<p>To respond to mmmaythe
To think that if you don’t join a Greek Fraternity, then you won’t be as popular, and won’t have anywhere to party, etc. is completely wrong. USC has so much to offer, over 600 clubs! </p>
<p>Notice how this thread is titled USC social life, but the conversation is dominated with talk about greek life. There’s a lot more to social life at USC than greek life - they are not equivalent, and they are not the only way to have fun. I have a few friends that joined houses as freshmen because they thought going greek was the thing to do, but they didn’t like it once they were initiated and saw what it was. Having an open mind is key, an open mind to whether greek life is right for you, and if it is, then an open mind of which house is best for you.</p>
<p>At this point you might be wondering, for lack of a better word, ‘what my deal is’. I’ve had experiences at USC I never could’ve dreamed of - you never know what’s gonna happen at a school as awesome as USC. I’m not in a greek frat but have friends in several of them. Because I had pride in attending USC, I chose to take advantage of some of the things that make USC truly unique and help make up the great university that it is, like the Trojan Knights and USC Helenes: spirit and service brotherhood and sisterhood, respectively. They can offer similar experiences to greek frats and sororitys (close friends, partying, connections) but are very different in how they handle themselves. They don’t have superficial politics, whereas many greek houses do. I chose to join the Trojan Knights because while there’s greek frats, professional ones, and service ones, there is only one that is unique to USC.</p>
<p>The point I mean to make is that, everyone’s experience will be unique, but there is something for everyone. I love what I am doing, and I know people that love to party (almost every night lol), and I know people that love to stay in their room and play WoW (and talk to other USC WoW players). USC is a place where everyone can be happy being themselves. It also helps that RAs put on events that appeal to everyone, usually for free, to do cool things and make friends/hang with people.</p>
<p>Lastly, it might help to answer the question: What IS social life at USC? What I’ve found is that it’s organization-centric. What this means is that most of your friends will be in the organizations you’re involved with. You’ll still have friends where there’s no organizational ties, like the people from your orientation group. But it’s a generality. This makes sense because with 16,500 undergrads, the people you live with on a floor changes, classes change, etc. The social constants are the organizations that you are involved with. You’ll see them at least once a week, whereas the people from your freshman floor you might only see a few times a semester. This is not to say once you’re in an org, you’re stuck; you can join as many orgs as you have time for.</p>