Social Life

debunjing
Fri, 27 Nov 2015 02:10:28 +0000

Alum will emphasize the importance of Greek life, because it was a much larger presence when they were at school. If you ask current seniors who have spoken with alum, you’ll likely hear a different story. Greek life is handled well on campus - it is a positive thing for many people who choose to engage in it, but for people who don’t want to spend substantial amounts of extra money/go for the limited partial scholarships, it won’t hamper your social life.

Greek parties will be loud and have lots of flashing lights, and you may need to know a few people to get in (which makes sense - the same thing would happen for a lot of non-greek parties, rarely would you just roam into into someone’s party if you didn’t know the host/host’s friends right?), so many people on the outside are tempted to rant about its size and scope. Fact of the matter is that if you’re social, you’ll be fine. After rush and about a year, most people stop caring about fraternities/sororities.

There are some qualifying factors though - in some cases, you might feel left out during your second semester of freshman year if you didn’t join Greek life and a lot of your friends did. If you aren’t that social/outgoing and want to go to your typical college parties but find it difficult to find and attend them, it can be easy to blame Greek life. With that being said, explore some other things. Join student organizations. Befriend people in Greek life - they’re normal people too. Remember that no matter what, a majority of students at Vanderbilt are not in Greek life.

Vanderbilt has a lot to offer. Don’t over-stress yourself over Greek life. And take literally everything you read on this forum with a grain of salt.