Greek Life at Ole Miss?

HoustonKen
Mon, 06 Jan 2020 22:06:49 +0000

My daughter is half-Asian and successfully went through rush this fall. Sorority rush is much more of a knife fight than fraternity rush. 30-40% of the kids at Ole Miss participate in Greek Life. It’s a great way to meet people and make your college universe smaller but its not the end all be all. My daughter’s various comments to me during rush were that various houses have reputations/stereotypes that have some truth to them. She did NOT encounter any racism and her best friend in the sorority is a Hispanic girl from San Antonio, TX. The reputations of various houses are more like “They only take kids from Mississippi” or “They are the smart fraternity” or “Those are the party houses”. The Panhellenic Council at Ole Miss is in charge and they are very serious about things like “No Drinking” “No Hazing” “No Racism” I would say that the Greek System is not racist. I think the houses go to great efforts not to be labelled anything derogatory bc the administration made it clear about the rules that have to be followed. Apparently 2 years ago, they kicked the SAE fraternity off the campus bc they refused to follow the rules. I would call the system “cliquey”. Kids from Jackson, MS or Memphis, TN have an “advantage” because there is more of a pipeline of kids from those high schools that go to Ole Miss and older brothers/sisters/family friends look out for the freshman siblings/friends. Have you been to Oxford to visit ? It has a much more progressive vibe similar to other college towns.