What would it be like to go to Bucknell and not pledge? Could you still have a great experience and social life?
My son was independent and had a great time there. He had roommates from different fraternities. I thnk you can find your tribe anywhere.
A friend’s son chose not to pledge. It made it hard for him maintain friendships with his friends who did – they spun off into different orbits. In that sense, it did impact him and his social life.
But he did have other friends and enjoy himself.
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Curious…what about Bucknell particularly appeals to you? There are a number of fine LACs that are less frat driven.
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Bucknell checks a lot of my son’s boxes - medium sized liberal arts with business school, a school where there is viewpoint diversity among the student body, nice campus with nice dorms, excellent academics with a strong focus on undergrad teaching.
But our family is anti-frat. We refused to allow his siblings to do Greek life and they found their friends and it was fine. But Greek life is much more of a thing at Bucknell. I am worried that if you take out the Greek kids and the athletes there aren’t many kids left.
Are there non Greek parties? Is there a sizable group of non greek and non athlete kids? Does Greek life dominate the social and dating scene?
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Neither of my kids attended Bucknell (was initially on D’s list but she dropped it due to the more remote feel and the prevalence of frats). I have heard from a friend whose S attended that the social life is frat driven but that is just one opinion and I have no first hand information. Try to visit, seek out students who have attended, etc.
Hopefully someone with more knowledge about Bucknell can chime in
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I attended Bucknell and did not pledge (nor attempt to). This was a long time ago, early-90s. So take with a grain of salt.
I had a good social life, both with other independents and some members of fraternities. I did, however, only realize after the fact that I would be judged by some as socially inferior for not being in a fraternity. I had some pretty good evidence of this from various comments I heard from time to time “oh him? she would never date him, he’s not even in a fraternity”, and similar things.
But overall, I felt this was a minor thing and I didn’t regret my choice to go independent. Some of the frats were IMO negative influences for some of my friends and acquaintances, with excessive alcohol use and other things that weren’t physically or emotionally healthy. Again, it was the early 90s and I could tell stories that would make your toes curl. I do not know if college life is like it was back then.
Good luck with your decision. Being a Bucknell independent is perfectly doable.
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Non-Greek parties are basically students hanging out in their dorms. Independents can also go to open Greek parties (which happened a lot in the 90s, maybe less so now), or be invited to Greek parties. We did that a lot since some of our freshman friends stayed in touch after they pledged.
Independents can still manage just fine, but they should realize that Greek life will be a big part of the scene that they will have to navigate.