<p>Okay, so a quick greek system primer:</p>
<p>First and foremost: fraternities are for guys, sororities are for girls if that wasn't clear.</p>
<p>Second, and this is THE MOST important thing I can say out of this entire message. Greek life is entirely dependent on what school you go to What I'm trying to say is that every campus is different and what is "normal" and "tradition" at one school is completely strange and bizarre at another. It is entirely possible for you to fit every greek stereotype in the book at one school and be completely on the outside at another. </p>
<p>Brief History: These organizations started on college campuses in the east (Miami of Ohio and Union College being two schools that gave rise to many different organizations) mainly in the 1820's. Phi Beta Kappa was the first fraternity and was founded at William and Mary in 1776 and was the only society in existence for a long time. The 1820's and 30's saw a number arise but most were small and didn't have expansion as a main goal until Beta Theta Pi was founded at MiamiU in August 1839. </p>
<p>Throughout the rest of the 19th century more groups were formed, and these groups expanded to form new chapters at college campuses all over the country. The intent at the founding of most organizations can be summed up in the general idea of building close friendships, and making their members better people by dedicating them to great ideals. Common ideals throughout the Greek community include friendship, academic/intellectual achievement, truth, loyalty, mutual aid, honesty, service, and so on. These ideals were commonly written in Greek or were represented in full motto's in Greek which were then shortened to just the representative letters, providing the organizations with their "official" names. Keeping this ideals secret is a big part of greek life. Women's fraternities were started in the 1850's as more women went to college. Gamma Phi Beta was founded in 1870 something (1871?73?) and was the first to be officially called a sorority. The term sorority has since been used to described all organizations that are exclusively female.</p>
<p>As the system expanded, at some schools the chapters rented or purchased homes, eventually building their own close to campus. At many schools, especially in the South and the Great Plains, the campuses are dominated by huge mansions which serve as living quarters and central hub of activity for chapter members. At other schools, lack of space or unfriendly campus officials prevented the building of chapter houses, but many of these campuses set aside dorm space for chapters. (And for those about to bring it up, there is no such thing as a brothel law - that's an urban legend and you can go look at snopes.com to verify that it's not true). Of course as chapters got bigger and were living together, the original intent of the message from the founders got put on the backburner behind hijinks, parties, and drinking. After WWII as GI's returned back to school, many thought that fraternity life was going to disappear as many of the students were older and had matured a lot during the war. However fraternities actually ended up with larger numbers than ever before, and the hijinks reached new levels. The movie Animal House is based on the writer's experiences at Dartmouth in the early '60s. </p>
<p>During the late sixties, the culture on college campuses changed and the greek system was at odds with the counter-culture movements. Fraternities were seen as part of the system and for the most part shunned by many. Gradually in the 70's and 80's the popularity returned but the drunkeness and partying became almost the sole reason to join. After a numerous incidents the national organizations began to police their chapters better and started putting into place programs to really return the organizations to their roots as institutions to better young men and women, improving their leadership and character and potentiating their success. </p>
<p>These days, on many campuses Greeks are doing a lot of good - earning good grades, doing a lot of community service for their college town, getting involved on campus while still having a lot of fun. There are however many places where the attitude is to see who can drink away the most of their four years in college. This is getting back to the fact that everything depends on your college and the culture there.</p>
<p>Okay so that wasn't such a brief history, but I hit on a number of things in there. The overall idea though is that Greek life can be a great thing if you find the right group of people who share your values and goals. It can be a way to make your entire college experience enhanced - better grades, more service, greater campus involvement, more guys/girls, better friendships, crazier/cheaper parties, phenomenal memories. But again, the greek system has to fit you at the school you are attending. There are certainly other places where any or all of the things I mentioned are not true (better grades is probably the least common benefit of greek life - but the research says that joining a chapter with a high gpa will increase your own gpa).</p>
<p>So how do you join? </p>
<p>that process is called recruitment or more informally "rush". There are many different styles and formats for rush and again they vary from school to school. In general girls have a more formal recruitment sequence while guys tend to be more informal. Know that the basic idea is to introduce you, as a potential new member, to the members of the chapters on your campus. This is accomplished through "parties" where you get to learn about the things the chapter does, meet the members and generally get a feel for how you fit in with them. The chapter at the same time is deciding on whether or not you are someone worthy of representing them and someone they are going to enjoy being around. If they like you they will extend to you an offer of membership (called a bid) which you may then accept or decline. In general girls only get one bid at the end of their formal recruitment phase (b/c of the way the girls do recruitment, they all know who is bidding who), while guys can usually receive bids from more than one chapter.</p>
<p>Once you've accepted a bid to a chapter you become a "new member (NM)", or a "pledge", or an "associate" depending on the terms used by your chapters. Pledge is the traditional name of a student who has just joined a chapter and has yet to be initiated, but there are some who believe that calling people "pledge" is demeaning or hazing.</p>
<p>While a NM/Pledge, you'll spend a set period of time learning the history, lore, and traditions of the organization you joined. For girls this is usually 6-8 weeks though some chapters/organizations go longer. For most guys it'll probably be about a semester in length. You are basically trying to learn about your organization as well as prove that you desire to become a full member who knows all the secrets and meanings of the organization. Remember I said that secrecy is a big part of greek life (except for a few non-secret organizations that do exist like Delta Upsilon), and so chapters aren't just going to tell you everything if they don't think you have earned it or they can't trust you.</p>
<p>After proving yourself, there are usually some impressive ceremonies/rituals that you will experience which will enlighten you to the meanings of the organization's name and symbols and you will likely take an oath to abide and live by the symbols, keep them a secret, and do what is necessary to promote the welfare of the organization and its members - always seeking to bring the organization to good light with your actions. After that you're a full member and you get to reap the benefits of having close friends and great guiding principles...</p>
<p>For me, initiation was an emotional experience and the principles of my organization are very important to me. It's not so much that they were some sort of magical set of ideals, but that they put a lot of what I valued but probably couldn't have explained into elegant words that I could remember and live by and shoot for every day.</p>
<p>As for what do you do with Greek life later on - maintain the friendships, support other members and enjoy social gatherings and service projects. It is a life long commitment and I know that my fraternity and my chapter are going to be do organizations that I will make frequent charitable donations to in the future. </p>
<p>Now you don't have to join greek life if you don't want to. you can even go through the whole recruitment process and at the end decide it's not for you. That's certainly acceptable and most greeks are very open about the fact that it may not be the right decision for everyone. It happened to be a great decision for me, one of the best I've ever made, but I know that there are plenty of people who wouldn't fit in my chapter or any chapter, and there's nothing wrong with that.</p>
<p>Most chapters will accept international students, though if you are just studying abroad and will be returning to your home country in a semester or a year, it's unlikely to happen, since you won't be there to make the most of the experience. Chapters want members who will be there for a while and will benefit the chapter for a couple of years.</p>
<p>As for dorms - that's dependent on the school and the chapter. Like I said some universities have very visible greek systems b/c there are all these huge houses around. Others the universities assign dorm wings to members so they can enjoy the cohabitation element. And lastly at others there are no living arrangements made by affiliation. At most places freshmen do not live in the chapters, though there are a few where the new members live in the houses (my alma mater is one).</p>
<p>Let me know if you have any other questions.</p>