<p>I was looking through the (understandably, slightly older) edition of "The Princeton Reviews" Best 71 Colleges" book and was shocked to see that a whopping 49% of guys live in FRATS at MIT.</p>
<p>I don't quite "get this". I mean, even some of the most "party hard" schools I know barely have 30% of the students in fraternities. Are the fraternities at MIT similar to the ones at say Penn State, U of P, or Lehigh? </p>
<p>Are these the typical "drinking is a main or large focus" frats or are these more "interest based"? Like - not to stereotype, but is there like a "math frat", or an "Asian or Jewish or other ethnic or religious group" frat, or a "jock frat"? Or are the frats more like the dorms at most schools that just have a wide variety of people join each one? (Do 50% of the students at MIT undergo traditional HAZING?!) </p>
<p>WHY do so many upperclassmen join frats at MIT? Is it due to the lack of residential and dining options? Are students simply NOT guaranteed on-campus housing for all 4 years if they want it? Please educate me!!</p>
<p>Lastly, what percent of the 27 or so frats OFF campus? Are ANY on campus?</p>
<p>“Are the fraternities at MIT similar to the ones at say Penn State”? lol. As someone who has gone to both Penn State and MIT…no. The answer is no. You need to study quite a bit to survive at MIT, regardless of how you spend your free time.</p>
<p>MIT does guarantee housing for all four years. There are dorms without dining plans if you don’t like MIT’s dining options.</p>
<p>Mmm… thanks, but for a school in which so many students are “studious”, how does one explain why approximately HALF the male student body gravitates towards “Greek Life”?</p>
<p>Housing is a very important choice at MIT, and it’s not limited to fraternities. Freshmen choose the dorm they live in, and each dorm has a unique social environment, so even dorm life can be said to be somewhat more like fraternity life elsewhere – you choose where you live, and with whom you live at MIT. </p>
<p>The fraternities at MIT are pretty diverse, and they attract a diverse set of guys. They are not only social clubs for getting wasted.</p>
<p>There are a few fraternities on campus, but most have houses in the Back Bay area of Boston. It’s a walkable distance, and certainly bikeable, and MIT runs shuttles all day and at night in addition to the Boston public transportation options that are available.</p>
<p>As far as hazing goes, most fraternities are pretty careful – Massachusetts state law prohibits hazing in any form. The fraternities are governed by the Inter-Fraternity Council, a student government group that doesn’t hesitate to expel a member fraternity if they’re endangering the charters of the rest.</p>
<p>Incidentally, it’s not that “upperclassmen” join fraternities at MIT. Fraternity rush is held in the fall, and most guys join as freshmen, although they’re not allowed to live in the houses until sophomore year.</p>
<p>MIT is not like most colleges, and MIT fraternities are not like most fraternities. Maybe you should consider what you do and don’t know about a population before making assumptions.</p>
<p>I’d answer your question, but I think everyone else has it covered.</p>
<p>In my time at MIT we sometimes used to refer to the fraternities as “living groups”. Part of the reason for the terminology was that there were also non-fraternity “living groups”.</p>
<p>As stated before, MIT fraternities are not your stereotypical fraternities. In the house I lived in, we would try to help someone if they were falling behind in their studies. After all, a fraternity is supposed to be looking out for one another. </p>
<p>It was also interesting to note that we had several dorm people that would come over to our huose to join in on some of our house study groups (and also vice versa).</p>
<p>Having said all that, we also had our share of house parties.</p>
<p>I think it’s a good question. My son’s a freshman at MIT and he has freshman friends who are rushing. It seems to be very stressful on them to add it on top of all the other pressures. I can’t help but wonder if there’s subtle pressure to join fraternities and sororities.</p>
<p>If the most stressful thing that happens to your child during his time at MIT is that he makes new friends and can’t decide where he wants to live, he will have gotten off quite easily indeed.</p>
<p>Seriously, we don’t just sit around twiddling our thumbs. MIT is extremely difficult, and there certainly isn’t time for Animal House-style antics every day of the week. And if there’s subtle pressure to join Greek life…well, you did teach your child to say “no” when someone was pressuring him to do something that he didn’t want to do, didn’t you?</p>
<p>This post will likely not win me many friends, but hopefully, you can’t fault me for stating my opinion - so here it goes. </p>
<p>“MIT is not like most colleges, and MIT fraternities are not like most fraternities.” – I find it hard to believe that MIT frats DON’T HAZE AT ALL (regardless of any local or state or fraternal ordinances) - in fact, I believe another poster on CC stated that only ONE frat did NOT haze.</p>
<p>I also didn’t mean to imply that all fraternity members are not studious - if half of all male students at M.I.T. are in frats, of COURSE many must be studious - I just am surprised because large greek life at schools TYPICALLY implies a certain social tendency (one to form cliques, follow the crowd often-times, and yes, drink) - and you can argue that point all you want (though I won’t argue back – but being “forced to attend a Thursday Pub night”, for example, when one would prefer to study for an upcoming test, or else risk the backlash/wrath of fellow members, not to mention potentially breaking “house rules” does NOT lend itself to being Independent minded, but rather to a harsh conformity in my own personal opinion! Clearly, many people thrive, possibly even grow, in such an environment; I simply didn’t associate it with M.I.T. </p>
<p>I thought students at M.I.T. were much more independent minded, LESS likely to drink, … etc. Clearly, my own perceptions of the student body are off —</p>
<p>And if they are wrong, then CLEARLY this is the positive side of posting and learning from posts on sites like this one.</p>
<p>A big part of why so many freshmen join frats is because there is such a large percentage of guys in frats that it seems like (or is marketed as) if you don’t join one you are antisocial. Also, it is marketed by the school and the frats as being important or perceived as important for business and medicine–that is, to prove one’s social ability. Thirdly, freshmen start pledging before they have a chance to make friends. The reason why they resisted moving rush to the second year is that people would become established and then be less likely to join a fraternity. And then the school would have a housing problem.</p>
<p>Frats have a certain amount of groupthink (and the individual ones can vary in that regard.) I agree it seems It doesn’t mean that everyone takes the value system seriously who is one, and certainly doesn’t mean that was what they were like in high school. To be fair, a recent (early 90’s) MIT undergrad alum just won the Nobel Prize in physics, and he thought his frat was helpful to his studies. That wasn’t my experience that the culture there fostered intellectual growth, and no one I met really felt that way either. There is sort of a paranoia about not wanting to seem like a nerd, and that breeds some anti-intellectual tendencies.</p>
<p>Collegealum314 - thank you for your very thoughtful, and CLEARLY very HONEST opinion based on your own personal experiences. I find it interesting as it sounds exactly counter to the reasons why a certain “Ivy League School” has banned any potential rushing until, I believe, Sophomore year. Very different views/cultures - which is exactly the type of information I am seeking - so thanks!!</p>
<p>I think you have to understand what “work hard/party hard” really means. Or, can mean, depending on the academic standards of a school and peer goals. Others can give their opinions or experiences, but including “party hard” in the phrase does not mean partying takes over or overwhelms the average student’s experiences. </p>
<p>For my D, at a whph school, weeks are spent highly focused on academics, (incl evening classes.) She parties on Friday nights, studies on Sat, parties at night and- as she put it, after breakfast on Sunday, it’s back to work. If there’s work to be done, she’ll forego the weekend party scene. My other D is just as likely to spend a weekend night in the library. Both have friends and fun. Both are growing from the experience. There was a time when D2 stumbled, but it had nothing to do with the social scene- it was about a relationship- the sort of issue that could have happened anywhere, even at home.</p>
<p>In general, groupthink is a risk in all sorts of activities.</p>
<p>I’d ask for some citations before you swallow everything collegealum has to say - that sounds like an awful lot of hypothesizing with no actual facts to me.</p>
<p>But what do I know, I just graduated in June and had lots of friends in fraternities, sororities, and the dorms…including a few who deaffiliated.</p>
MIT students are plenty independent-minded, no doubt about that. </p>
<p>In general, MIT students are less likely to binge-drink, or to otherwise drink dangerously, than students at other schools. Many MIT students do not drink at all. (There are statistics on this, but I can’t find anything official that’s not quite old. But everything I’ve ever seen is consistent on this point.) But even if MIT students drink less than students at other schools, they still drink. </p>
<p>
No, he stated that only one frat does not have a pledging process. </p>
<p>Just look at the recent history – a handful of fraternities have been banned from campus for violating IFC/MIT policies. </p>
<p>I can’t really speak to the culture at fraternities in general, as my social life was centered around my dorm, and I didn’t spend any significant time at fraternities. But my male friends who pledged certainly seemed to be academically successful and happy with the friendships they had made within their living groups – I didn’t feel they were making different decisions with respect to alcohol/partying than they would have made if they had lived anywhere else.</p>
<p>We were all awkward in some way, nerdy in some way, and cared deeply about our studies. We were mellow. We didn’t have hazing, even back 30 years ago. Some people drank a lot, some people didn’t drink at all. No big deal. We were black, white, Asian, hispanic, Middle eastern, African, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, No big deal. Some people were ROTC, some people went to demonstrations for just about every cause. We were all brothers. Without my fraternity, most of my friends freshman year would have been freshman. MIT is hard. It was nice to have friends who were role models. They provided evidence that MIT was survivable. It helped me believe that I could succeed. Some of my brothers are still my close friends. </p>
<p>I attended a national fraternity conference. It’s clear to me MIT frats are different. At least mine was. There is a wide variety of mellowness to MIT frats. I would be careful about writing them all off.</p>
<p>My freshman son just pledged at a fraternity, though at the outset, it is not something we ever thought he would be interested in. But I heard from many other MIT parents who assured me that fraternities at MIT are indeed different than the stereotype, and that with the heavy workloads on students, are a source of academic support and a family away from home. It’s not for everyone, but as my son told me, he met a group of guys that he enjoyed being around, and a ready made study groups too. In addition, every week, they provide a living skills session for the incoming pledges (like repairing a car), and the older members of the fraternity have already provided him with all his books and lots of advice on classes etc. My son definitely is not a party type – all the students have worked VERY hard to get into MIT, and their character doesn’t change upon joining a fraternity. And there has definitely been no hazing. Instead, rush consisted of fun activities like jet skiing, paint balling, boat cruises on the Charles, and lobster/steak dinners. I’m glad he’s found a social outlet, but with 50% not joining fraternities, there is something for everyone!</p>
<p>My d is a freshman, and she went to the sorority recruitment kick-off this semester to check it out. She deemed it “super lame” and didn’t pursue it, but several of her friends went through recruitment and got bids. If she felt pressure one way or another it didn’t seem to bother her. That’s always been her personality, though.</p>
<p>hsmom2013, of course it’s fine for you to have opinions and solicit input, but I’m noticing you seem to give more weight to those things being shared that reinforce your already formed impressions. Your statement, “I thought students at M.I.T. were much more independent minded, LESS likely to drink, … etc.” assumes that drinking and joining a frat makes one a victim of groupthink. Maybe your anti-Greek bias is a type of groupthink? BTW, I have a strong anti-Greek bias, too, and am so relieved my d didn’t want to join, though I didn’t tell her that. I recognize it as a bias, not as the correct way of viewing the world. </p>
<p>When we visited for the first time we saw some frat boys with matching t-shirts reading, “Overworked and Under****ed” (the starred out word starts with an F), and if that is horrifying to you keep looking for another school. Those shirts struck me as uncreative and silly, something that made me roll my eyes. MIT is full of normal adolescents with abnormal academic ability/achievement. That’s what I wanted for my d, not a repository of nerd stereotypes. She and the friends she’s made so far all embrace their nerd status, so she hasn’t met the type of people with the nerd paranoia collegealum knew, but they don’t feel they have to live up to any nerd stereotype.</p>