found very many fraternities to be very brotherly at all (which in my opinion is a shame). Quite a few of them have large divisions in friendships within the houses, or they are simply too large to act as a very cohesive group (such as SigEp).</p>