Greek Life

Sportsmom42
Sat, 23 Mar 2013 10:22:20 +0000

@MichBound15, my son is in Greek life at Michigan, so here’s one perspective.

1) Engineering students have very demanding class schedules, however, there are some are involved with Greek life. One of my son’s good friends, who is a serious engineering student, pledged during Winter rush, after getting a semester of adjusting to the academic workload. But for engineering, premeds or the students with academcially demanding majors, it is tough juggling fraternity demands with academics, and trying to keep your grades up, so be forewarned.
2) There are over 30 fraternities at Michigan. It is very tough to get a bid to a top fraternity - you must be great looking, very outgoing, connected to some members, a legacy may not even help you. However, once you get beyond the top tier fraternities, you can get bids to several fraternities. Again, if you wait until Winter rush, you have a semester to check out the various chapters and what their members are like. If you want to rush in the Fall, you should do more research on this forum and other sites regarding the reputations and hazing practices of the fraternities.
3) A fraternity was just kicked off campus for very bad hazing, so it can be bad for some fraternities. There are a couple of fraternities that have no hazing policies. Again do some research and you can find this information on which fraternities have bad hazing.
4) My son felt that as a freshman, his social options were limited by not being in a fraternity. He rushed half-heartedly both in Fall and Winter, received several bids, but ultimately decided not to pledge. He may rush next Fall, however, he’s living in a house next year with some fraternity friends and some independents. He has great friends already without being in a fraternity.
5) The Greek decision is up to you. Only 20% of the students at Michigan are in Greek life, so most students do not go Greek. My son considers himself an academic at heart, but he is very social and likes the idea of having lifelong brothers. The tough thing at Michigan is that Fall rush happens right away in Sept, before you’ve had to time to check out the chapters, adjust to college, etc. So it might be wise to wait until Winter rush, when you are settled in and have had time to check out what the various fraternities are like.

Good luck to you!