Fraternities at cornell - pros / cons

oldfort
Sun, 23 Jan 2011 16:09:50 +0000

If you have a hard time making friends, you probably wouldn’t be able to get into a fraternity.

I have a daughter who is in a sorority. I will offer some pros of Greek life, from a sorority point of view, and many of those pros probably are applicable to fraternities.

The girls are there for each other for many ups and downs of college life.
Their social life is fuller and they have more opportunities in meeting people they otherwise wouldn’t.
They have more opportunities to organize different social events, which could be very useful later on.
My daughter had opportunities in working with school administrators through various volunteer work.
Some employers do view it as a plus to belong to Greek life.
Memebers of Greek life run their own chapter, which involves finance, staff management, which gives members opportunity to have some leadership/work experience.
For the size of Cornell, by belonging to Greek life, it just makes it little bit smaller and more manageable.

My daughter just went through her last rush at Cornell. I remember her rush week freshman year. It was filled with anticipation, fear, and excitment of ending up at a sorority with all of her 3 best friends. Over the years, she has been very involved with recruitment, social planning, and various charity events. Tonight is when they will be getting their new “babies,” she feels she is passing on the torch to the next generation. It is an experience she will always cherish.

Just a bit about getting into a fraternity, all the networking is down during freshman fall semester, rush week is just the finale. It is different with sorority rush, they are not allowed to officially recruit until the rush week, whereas fraternities are allowed to have special events for potential pledges in the fall. If a guy wants to join a fraternity, it is best to start networking in the fall.

Greek life isn’t right for everyone, and you certainly don’t need to join to have a successful college experience. For all the negatives about Greek life, it has been a very positive experience for my daughter.