At the college I’m currently attending it’s a big D1 school and is all about greek life, so last fall I thought I would rush. But, it was a lot I ended up getting into a sorority that I didn’t like so I decided to drop. I’m transferring next fall to a much smaller D3 school and I’m thinking about rushing again but I don’t if I should do it. At the school I am transferring to I have a sibling who will be senior and he is in frat and I don’t know if that will help me get into a sorority being his sister because he is pretty popular there. I know rushing at a smaller school will be nothing like how crazy it was at the school I’m currently attending, and I do sometimes regret dropping my old sorority. Because it is a great way to meet your forever friends… I just don’t know what to do hahaha
Personally, I would not base my life around what frat or sorority i belonged to. Just a different perspective.
are you in college to learn? Or are you in college to party?
Maybe it’s possible to find “forever friends” outside of a frat or sorority. Just maybe . . . . the vast majority of people on the planet find their friends that way.
Okay thanks for your different perspective!
It really depends on why you want to be in a Sorority and what you are wanting to get out of the experience. You can be in a sorority and learn and you can also not be in a sorority and party. I don’t associate Greek life as an either or situation.
I went to a school of around 12k students and I was Greek. For me, it was a great experience and I actually feel I achieved better grades because of it. I wasn’t the best student but in order to join and stay active I had to maintain a certain GPA. We as pledges had to attend study halls and in classes that I struggled, there was always someone else who was either in the class or had taken the class that could help me. Being Greek helped me develop better discipline with my study habits and how to better manage my time.
I still have close friends from my fraternity and I also have friends who were not part of the Greek life so you can make long lasting friends either way if you try.
For me, being and out of state student being part of the Greek system helped me greatly. I also enjoyed all the extra stuff that came with Greek life. I had many volunteer opportunities that I wouldn’t have had without being Greek. Yes, we had more of a social life as well and for me that was important but in my fraternity if you didn’t have a high enough GPA, you couldn’t attend the parties. So again, that was an extra incentive for me to study and do the work.
I also was given leadership opportunities that I wouldn’t have had otherwise. These positions helped me greatly in my leadership development and those experiences are ones that I have been able to use throughout my working career.
Not every school and Greek system is the same so you do have to be aware of that aspect. Every situation is different and everyone is looking for something slightly different but for me, being Greek made my college experience a lot better but part of that is also what my school was like.
Were you initiated into the sorority or did you drop before then? If initiated, is there a chapter of your same sorority at your new school. If so, you might be able to transfer in and avoid rush. The sorority experience at a small school is very different than at a huge university. I was in a sorority at a division 3 school. Rush was a lot more relaxed and happened after mid term break rather than at the start of the year. I had friends that were in different sororities and that were independents, but we all lived in the dorms. The houses were just for meetings. Sophomores and transfers occasionally rushed and were admitted. Do the students live in sorority houses or in the dorms at your new school? At a smaller school you know the people better from classes, the dorms, etc. before you make a decision about which chapter to join. Your older brother can give you the scoop on all of the groups and may have friends in the groups that you can meet before rush. Look at the common data set to see what percentage of the students are involved in Greek life.It is a bigger thing at some schools than at others.
@Houston1021 I was not initiated into the sorority before I dropped and the new school I’m going doesn’t have sorority houses. My older brother knows many of the girls that are in sororities and they are all super nice when I come and visit him! One thing they do though is they rush at the beginning of they year rather than 2nd semester which has its perks and downfalls. But thanks for your experience rushing and tips(:
If you like the idea of being in a sorority and if you find a sorority with women you want to spend time with then it can be a good thing. As a transfer it can be hard to find your group as many friendships are formed freshman year and joining a well matched sorority could help in that regard. Again, just be sure (or as sure as you can be) the sorority is a good fit before pursuing it.
Being in a sorority can be a great way to meet forever friends, as you are all going through an experience together and share values, a culture, traditions, etc. However, a sorority is a group of women…and just like any group of women/people, there are likely to be some you like and some you don’t. I know several people who have joined sororities only to realize they don’t really like their sisters that much, or that they don’t have much in common with them, and would rather hang out with other people (independents, people from other orgs, whatever). Some people also find that while they like some things about Greek life they really don’t like others, and that makes them less active.
The question to ask yourself is - do you like most of what Greek life entails? There are many ways to make friends on campus. A small fraction of those people may become forever friends, but most of them - even most of your sisters - won’t. People make different friends in different stages of life, and having more than a small handful of friends that are your friends forever is actually relatively uncommon, less common than popular media makes it seem like. But that’s okay - you make friends on the basis of stages in your life, where you live, etc.
Greek life IS a great way to make friends, but when considering whether to rush again, think about it bigger-picture than that. Do you want to participate in most of the events, including the philanthropy, the parties, the socials, the traditions? Do you want to pay the chapter fees? Do you want the mandatory studying and such? It might be worth it to chat with your brother about whether your intended school has COB and think about whether you can spend at least a semester on campus scoping out the scene before you decide to rush. If they don’t have COB and you have to join first semester, then ask him to connect you to a sorority member (which house doesn’t really matter, although I suppose if you have your eye on a certain one that could help) who you could ask questions about the sorority life there.
Which school are you at now? Also where are you planning to transfer to?