Sororities at Dartmouth

Colleges and Universities A-Z Dartmouth College
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<p>Yes. And names will be changed to protect the not-so-innocent. Suppose there’s a party at a fraternity. We’ll call this fraternity Shmeorot. Also suppose most if not all of the brothers of this particular fraternity play a sport, which we’ll call shmice hockey. Now, suppose that girls who want to go to this fraternity’s party are only going because they want to meet all the totally sweet shmice hockey players of this particular fraternity, because they are totally sweet, they are buff and studly, and the girls will get good facetime by hanging out with them. Now if you’re not a brother or shmice hockey player or friend thereof, and you’re not a girl, what are you going to do at this party? You’re really not going to be interesting to anyone at this party, and that’ll make for a boring party. I wouldn’t want anyone to think that I’m picking on Shmeorot so I should add that the same applies to other totally sweet fraternities such as Shmalpha Delta, ShmiDX, and Shmeta Delt. Of course, if you’re in a fraternity yourself you could go hang out at your fraternity, but if the administration helpfully shuts down your fraternity due to a vindictive, eight year old grudge, you’re kinda screwed.</p>

<p>Now, admittedly, this is an example from a guy’s point of view, and johnleemk’s point that the sorority situation is a bit different is well taken, but nevertheless there are similarities. The bottom line is that various factors are going to determine which sororities you have a shot at, and what sorority you’re in is going to determine things like what fraternities you’ll have tails with, etc.</p>

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<p>Does facetime really matter to the majority of Dartmouth students?? I mean, I’ve heard about the whole FoCo “runway” deal, etc., but is the social scene really like that? Do people care a whole lot about who you sit with or how much you go out? It seems kind of high schoolish in that respect if that’s the case.</p>

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<p>Facetime is a pretty big deal.</p>

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<p>Wow. Sounds pretty shallow and high-schoolish. Glad I found out now…</p>

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<p>Just be sure to get heavily involved in an activity that people actually care about and you’ll be fine. Join the D or something (seriously enough that you’ll have a chance at a position as an editor). DREAM’s another good one, I think. The trick is just knowing which extracurriculars have their own fully developed social circles and which just meet for half an hour on a semi-regular basis.</p>

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<p>Now that’s intelligent advice. How’s the comedy scene? Is there a respected improv troupe? How about the many a cappella groups?</p>

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<p>Actually, I forgot about those but yes. A cappella and the Dog Day Players (improv) are pretty big, both in terms of popularity and as a way of making friends. Some of the a cappella groups are actually legitimately pretty good and enjoyable to listen to. I personally don’t think Dog Day Players are funny in the slightest, but people seem to like them. Note, however, that you obviously need a decent amount of singing/comedic talent and training to make those kinds of organizations. They have pretty intense auditions.</p>

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Nah, it’s not really like high school. It’s true that people at Dartmouth are probably on average more superficial than people elsewhere, though that’s primarily a function of the rural nature of the school, I think. But even so, it’s nowhere as superficial or judgmental as high school usually is (some subcultures are high schoolish, but I have to say I think Xanatos is exaggerating somewhat – I don’t hang out at most of the frats he mentioned, so I probably have a slightly different experience than him). Though I’m aware of the existence of facetime and the Foco runway, it’s not something I’ve ever paid attention to. As long as you find a social niche, you won’t be unhappy at Dartmouth.</p>

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<p>The one thing that never ceases to amaze me is how I can go to this relatively small school with someone else and have a completely different experience.</p>

<p>Xanatos makes it sound like there are only 3 or 4 fraternities worth hanging out at, and that everybody in this school is like some of those who hang out there.</p>

<p>First of all, I know many legitimately nice people at Heroet and AD, and I’ve never actually been to GDX or ThetaDelt. (they don’t throw big parties as often)</p>

<p>Second of all, there are many, many more people not in those houses and who don’t go to their parties at this school.</p>

<p>The key to the Dartmouth social scene is to find a few activities that relate to your interests, and then meet people there who will, big surprise, tend to have similar interests. </p>

<p>The only people I know here who struggle socially are those who only focus on their work and do nothing other than study. Then, they try and go out, and don’t know anybody. No true friendships/relationships can be formed over the loud music at dance parties. This is why you go out freshman year in groups of people you meet on your hall, DOC trips, through your extra-curriculars, and also through some of your smaller classes, like your freshman seminar. Also, many random friendships are made during pre-orientation, orientation, and freshman fall. After that, the only time you will meet large groups of new people are members of your fraternity, if you choose to lead a freshman trip/be a UGA, and then eventually if you are a member of a senior society.</p>

<p>In reality, there are so many obvious opportunities to meet new people, and all you have to be is friendly and outgoing to make great friendships.</p>

<p>P.S. I have never, ever judged someone based on how much ‘facetime’ they get. I still am still never sure if people are joking when they mention it. I would describe myself as someone who is extremely happy at Dartmouth, and has made many friends without needing to involve myself with any of these status-conscious students. I want to make it clear that Xanatos does not speak for all (or even very many) of us.</p>

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<p>One important (albeit scary-sounding thing) that I think all of us can agree on is that your social life hinges in large part on how your freshman fall turns out. You meet people sporadically after freshman fall, but the circle of people you hang out with is mostly determined by who you hang out with and what you do your freshman fall, because people fall into rhythmic patterns of socialization; I have a friend who’s found that he can’t make any friends in one of his classes because he’s unaffiliated and everyone else has a house. It’s not that the people are really status-conscious or that they only mix with those from their house; it’s just difficult to enter a social circle once it’s been established. You can still meet a lot of people after freshman fall but it’s much harder to build a strong circle of friends.</p>

<p>I know it sounds scary, but I (and actually a lot of the people I hang out with) are pretty socially awkward and we turned out all right after freshman fall, in spite of not being really conscious of this. As Dartmoose said, as long as you don’t lock yourself in your room and spend all your time on work, you’ll turn out all right. It’s pretty hard to fail socially at Dartmouth, but at the same time, it’s also pretty hard to really be a tremendous social success – to do that you’d probably have to adopt Xanatos’s approach, which is a pretty surefire way to guarantee you’ll have an extremely active social life.</p>

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<p>So do you join sororities in your sophomore year, and not the freshman year? And do you pay an extra fee to join? I have a minuscule amount of knowledge about frats and sororities, so sorry if this is a stupid question.</p>

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<p>If I’m correct, at Dartmouth you cannot join a frat/sorority as a freshman and have to wait until sophomore year.</p>

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<p>That’s right. You cannot go greek until sophomore year.</p>

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<p>johnleemk is right about the importance of freshman fall. I spent mine being really, really sick (and hanging out with my newly-acquired boyfriend, and, to make matters worse, living in a single on an uncommonly antisocial floor), and the extent to which that has limited my social life is pretty depressing. </p>

<p>That said, I’ve found making friends here to be fairly easy, but finding a cohesive group of people to spend time with can be hard (unless you’re on a team or in a house, or had a more successful freshman fall than I did).</p>

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<p>Do sororities/fraternities run the campus? Or do other student organizations have an equal say?</p>

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<p>What are you talking about?</p>

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<p>I think that I meant … do sororities kind of monopolize the social life? But I rescind my comment after reading the entire thread.</p>

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<p>[TheDartmouth.com</a> | Info session held about adding a new sorority](<a href=“http://thedartmouth.com/2009/04/08/news/sorority/]TheDartmouth.com”>http://thedartmouth.com/2009/04/08/news/sorority/)</p>

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<p>@ GrayAreaGirl…you’re an idiot studying to be a moron.</p>

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<p>I actually had a prospie ask me how one gets into Kappa. My semi-in-jest advice was, freshman year, that person should associate with a group that would likely be “dirty rushed” (i.e. basically pre-picked by the upperclassmen before the process even starts). Those groups tend to include pretty varsity athletes, and the NYC prep school set. Oh, and make sure you are pretty and wear nice clothes.</p>

<p>It sounds ridiculous, but as a girl, if you are not a varsity athlete, or don’t have upperclassmen girlfriends to pull for you, you go into the process blind. I had neither and only ended up invited back to one house. This was before the new sorority was added, though - maybe things are slightly different now. Luckily it was a house I was happy with, but rush can definitely be a nerve-wracking experience. I think Xanatos’ advice is really the best advice. Get INVOLVED in something people care about that meets regularly, so even if rush doesn’t work out you have a niche you are happy with. This is also a great way to befriend upperclassmen girls as a freshman. You have to forge your own experience at Dartmouth, because the campus is really it. Greek life does dominate, and I have never understood how one could argue that isn’t the case, but I think the key to happiness for a lot of people is finding something outside of it too.</p>