Pizzagirl

It would be interesting to know how that's changed over time, NU10 (I assume you're a current student). I'm an alum (as is NUGraduate), we're in the same age range (graduated in the eighties) and most definitely people wore their sorority / fraternity letters and sweatshirts all the time around campus. I wore my sorority pin and my husband's fraternity pin too. Next time I'm in Evanston, I'll take a look around and mentally compare it to our day.

Pizzagirl

NUGraduate - I think that it's definitely easier to make a wider friendship base if you are Greek, but I don't think it's impossible not to. It really depends on the person. THere were some quite Big Man on Campus types when I was there who weren't in fraternities, but they were just the outgoing kind of people who made a wide base of friends. One of them is now a prominent writer and pundit that I see all the time in magazines and on the web.

dcb07

I would argue that there are a lot of greeks wearing their letters. I see girls all the time with bags and clothing with their letters, along with guys wearing recruitment and rush shirts and sweatshirts all the time. Especially up North where all the houses are, it's not in your face obvious but the presence is definitely there.

NUgraduate

Pizzagirl, it's true. We did have a few BMOC types on campus. Remember the group of girls known as "the beautiful people?" But there's just no venue that has as many repeated meetings as within the Greek system.

Bala

My experience was pretty much that of typecastme22, k&s, an elsijfdl.
Never joined (not my thing).
About a third of my friends did (pretty much going rate today). Made no difference to me - just gave me new places to hang out.
Tons of stuff always happening on campus, in town, and downtown.
Greek life here is, as NU10 says, most certainly not Purdue (or any other school where it dominates a campus).

Pizzagirl

I've heard on other campuses that once you go Greek, you wouldn't ever associate with someone who wasn't Greek. I didn't find it to be that way at Northwestern. I happened to associate mostly with my friends who were in my house, but that was just me -- no one would have looked down on someone whose friends happened to be in a different house or not in the Greek system. Is that your experience, too, NUGraduate, given that we are contemporaries?

NUgraduate

I hung out mostly with kids in the Greek System, but mostly because they were the ones I lived with, had parties with, etc... I was, and still am, friends with some who weren't in houses also. I don't think anybody ever looked down on people who weren't in houses - they just didn't come into contact with them as often.

BTW, the rush video was interesting, but misleading. Some people are judgemental, some aren't (whether in fraternities, sororities or gd-dmnd-independent.) Some judge on looks, some on humor, some on intelligence, etc... You can make a negative story out of any data, it's all in what you show, and what you don't.

k&s

Remember, fraternities and sororities have their own cliques as well – aside from the clique I hung out w/in my fraternity, I often hung out more w/ friends (from my frosh year) who joined other fraternities or didn’t go greek.

sanjenferrer

From my impression, the Greek system at NU is not about crowning people as most social or most beautiful (as the stereotypes say about Greeks in other places) but rather providing people (anyone) structured space for socializing. They're not exclusive in that people who are Greek are still friends with non-Greeks, and non-Greeks are welcome at Greek social events. Also, it's impossible to tell who's Greek or not because the stereotypes about how Greeks are supposed look and socialize are NOT TRUE at Northwestern (as much as some of them secretly like to ride on these stereotypes). If anything, a lot of the non-Greeks feel confident enough in their social skills to have a decent social life without having to rely on a structured social group and are, in this way, more socially adept. Greek or not, Northwestern students are assertive, classy, confident, humble, and nice. My main reason for not joining, though, is that as a gay male, I cannot see myself socializing with mostly straight males who talk mostly about heterosexual stuff.

Pizzagirl

Huh, so in other words, everything we told you about turned out to be pretty much like what we told you :-). Glad to hear it, Sanjenferrer, and glad to hear that you're liking NU just fine.

Sam Lee

sanjenferrer,

Did you join any LGBT student group?

arbiter213

I was going to disagree with the assertion that we talk about "mostly heterosexual stuff", but I suppose depending on your view point that could be true. I mean, at my house we certainly don't talk about girls all that often, but we do spend a lot of time talking about sports, watching bond movies, and playing Halo. And I've not had many theater related conversations, even with the theater majors in the house. Of course, those are all blatant stereotypes I know to be unfitting, but that's more or less the only thing I can imagine you meant.

Regardless, I'm glad you're so positive about the school (and the greek system!) as a whole!

RisingSun

I'd like to remind everyone that all of the kids in the greek system at Northwestern are still Northwestern students, and they are far more stereotypically Nerdwestern than they are greek.

Also, for all the people who bash the greek system, know that there are a lot of us in the greek system who meet good people, have a good time, do well in school, and do good things for the community. There are certainly partiers and whatnot, but I think a lot of the mentality here is really work hard, play hard. Also, I'm surprised no one mentioned this, but you'll usually find that the most driven, ambitious, and, in my opinion, happy people, are in the greek system. It's easy to attack something you're not a part of, but if you want to know what it's like, pay extra attention to people who are actually a part of it.

rommeltw

join it if it is your thing. if it's not, then don't. work hard, play hard. you will still live on and graduate. and greek life is not exactly like what you see on TV or movies.

if you ever come visit, just grab any one of us who is wearing letters. we will be more than happy to tell you what its like to be a greek and show you around.

miss.t.k

Hey everyone! I do not go to Northwestern, although I'm about to decide if I should go there for my MSJ. Anyway, I was part of a sorority for undergrad, and I'd like to just say that it was the best thing that happened to me. I know that greek life has a pretty negative reputation, and trust me, I NEVER wanted to join one. I'm from Europe and I only knew what greek life was based on certain crazy american college movies.

I can say this: greek life is going to differ on EVERY campus you go to. it's already been made clear to me that different chapters of one organization can differ ENORMOUSLY as well, although of course everyone holds the same core values.

my sorority holds high standards of scholarship, community service, as well as social life, which is not just parties parties parties at all. No. It's lifelong friendships, a huge alumni network, and therefore, another way to get a job!

i joined because i did not find a close circle of girl friends and i missed the close friendships. i had been on my high school's basketball team, and most of us had been in the middle school team. college was a complete change for me in terms of culture, language, and values.

i went through rush just to meet people. but that turned into me finding an amazing group of very diverse women who all studied hard, cared a lot about helping others, and who had fun together. yes we had parties. but non-greeks too! we didn't only socialize with each other. the mostpart of my friends from my sorority were involved in a dozen other groups on campus and therefore had non-greek friends abound! we helped each other study, we hung out, and did community service together.

for me greek life is something which is judged upon too quickly. there are some places where hazing occurs but just as a reminder this is ILLEGAL both in the views of greek life administration as well as by law. my sisters looked out for each other a lot more than it seemed like other non-greek kids did. my freshman year i was shocked to see so many kids get taken away by stretcher to the hospital bc they drank too much alcohol! (And i didn't go to a party school by the way!!) we looked out for each other and if someone was taking partying to the extreme, she would have 49 other sisters to remind her that she probably needed to draw the line.

that's my view on it anyway. if i do go to medill, i'll look forward to meeting the sisters from my sorority there, and see how our chapters differ.

good luck everyone! decisions are hard to make but your college or school experience in general will be what you make of it mostly.

T