Are/Were you Greek?
 

How many Greeks do we have on here? I'm a member of Triangle Fraternity, University of Louisville chapter.

Anyone else out there Greek?

I intentionally went to a school that's only 4% greek (now it's 7% but ithat's still quite low), so, no, I'm not greek at all ;)

I never went to college long enough.

I was a little brother at a sorority. It cost only 1/10 the amount of cash and about 1/5 the amount of time and the ratio was much better at the mixers. We were always outnumbered by the women.

Kappa Alpha Society. Any other Kaps out there?

Yes, I was. Sort of...

My school (before abolishing them all after my graduation) had what we referred to as "coed fraternities".

Most of the houses were affiliated with an all-male national that looked the other way and allowed everyone to do what they wanted on a local level, but refused to recognize female members. Most of the houses were roughly 50-50 and very equal. For us, it worked amazingly well. You wound up with extremely close friends of both sex and dating was actually much easier......quite a few of the couples got married from our house.

I suspect that it was different than most greek experiences and certainly better/worse in many areas, depending on your point of view, but I really enjoyed it.

Re: Are/Were you Greek?
 

No I'm not greek but my apartment complex lives right across from Frat row so it gets damn hard to study sometimes. btw, I'm not sure what Triangle Fraternity is but Delta Delta Delta is the slut sorority here on campus (and nationally, so I hear)

I was never into the whole sorority thing. Bah.

Um, the closest I get is that I'm a member of a co-ed service fraternity called Alpha Phi Omega (APO).

According to our by-laws we are not to classify ourselves as "Greek", be a "social fraternity", or have a house.

We do community service, fellowships, and give members opportunities to develop their leadership abilities. Yay for APO!

Had lots of friends that were...I'm not.

Nope.....I was a GDI all through school

Sigma Nu, Delta Alpha chapter, member 1003

Sigma Nu, Beta Upsilon 1426

Hey Snowy!

Another Alpha Phi Omega here!

not in one... wont ever be...
my experience is that a lot of those people are assholes to those that arnt also greek...

I don't think my school even has any fraternities, so that would be a no. Even if they did I'm not the type of person that goes for that kind of stuff.

I had no desire to be in a fraternity when I was in college, but I had a lot of friends that were Greek. Tri-Delts were notorious for being sluts on our campus too.

Are you greek?
 

This thread was spurred by another one asking about my greatest accomplishment. For me, it was my initiation into Pi Kappa Phi, which made me wonder how many other members here are in fraternities and which ones. I wouldn't mind having a brother or two here.

Duplicate thread

http://tfproject.org/tfp/showthread....&threadid=1439

not anymore ;)

...the magic power of the mod strikes again! ... and she rides off into the sunset!

btw: GDI and proud of it. :)

thanks cheerios- i think I joined after the thread disappeared off the bottom. either way- good modding

GDI all the way, here, too.

I grew up in a college town. When I was a junior in high school, I attended a Spring Fling at the TKE house and found a blackjack game going in the basement. I cleaned them out. Afterward, while walking home, they jumped me, beat the shit out of me, took the money I'd won, and also took the money I came with.

It became my mission in college to fuck with the Greeks as much as possible whenever possible, and I was good at it.

no worries limited. :) just doin' my job.

the fairy godmod tips her hat and rides off to the sunset. she then hangs a left, or is it a right? at Albuquerque.

(damn it warrreagl, that av of yours is makin' me goofy!)

I'm going to bite my tongue on this one... No, I was not Greek. Maybe I just had a knack for ending up with the bad group members in class group projects. (NOTE: if at all possible, get ROTC people. They rock.)

However, I do have to say that my experience with good co-workers after my college years improved my opinions of Greeks somewhat.

" I attended a Spring Fling at the TKE house and found a blackjack game going in the basement. I cleaned them out. Afterward, while walking home, they jumped me, beat the shit out of me, took the money I'd won, and also took the money I came with.

It became my mission in college to fuck with the Greeks as much as possible whenever possible, and I was good at it."

as a former fraternity member, I have to say that NO fraternity condones such behavior. what you have to realize, warrreagl is that you were attacked by some assholes who were PO'd that a junior high school kid was able to take their money. it has nothing to do with the Greek system. you made a very broad generalization about a group of people based on your experience with a very few of those people. thats a lot like racism, wouldnt you say?

generalizations such as this are the work of lazy minds, IMHO, whether its racism, sexism, classism, or any other kind of -ism.

Eh, never really appealed to me. Transferring to a small lib arts college in the fall, no Greek life, and it doesn't upset me at all. Doesn't seem like there's much of a point unless you're into the wild parties...

officially anyway. what about hazing? you're not gonna tell me THAT doesn't go on, right? I'd have to say that forcing a pledge to stay up for 4 days straight so that he passed out in class and was eventually roused by paramedics is somewhat... cruel.

and here is where I disagree with you. the greek system encourages the group mentality that enables a group of guys who just got beat by a pre-teen to think it's okay to beat the snot out of him. all for one and one for all, but what if the priorities and ideals of the all aren't "right"?

You're most welcome to your humble opinion, and I hope you don't mind me expressing mine. i'd like to say that I've had good experiences with frat members, but by an large that hasn't been true. For the most part, frats at my college, today, are for groups of men to get together for the sake of getting drunk, laid, and cheating their way through school. This may or may not be the experience you have had, and i"m not calling you drunk, sex-starved, or a cheater. just relating experiences, much like warrreagl up there.

also, on racism: that would be hating a person simply because they belong to a group. what you're thinking of is gross generalizations, and that is something we may both be guilty of, but once bitten twice shy. I don't blame him for disliking a group of guys who were anything but kind.

note: if this doesn't make sense, it's 'cuz it's bed time. night all :)

i agree with cheerios, even if she's talkin in her sleep

can someone explain what this thread is about? what are these fraternities you talk about? ive seen them mentioned in movies and on american tv shows.. but what the hell are they?

call me the dumbass aussie if you must. :D

Hey, Pismo Beach, and all the clams we can eat!

No. I grew up in a university town, and dealt with their two-faced thug-mentality crap all my life, so I got it about right.

Every stray pit bulldog out there isn't going to eat my face off, either. But I'll continue to freely make the broad generalization that they might.

I was conceived during my parents' honeymoon in Greece. So, yeah. I'm kind of Greek.

Ah. Sororities? Nope, but I was a member of my Uni's dart club. We had three members, one was the pub's bartender.

Nope. GDI all through college.

I use to rag on greeks alot, until I realized that some of the stuff I went through in Boy Scouts was similar to some of the things I hated in greek life.

Now I'm better about it. Still wouldn't have been for me in college though.

Not me. At the Georgia Tech, they're everywhere, and I can't stand the majority of them. I do have friends in frats, but they were friends of mine before they joined.

As for fraternities in general, They've never really liked me, and I've never really liked them. Some of the people are nice, some of the houses are nice, but as a whole, it's just not for me.

I have avoided them.. Don't care to be a member, don't like the average intelligence I see in most of the frats on campus (at least the ones that aren't more specific.. i have several friends in the music frat)...

this isn't meant to bash the intelligence of the frats, but just in my expierence they seem to only goto school to party.. They major in something easy.. complain when things aren't handed to them and don't even try to learn anything in any class...

i noticed a couple of people talking about Delta Delta Delta.. well, they are known for being sluts on our campus as well... "Tri-delt, everyone else has!" and "Fly the friendly thighs of Delta Delta Delta." there are several more ;) they always cause me to chuckle..

i am a bit disappointed this last year though.. didnt meet a single Tri-delt I liked this year.. up until now, every year I would meet one really cool tri-delt.... ahh well, maybe I will meet two next year.

i was in alpha sigma phi. it was great for about 2 1/2 years, or at least some of that time. it had restarted after being shut down about a year before i got there, so i was only the 24th or so person to join after the restart. lots of good guys, no hazing, cheap costs, lots of friendship. but as we got bigger over the next couple years, more and more "frat boys" we're brought in, and then they'd have thier friends with the "frat" mentality join, etc, and i finally quit cause it had gone so downhill. was a fun couple years though.

cheerios: "officially anyway. what about hazing? you're not gonna tell me THAT doesn't go on, right?"

no, I'm not going to try to sell you that. It does go on. but again, we are talking about individual houses and the people therein. on the national (official) level, no fraternity out there condones hazing or any other sort of cruel or violent behavior. that is NOT what the fraternity experience it about.

"the greek system encourages the group mentality that enables a group of guys who just got beat by a pre-teen to think it's okay to beat the snot out of him."

NO, it does not. the greek system does not encourage violence of any kind. now, you could accurately say that the greek system does encourage a group mentality ("all for one and one for all") BUT, and this is a big but, so does EVERY organized group of humans every assembled, whether it be the Boy Scouts, the National Organization of Women, the FBI, the CIA, the KKK, any political party, any church and/or religious denomination, any national patriotic group (such as the Daughters of the American Republic), TFP, sewing club, etc, etc, ad infinitum, ad nauseum. and of all these groups, only a very miniscule portion (about, oh...say 0.00001 percent) of them have ever advocated illegal and/of violent behavior. Again, the point is this: at the lowest (ie local/individual) level of any organized group, you can, and frequently will, have members who violate the rules of their group by violating the rules of society. BUT, this does not mean that the entire group is at fault for the behavior of individual members. Consider this analogy: there are bad/evil/crooked cops on police forces all across the world. Does that mean that the entire concept of policing is suspect? Does that mean that EVERY cop is corrupt? Or that the idea of organized police forces is wrong?

"You're most welcome to your humble opinion, and I hope you don't mind me expressing mine."

of course I dont. hell, thats what I like about the TFP. we can freely exchange ideas, thoughts and opinions without rancor (at least in theory. And my experience has been that the TFP ideal works very well. thanks, in a large part, to the work of the moderators.)

"i'd like to say that I've had good experiences with frat members, but by an large that hasn't been true."

again, it comes down to your personal experiences as NOT being representative of the whole. now, IF you could say that you met a majority of all fraternity members, in every fraternity across the entire country, who were active at the time you were in school, and as a result of that, you still felt the same, ONLY THEN could your personal experiences be considered statistically significant. but that didnt happen did it? your anecdotal experiences lead you to think that fraternities are bad. But anecdotal evidence is statistically irrelevant. it does NOT prove anything about the whole.



warrreagl:

"No. I grew up in a university town, and dealt with their two-faced thug-mentality crap all my life, so I got it about right.

Every stray pit bulldog out there isn't going to eat my face off, either. But I'll continue to freely make the broad generalization that they might."

as I pointed out above, eagl, your experiences with the greek system are statistically insignificant when discussing the greek system in toto. maybe that's the way all the fraternities in that town behaved, but that is NOT the way all fraternities across the world/country behave. as I see it, you are pigeon-holing every fraternity member to fit the image you have of them. just as a racist pigeon-holes every black person to fit the image that he/she has of blacks in general. and IMO, that is illogical and unsound thinking.



oblar:

"this isn't meant to bash the intelligence of the frats, but just in my expierence they seem to only goto school to party.. They major in something easy.. complain when things aren't handed to them and don't even try to learn anything in any class..."

this brings up an interesting question that I have for those who want to bash the greek system. just what, exactly, is your knowledge of them based on? for a lot of non-greeks, I'd bet that their experience of the greek system is limited to attending the parties that they frequently throw, and little else. But that is hardly a quantitatively significant portion of any greek's life, even in the hardest partying chapters that have ever existed. and while I freely admit that ANY party (greek or not) wherein large quantities of alcohol are dispensed, can result in behavior that does not fit the social norm, that does not mean that the party hosts are normally that way.


NOTE TO ALL: let me point out that I am NOT trying to convince anyone here to join a fraternity. NOR am I trying to defend anti-social behavior that sometimes is committed by members of fraternities. The biggest reason I got involved in this discussion is that I dont care for the type of gross/broad generalizations that I saw being exhibited here. This type of generalization is, IMHO, no different than racism, or sexism, or any other kind of prejudicial thinking. Instead of taking every person you might meet as an individual, you are pre-judging people based on your own conception (or misconception) of some group that a person might belong to. Is it any different to prejudge a fraternity member as being a "two-faced thug" than it is to prejudge a black person as a "dope smoking rapist"? I dont think so.

For any that might care, let me relate a bit about my fraternity experience. I went to Case Western Reserve University back in the mid-80s. The fraternity I joined was Sigma Nu. Now, on that campus, we were known as the "geek-greeks" or the "Sigma Nurds", among other epithets. Why is that? We'll, most of our members were non-athletic, highly intelligent, majoring in some science or another. My big brother (ie the one who sponsored my admission to the fraternity) was a computer science major, who later went on to become a very successful computer programmer. Another member was an artist studying art history. He later went on to paint many of the covers of our quarterly magazine. There were also a couple of English majors and other liberal arts students, but we were primarily a group of budding scientists. We were also probably the least drug and alcohol induced house on campus. BUT, we always threw great parties. We had theme parties mostly, which is what, IMO, made them stand out from the typical keggers that could be attended at other frats or at numerous off-campus apartment complexes on any given weekend.

I was never hazed. It is part of the Sigma Nu charter that hazing will NOT be tolerated. And in my days there, it was not. The closest thing to hazing I ever experienced was having to complete a pledge-class project over the course of a weekend. My pledge class made a new couch for the basement rec room. Took us half a day to decide on the design. Another half day to go buy the materials and slap it together. Some hazing.

So, I ask you, is my experience typical of the greek system? Perhaps moreso than that of the greek-bashers. But my personal experience of the greek life is no more statistically significant that any of theirs. My house had around 30 brothers while I was there. And I met a couple dozen others brothers, from other chapters or from earlier years at my chapter. Compared to the millions of fraternity members over the course of the last hundred-fifty years or so of American collegiate history, that is statistically insignificant. Just as any of your personal experiences are.

My advice to any of you who are in college: IF you happen to meet up with a group of people who you like and admire and they happen to be a fraternity or sorority, and you feel like joining them: go right ahead and do it. And if you DONT happen to every meet up with any greeks who you like and admire, then by all means DONT join a fraternity or sorority. But dont be led astray by those who think that their personal experiences with greeks are representative of the whole. Make your OWN decisions about people, based on the characteristics you see in each one as an individual.

sorry for ranting.

Holy Christ Sion your fingers must be tired. I dunno how to give a good rebuttal to such a huge response. i disagree with you on a lot of that. Saying that my opinion isn't statistically sound, for example, isn't quite true, but I just got out of that god damn stats class and really don't wanna go into it. I have nothing to say about greek systems of hte past, or greek systems at other school. i have met/spent time with/worked with, a significant number of greeks at my school, both male and female. And as a result, i have little or no respect for the society as a whole. It's purpose is to build brotherhood, but it creates elitism. It doesn't condone violence, but much violence is fostered under the roofs of it's houses. what individual members do reflects on the organizations as a whole. you seem to be saying that because the stated purposes and goals of being greek are noble, that the result is noble too, and that is not always true.

I didn't say the greek system encouraged violence. I said the greek system encourages arrogance and a kind of group-elitism. THESE are what seems to cause violence. "You're not cool unless you're greek. you will regret it the rest of your lives. you won't have REAL brotherhood, unless you join a frat. We'll be your family." sounds perilously close to a gang mentality to me.

And I'm not trying to come down on you, personally. I'm really not. And I'm not trying to come down on every frat brother past, present, and future, 'cuz there are good ones. But, as a whole, I'm a lot less inclined to trust a man who walks up to me wearing letters, than one who doesn't. Could just be a product of my life up till now. I didn't get along w/ the boys w/ the letterman jackets in high school either. could just be a localized phenomena at my school. But, I have to live in my environment, and use my own personal judgment. and if I blow off one frat boy who could have been a great friend, but save myself the miserable experience of being around 20 who would make my life miserable? I'm willing to take that hit.

Sion, there is a reason I said "in my expierence".. Let me clarify by what I meant by that.. Yes, I have been to parties thrown by frats, but that is not what I am judging them on. I based my judgement on the frat guys that were in my classes. Who stood in line with me, who were rude to others as they were waiting as well..

now I wish to say that this is a very biased view, but it is the view I hold. This is biased because who are the typical frat people? Are they the rude ones? Not always, it is just that the rude ones are the ones a person will notice.

Your frat sounds like a decent frat; one I would even enjoy being a part of, but at my college, and my only expierence with fraternities, there aren't any real cohesion for people of my major (Computer Engineering).. We work alone or in groups of 2. It is pretty pathetic.

I have a few friends who are part of a music frat. It actually seems like a decent one on campus, but the only exposure I have to it is through my friends, so again it is biased.

However, even after this last semester in my last liberal arts class, I had three frat guys sit in front of me during class.. They showed up to maybe 30% of the classes.. On top of that, when they did show up, they did not pay attention, were inconsiderate, and often times reeked of alcohol. Take into consideration this was an 11am class. This is the typical greek behavior among the majority of the frats on our campus (from what I have observed in all of my classes) and this is where my judgement comes from.

I am in no way saying all frats are horrible wastes of space, but I really don't like alot of the special considerations they are often given and how most of them do not even take it seriously.. (im not going to go into the special considerations other than they just built new frat houses on the tax payers money.. they didnt spend a dime and now live in mansions).

cheerios: "Saying that my opinion isn't statistically sound, for example, isn't quite true"

I dont believe I said your opinion wasnt statistically sound. Because that doesnt even make sense. An opinion is not susceptible to scientific, mathematical, statistical or logical analysis. An opinion merely is. However, I said, or at least I tried to say, that your experience of the greek system is not statistically significant. Your personal interactions with members of the greek collegiate life consititute way too small a sample of the total to be meaningful in making an sort of useful or realistic generalizations about the whole. And, to take it a step further, it is my contention that, regardless of the statistical validity of the sample (ie have you met a majority of all the members of a given set), that generalizations about groups of people en masse are useless, because no one person will ever exactly fit the model that even the most statistically accurate study could create. Every person is a unique individual unto him or herself. The "average greek" or "average American" or "average salesman" or "average" anything is pink unicorn with polka dot wings. That person doesnt exist. So, while those numbers may be useful for marketing purposes, for example, they are completely void of an utility in personal, one on one interaction.

Of course, thats just my opinion, I could be wrong.

i go to a 2 year techschool, so not frats/dorms or realy anything that resmbels a trypical collage the clossest thing to a frat that we have is the Fireman school

Delta Tau Delta, Delta Nu Chapter

At my college, the University owned the houses and each was identical. Therefore, you chose based upon the quality of the members. Our house had athletes and non-athletes, scholars and some who were less scholastically inclined.

I have a brother who is a cardiothoracic surgeon, quite a few who are attorneys, one who was the featured artist for the local PBS auction, one who is my son's pediatrician...and some who wandered off..never to be scene or heard from again. There were brothers I liked and some I didn't. We were in bands, theatre, sports, frisbee-golf, student government, etc...

Heck, I was accepted and I was a philosophy major...

Now, for me to now say that the fraternity system as a whole is good because of my experience is an untenable opinion. Unfortunately, those opining the other way are similarily stuck.

heh, bad wording sion, I apologize. I never seem to find this thread before 2 AM ;) If I had some way to quantify "good" and "bad" frat members, and if i could take a RANDOM sample of them, then probably the number of greeks I have met and interacted with would be a good number to analyze the population as a whole, is all I was trying to say. But since the first 2 premisses are impossible to fulfill, well, we're all just up shit creek, aren't we? ;)

To further hijack this thread... lets talk about generalizations of groups then. I understand that mass generalizations that generate hate and bigotry are bad. BUT, it's human nature to classify things into groups. It's a REAL handy defense mechanism. If you get sick eating fruit from a purple-leaved plant, and you avoid purple-leaved plants from then on, are you discriminating against the plants? are you not giving them their fair chance? yes, but you're also not vomiting your toenails up! If I said "all greeks are bastards who deserve to die and they should all be hung upside down and the skin flayed from their bodies" then I think you'd be legit in saying that i was being racist. Since I choose to simply avoid them in consideration for my well-being, I think I'm being unjustly pinned here. But, that's just my opinion.

...im an ALPHA PHI OMEGA member, its a greek lettered international service organization founded on the principle of scouting...

wow- a thread rises from the grave- so i'll add my .02

I too grew up in a uni town, and have had no good frat boy experiences- so though offered the chance, never went in for a frat. unfortunately i have seen many examples of bad stuff in person- in general, here, if someones getting underage chicks drunk and gangbanging em, its a frat, ditto for starting shit in bars and general mayhem- the university here has even considdered banning them after some deaths occured at frat parties a few years back- now , I am not saying that its the frats per say, but around here they tend to create a bad scene, and mindset, that seems to cause a heckuva lot of trouble- I am sure that not all of them are bad, and sure that some are quite good, but living here you just dont get to see the good stuff, and do see a lot of the bad-

[QUOTE=onesnowyowl]Um, the closest I get is that I'm a member of a co-ed service fraternity called Alpha Phi Omega (APO). QUOTE]

I am considering joining this organization also.

I wasn't greek. I guess people didn't like me enough to want me to be their brother :confused: Go figure.

A member of Sigma Phi Epsilon, California Delta. Proud to be greek, just because of all the positive things my fraternity does.

not for me, I don't like paying for my friends //me puts on his flak jacket

and talk about resurrecting a dead thread! almost 16 months since the last post!!

Sigma Tau Gamma, Epsilon Alpha chapter.

I must say it was a very integral part of my college experience. I went to a somewhat smallish liberal arts college and we were the only fraternity on campus (though there were a number of sororities) and it wasn't the "typical" fraternity from what I understand.

We had a very "eclectic" collection of guys I guess. I am very proud of my brothers and what they were able to accomplish during their college years as individuals, as well as what we did collectively.

Kappa Sigma - Kappa Phi Chapter

transferred to University of Tennessee...did not affiliate.

fraternities and sororities are like everything else in life...some are cool and some arent and vary widely by school and region. at UT, i got along with everyone both greek and non-greek. there were only a handful of dewsh's who defined thier existence by it (being greek that is), and usually by junior year, they had outgrown that shit and simply remained members to take advantage of the social/party connection and direct plug-in to the sorority pussy connection. i enjoyed my greek time and have no regrets for having not chosen to affiliate when i transferred schools.

I'm rushing Lambda Chi Alpha this semester.

at first, I thought it said "Geek" so I was going to say yes. but then i read it as "Greek" so I'll say no since I am American

In this case, Greek means a member of a fraternity or sorority. :)

Alpha Sigma of Chi Psi here.

Phi mu alpha and alpha lambda delta here :)

Pi Kapa Phi

^ that's what I'm part of

Sigma Nu, Gamma Upsilon

Phi Delta Theta, Georgia Gamma Chapter (Mercer University) and damn proud of it, though I wouldn't call it my life's greatest achievement. I succeeded a becoming a "Phi Delt" because a group of guys decided to drop a particular color of marble into a jar one night ... it had little to do with my "success" as a pledge. A few of them decided to like me, and then there I was.

I'm proud because in my term as an active, we did a TON of community service (and not because we had to). Then again, my chapter was a statistical outlier in the field of fraternities -- we received national recognition from not only our General Headquarters, but from a number of outside organiziations.

For example: We wrote letters to soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq, organized a sun glasses drive for those same soldiers, cleaned numerous inner city parks and streets, volunteered hundreds of total manhours to a community theatre, ran canned food drives for a local food bank, cooked for soup kitchens and ran events for our campus recreation dept. We did this because we could and nobody else was stepping up to the plate.

Things are still, basically, being run the same way at Georgia Gamma... it makes me happy to know that the fire that my generation built in terms of serving the community is being maintained by young men that never saw the original spark. They do it because they think its right, and they are able.

Pay to have asshole friends? Never.

I just can't stand the fact that some fraternities cost an incredible amount and all ya get from it is friends that love you when they're drunk and hate you when they're sober. I know this isn't the case in every fraternity, but it does happen, and that's enough for me to lose interest completely. That, and I don't drink at all. And I don't have enough money. And I like living on-campus. With my friends. And I don't have enough money!

-Lasereth

On some other thread I talked about this before, but there are alot of new people here and thought (perhaps conceitedly) that y'all'd benefit from my $.02.

I was a Beta, but my greek experience, or how I decided to do it was anything but typical. No wild parties the summer after high school and no house experience. (no fraternity houses allowed at that school)

My sophomore year, I had just broken up with my girlfriend, was worried that I'd be kicked out of my program and lose my scholarship, had just wrecked my car, and had no idea where I was going to live when I drove off to school that August. The prof. in charge of the program was not getting back from Israel until about October, so I was in limbo on that. I had two good friends from Freshmen year, and one was transferring for money reasons, and the other was going to be gone the fall semester abroad. I was supposed to live with a group of guys in this house that was being renovated over the summer. Somehow, it got condemned by the city while it was being gutted, and they had just got that lifted, but hadn't finished and it was unlivable.

So I crashed on a friend's couch for a couple of weeks, and when classes started, I kept running into this guy and he kept bugging me about it. It was a group of guys that had gotten together the year before and decided to start their own, and shopped around for the best national fraternity that was not on campus. Thinking what the hell, got nothing to lose, I accepted the bid. Even though I was a little leary of joining a group that was struggling to establish itself, that was part o0f what attracted me too. Yes, there was hazing, in part because these guys were so inexperienced and wanted to do a better job of everything they had heard about before, with the exception of alcohol hazing (for the most part). On the other hand, I got my grades up and got my life back in order by the end of the semester, and almost as a bonus, was in a fraternity.

I think fraternities can help two kinds of people the most; those who arein need of social initiative have an excuse to ask girls out for parties or dates and always have a place to sit in the cafeteria, something to do on weekends, etc..; those that take a leadership role also get great experience in coordinating/fighting/negotiating with business sponsors/alumni/school administration that they would be hard-pressed to replicate in a non-greek setting.
Now that I'm out of school, I recall fondly my college days and the wild times we had. That one little throw-away line on a resume is good too, and was an immediate interview icebreaker. What I'm most thankful for, though, are the couples we still hang out with. Quite a few of my old fraternity brothers are married and have embarked on successful carreers, and those that we live around continue to spend time together. We don't talk about fraternity stuff anymore, and we don't pay dues. It's a great network of people for dinners, weddings, golf, and help with home improvement projects. That's really nice to have when you're young and trying to get started living in the big city.
I don't necessarily think that any national fraternity is better than the others to join. There'll be some hazing probably, and some dues you have to pay to keep things running. There'll be some "secret ceremonies" that are cheesey. But I strongly encourage you to not pass up an opportunity just because you buy into "I don't pay for my friends" propaganda. It's almost reverse snobbishness. Everyone talks about having an open mind, except when it comes to things like this. There is a strong anti-fraternity/sorority bias that exists, but I just hope that for your sake, you don't buy into it.

I just accepted a bid to pledge for Delta Psi Delta, which is a fraternity local to my college. I was weary, in the sense that what I knew about Fraternities, I only knew from movies and urban legends. What I found was a group of guys who were so much like me, it was scary, and wonderful, so I decided to join.

This was a large reason i joined, and it really has helped me a ton, it was one of the best decisions i could have made. I gave a little of my time, but I've gained so, so much.

Pi Kappa Phi

Met my wife there at a party, can't be all bad.

And I'm a doctor now so it didn't interfere with my education to much.

Frats get a bad wrap for two reasons.

First is that young men in a group do stupid things. What happens is of course you get "Members of Kappa Kegga Brew did something really stupid last night".

Second is that if you want to make people hate you, make a club and say they can't join it. Frats come in all types but the concept that they are all white male elitists runs deep.

Joining a frat isn't that big a deal in the long run. Its a nice way to do things in a group which are hard to do alone, gives you the resources to do it, and puts people together in such a way that promotes friendship. On the other hand its been many years since I've spoken with anyone in my frat, and while there are a few I wouldn't mind getting together with again, I haven't made the effort, nor will I. Life goes on, friends come and go.

I went out for Rush when I was in college, at my mother's insistence. She wanted me to meet people. I ended up joining a sorority, and the first year was fun. But after that I settled into a group of non-Greeks, and the sorority became more of a duty than something I did for enjoyment. I look at sororities and fraternities as microcosms of society. You find all kinds of people: good, bad, Christians, athiests, brains, sluts, athletes, etc., etc....The groups are so small though, that everything is much more intense.

I am rushing Lambda Chi Alpha this semester. Lovin every minute of it.
I am glad I decided to go greek.

Nah. I go to Rice, and there's no frat houses and not much of a frat scene at all. The system they have in place though (residential colleges - think Yale or Harry Potter) kicks ass though. It's much better than any Greek life.

Phi Kappa Psi at the University of Texas. Loved every minute of it. We had stupid troublemakes and we had guys who are now doctors/lawyers/businessmen etc. We did a lot of stupid stuff, but we had a good time and we also did a lot of philanthropic stuff as well.

As far as paying for the friends comments go, you pay for parties, and people can still dislike you if you're a close minded asshole who says things like "you pay for your friends."

All my college had was societies - I was in Carmical and hubby happened to be in our brother society - Carry

Wow. I forgot about making this thread.

I am not in a fraternity, for two reasons.

One, I do not drink, and it seems that most frats tend to drink a lot, so I would feel out of place.

Two, I was awarded a $3000 scholarship that had as one of its stipulations that I would not join a fraternity. Go figure.

Laugh, what scholarship was that?

The drinking thing can be an issue. We had a few in my frat who didn't drink, but drinking was part of many activities. Few would get shitfaced drunk very often, but social drinking does play a role.

Living in my fraternity house is cheaper for me than living on campus....and you dont just get friends you get brothers. Some you like...some you wont like.

Alpha Tau Omega.....Eta Alpha...1982

It's all been said I guess. Good, bad, otherwise.

I joined for the fellowship and for the intramural sports teams. Intramurals was a big thing at my school. (University of South Florida). I played all four majors- football, softball, basketball, soccer. And during the four years, every minor sport at least once. We had good teams and it was great to be able to play different sports with the same guys. The dorm teams (GDI's) never seemed to keep the same teams or get along year after year.

We became doctors, lawyers, engineers, businessmen, etc. Some just dissappeared, some are dead. The guys who stood by me when I got married I still talk to on the phone 20 years later.

Money was not an issue for me. There was no on-campus Greek housing so our only expense was dues, which as I recall was something like $35./semester. We earned most of our party money through work projects. But these were fun and we had lots of 'little sisters' to help us out. We even operated a beer stand in old Tampa Stadium for the Super Bowl. As I recall we made about $600./ that day. Man, what an afterparty that was.

Just last year a couple of alums and the current chapter organized an homecoming reunion. All former members were invited. We had about 40 guys from all different years. It was awesome. Golf tourney, homecoming party, homecoming football game, Sunday brunch. Lots of families w/kids. It was really great to see some of the guys I hadn't kept up with. In five minutes it was like we were right back in college. The camaraderie was incredible.


So, like most everything else in life, you get out of it what you put into it.

Former Pi Kappa Phi Omega Chapter, I left right before I got pinned.
Personal reasons. If I had more time, I might have gone back, but I'm not sure.

Tau Epsilon Phi (TEP) - Omega Chapter at UNC

Never thought I'd join one, which as happens is something about 80% of guys at our chapter say as well, and ended up here and loving it. I'm sure I'll end up posting a nice long bit on fraternites at some random greek thread, whether asking about or praising or dissing, as those seem to pop up fairly regularly.

I was in a Fraternity at my college. I was nothing like the huge fraternities at major colleges, but it was nice. I can understand how some people could have a bad outlook on the greek system. Im reading a book on it right now. But my house was very diverse. Yeah, we had the pretty boys, but we also had the smart guys, the down to earth people, pot heads, drunks, transfer kids, slackers, over-achievers, etc...

But for the most part even with all of our differences, we all got along. Thats what surprised me.

I'm a member of Delta Upsilon, Western Reserve Chapter. We are an anti-secret, non-hazing meritocracy. The fraternity was created in the 1830s in direct opposition to the secret greeks that hid behind their secrecy and legacies to fiddle with student politics and pretty much corrupt the original ideals that they were founded on. Most fraternities were started for a good reason, and when run right they can be a great way to better yourself and your community. Having said that the unfortunate thing is that most of them anymore have lost sight of that. I guess my main point is that there are good and bad people in every group, so don't condemn all greeks because the ones you've dealt with are the retards (who of course are the loudest and get the most airtime). I know I'm a better person for having been in my fraternity, but I also now that I wouldn't have joined any other.

"Kafka would have been a desperately unhappy D.U." ~Brother Vonnegut

I was a greek - it can be a good experience if you get into a good house. If its the stereotype that's all about drinking and partying, save your dues money and have a killer party of your own.

Sigma Alpha Epsilon - Illinois Gamma chapter.

I'm a pledge this quarter for Delta Tau Delta, Theta Lambda Chapter at UC Riverside. Viva los Delts.

I was a sister of Kappa Alpha Theta in school.

Alpha Tau Omega here. Theta Mu chapter.

Shout out to my fellow blackfoot/whitefoot Sigma Nu's out there.

I love the ATO guys on campus here. They were the only other frat I considered rushing.

Theta Xi Fraternity. Kappa Alpha Theta was recently disbanded at my school for charter violations, sorry Missy :(

I don't want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member....

(Groucho Marx)

I'm rushing Phi Mu Alph this semester...

Not much else to say. . .

I was a band nerd...dose that count?

I was a band nerd...dose that count?

I considered joining a frat for a very long time. rushed during numerous rush weeks. Turns out it just wasn't for me. I've never gone to a big fraternity school, so I can't say much about them. One of my best friends is in a frat, but we were friends before going to college.

i think the type of university a person attends will have a large impact on the fraternity scene at that university. Now i'm going to uni in the city, and since there's so much to do, the fraternity scene is small compared to the entire school population.

Back when i was going to school in RIT, the frat scene was a lot larger than where I'm at now because you needed a car to get anywhere most of the time, and most freshmen dont have that so many join frats for social activities. But it's a technology school, so it still wasn't a *huge* fraternity scene.

I imagine its a lot differant at a state university or a university that has a huge huge sports scene with a gigantic stadium to seat 10's of thousands of people.

but yeah, i checked out the fraternity thing, decided after a long time it wasn't for me. Still thinkin on that whole freemason thing though.

Virginia Tech is so anti-Greek that the vast majority of Greek activities feel like they're underground, even when they're legal. Greek organizations can't advertise for social events through school newspaper ads, they can't post fliers, and they can't hand out invitations on campus. This includes both parties and philanthopic events. There's a "Rush Day" on campus, but that event is closely monitored by university administration for violations of the social codes. The town of Blacksburg has imposed a "Greek Housing Ordinance Code," which says that no existing properties can ever be zoned Greek... what that means is that frats can't buy houses off campus that aren't already frat houses. If a frat sells its house to a residental owner, the house becomes "non-Greek" and can never again be purchased by a frat. There's no way to start up new frat chapters at this school, because you wouldn't be able to get a house. The existing frats are being pushed into on-campus housing facilities, where the university can enforce anti-drinking and anti-party laws.

The university only allowed frats at all in 1972, which is when all the underground organizations surfaced.

Being in a frat at VT is like being in a little private club that throws parties every few weeks where all the same people come.

Pi Kappa Alpha - Eta Upsilum (UT Arlington)

We had our charter pulled in 2000. Spring 2005 will be the first semester we are back on campus. We've got a great group of guys, just about everyone on our exec council had decided not to join a fraternity the the first two years of college because they weren't impressed with our schools greek system. When offered a clean slate to build a colony, the way we wanted, we all jumped on it.

In reality, the greek system is only what YOU make of it.

I'm not greek but my neighbor is. He runs a really good Greek restaurant. Mmmmmmm I like greek food. Frat geeks are not greeks and never will be no matter how hard they try.

There were only about one person in my school that I'd consider seriously geeky. This is a girl who would wear a cape as everyday clothing... after that, it's become very hard for me to say anyone else even comes close.

I'm learning Greek - does that count?

Well, at the moment I am avoiding doing Greek homework, and desperately trying not to think about the final (If you ever see an Ancient Greek course that uses Hansen and Quinn as the text - run).

way to go ibis!
it sounds like you really "get" the benefit of greek life, and I wish ya'll the best.
A year before I pledged, a group of guys got together and wanted to start their own fraternity, and were "rushed" in a sense by national fraternities that did not have a presence on campus. They picked Beta, but had trouble with the school because the Betas before had been troublesome for the administration. It was not until my junior year that we completed the interest group-colony-chapter transition.
Good luck!

I'd go Greek if I had the option, but my tight university is 0% Greek.

former president phi delta theta - delta zeta

until we were shut down of course, not to worry though, we'll be back. somehow i remain an alumni

I'm originally from the UK so I could be pictish, celtic, norman, viking, or roman for all I know.

My old roommate was an AZD, and it was nothing but drama, drama, drama ALLLL the live long day. One of my best friends was a really great person until she went to W&L and got to be president of her sorority, and now has turned into the stereotypical overachieving, drinking, whoring sorority chick.

I have never ever ever heard of a fraternity or a sorority that wasn't a totaly excuse to be a dumbass. No offense intended to those of you who were/are greek and aren't total dumbasses.