Schools with "harsh" fraternity and/or sorority systems or those with disagreeable practices
ucbalumnus
77140 replies672 postsRegistered User Senior Member
See replies #284, #285, and #286 of http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19610146/#Comment_19610146 for context of this question.
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Replies to: Schools with "harsh" fraternity and/or sorority systems or those with disagreeable practices
For example, why @deega123 do you hold this opinion of SEC sorority recruitment? Why are students "in for a shock" and recruitment "a physically and mentally grueling experience"?
I should add that recruitment can be hard to go through at almost any university. But those like, say Michigan or Illinois, where almost everyone is able to get a bid somewhere ( probably 99'perecent of those open to any sorority) is a totally different experience than Indiana where 50 perecemt of the girls are cut.
Do you have anything to add to the thread or are you just critiquing posts?
Danger sign #2: Mothers / other relatives have a vested interest / care that their daughters join a specific house, as opposed to "find the house that suits you - or don't join at all if that suits you too." If the social climate is such that one's choice of house is considered to impact one's social circle as an adult - that's another warning sign that it's a too-serious system.
Danger sign #3: There are programs for high school seniors, resume workshops, etc. Greek life should not start til the campus experience (ideally second semester / deferred).
Danger sign #4: Recs are mandatory and considered very important and a girl is cut if she doesn't have them. Unwelcoming to girls with non college educated mothers and international girls.
Danger sign #5: There are a lot of legacy girls going through - enough to fill the houses even without non legacies.
Danger sign #6: It is not unheard of for a girl to drop out of school if she doesn't make her desired sorority. I have heard of this at UT and SMU.
Danger sign #7: Over-the-top preparation of hair, makeup, and clothing. The idea of mothers hiring hair and makeup people in hotel rooms is beyond ridiculous. It sounds like a pageant mom culture. There should be no reason for a girl to do / look anything beyond a generally put-together polished version of her best self. Btw, a positive sign is when the Panhel has rushees wear common t-shirts for first round. That takes away some of the "judge me on my clothes" ammunition.
Danger sign #8: Lots of girls are let go at each stage, and/or the final quota is determined by a system other than adding up the number of girls going through and dividing by the number of houses. Indiana is a particularly bad example where it's based on the number of beds in the house versus the number of girls wanting a spot. A well designed system should practically guarantee a spot to girls who go through and don't cut any houses.
Danger sign #9: Girls are expected to live In the house all 4 years. This serves a purpose of cutting them off from other friendships from class, etc.
As a total non-Greek person, I do think that delayed rush sounds like a good idea.
At most schools, Greek houses are residential, and at least for the first year or so, new members are required to live in the chapter's house. If a chapter knows that there will be 20 free beds next year because 20 members are graduating or moving out of the house for other reasons, then it can only recruit 20 new members, right? If 23 people apply to join, 3 must be excluded.
That was exactly how my daughter felt before she went to school. She's the type of kid who proudly described herself and her friends as "the nerdiest group of people at a school known for being nerdy." When she announced that she was going to go through rush, I was surprised.
Interestingly, I found a statistic that suggests that she is not the only one who changed her mind about the greek system once she went to school. While almost a quarter of students are involved in "greek life" at her school, less than 5% of incoming freshmen expressed interest in pledging a sorority or fraternity.
And greek life need not be all about exclusion. That varies a great deal from campus to campus. At many schools there are more places open than potential new members to fill them. At other schools (Tufts, is one) there are "guaranteed bid systems" which means that if you register for recruitment, you are guaranteed a bid (but not necessarily to your top-ranked chapter).
The other issue is the amount of work that it takes to pull off recruitment. At SEC schools, sorority members come to school early and spend two weeks or more preparing. Once school starts, there just aren't enough available blocks of free time to get the entire group together to prepare.
I love the idea of the T shirts for every rushee. I'd support that all the way up through pref night!
I waited until sophomore year to rush and I think that was a great way to see how various houses operate. I think delayed rush is a great idea.
But how could they not? What are they going to do, have students sleeping on the floor?