Secret Societies at Yale

Zippership
Mon, 16 Apr 2007 19:21:58 +0000

Societies meet twice a week. Everytime that they meet, they don’t do a bio. Sometimes they just get together, cook dinner (or have dinner cooked for them), and talk/drink. Everyone in the society gives their bio once during the year though. The person gets the whole night to talk about their life from first word and first memory to present day. If the person doesn’t do much research or doesn’t have much to talk about, this can take 30 minutes, but it takes as long as the person needs and so often stretches into early mornings. Of course, for most societies, this process also involves inebriation. Also, not all societies have tombs - in fact, most don’t. The societies with tombs, especially those of the mausoleum variety, tend to be the older and more prestigious ones (Known as the Ancient 8).

As to greek life, it’s something you can do, although it’s not something that dominates life at Yale. There are a few frats and sororities although the social scene is largely based around room parties / college parties and not frats, so they’re available if you want them, but not a huge presence. Also, more than 15 something women living together is technically a “brothel” by some stupid CT state law and is outlawed, so the sororities don’t tend to have houses.