<p>I am a student from India and will be joining a US college this fall.</p>
<p>In India, colleges have this system of ragging which is basically seniors bullying freshmen just to show their seniority. Occasionally, it gets ugly,</p>
<p>[Ragging</a> in India - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“Ragging - Wikipedia”>Ragging - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>I just want to know is there anything similar that goes on in US colleges? From the movies and TV shows, it seems that the nerds get bullied in high school. Does that happen in college too?</p>
<p>Please excuse me if my question sounds naive/stupid. I just want to know what to expect when I get there.</p>
<p>Don’t join a fraternity and you will be just fine. Seems like frat guys talk behind each others backs where I’m at. Lots of unnecessary drama. </p>
<p>But in general pretty much zero bullying.</p>
<p>Thanks! And just out of curiosity, what happens at fraternities?</p>
<p>There is to an extent in service academies but if you’re from India you won’t be going there. And yes, some fraternities, but definitely not all. I’ve read that service-based fraternities are usually pretty nice.</p>
<p>At fraternities ragging is called hazing. Basically, if you’re a pledge (someone trying to join a frat) sometimes you’ll be made to do humiliating or dangerous things. Generally, though, the most you might have to do is drink while under the legal age, which most people won’t care about.</p>
<p>You won’t be shoved into lockers though, nor will random seniors threaten you. If they do, they would definitely be very anomalous and it would be taken seriously.</p>
<p>It depends. </p>
<p>But professional fraternities (like the pre-health and pre-law fraternities) and community service-based fraternities do not act the same as social fraternities. Professional fraternities and community service-based frats have a professional reputation to uphold, so they’re stricter on what’s allowed/not allowed. </p>
<p>Where I attend university, seniors do not rag on freshmen. No one here can tell what grade level someone is, anyway, unless they’re in a class that’s geared specifically towards a certain grade level (such as a senior-level class. However, you can’t tell with freshmen level classes, because there may be sophomores, juniors, and seniors taking freshmen level classes as well). </p>
<p>Also, don’t believe what you see on TV and movies. Where I attended high school, nerds were not bullied (and not all the jocks were jerks).</p>
<p>College really isn’t like that. Sure, older kids will look down on younger kids, as happens everywhere around the world for all of time, but college is more of a level playing field in that everybody is more seen as an undergraduate than as a sophomore or a senior. Besides, for me anyway, it’s hard to look down on the freshmen when most of them are a lot smarter and more accomplished than I ever was.</p>