Thoughts on sorority life?

bamamom2021
Sat, 30 Mar 2019 12:45:21 +0000

my dh and I were both Greek but we were shocked when dd17 decided to rush. It didn’t seem to be her thing. She is at a huge Greek school and it has been mostly positive with the downside being the cost since she does not limit herself to the sorority for her activities. Where she is there is a huge emphasis on grades and scholarly activities. The GPAs of the houses are mind boggling. There are houses with a quarter or more sisters with 4.0 and half or more sisters above 3.5 ( these house have over 400 girls each). There are mandatory study hours - lots of study hours, required class attendance, in house tutors, rewards and recognition for grades, and loss of social privileges for dropping below - especially for freshman. A lot more of the bonding takes place at the tutoring sessions than at the parties. Lots of peer pressure to keep the grades and get into the honor societies. School first. They strongly encourage joining other organizations and getting involved all over campus. They do a ton of philanthropy in the community. The other huge benefit was the organized and safe parties. They are planned and there are sisters watching the younger girls. They check in and out of parties and have buddies. There are weekly swap parties with fraternities that are themed and tons of fun. Those who are busy or are not into partying can dress up and hang out with other sisters before the swaps. They take pictures and have a great time. They may go to the swap for a bit to meet some people and check it out, and then they leave. My DD is not big into wild parties and she has a place in her house along with many dozens of like minded sisters. She has a blast.

My DD met many great, smart, accomplished women right off the bat her first days on campus. There was a lot of comfort in that. Her sisters and house culture encouraged her to try different organizations and gave her the confidence to get involved across campus. She knew people who were involved and didn’t have to make the decision on her own to go someplace new all alone. She goes to church with her sisters, is involved in addditional charities with her sisters, and is involved in ECs with her sisters. She also has many (most?) of her friends not in the sorority now. It was invaluable the first year but not as necessary now.

Greek or not there is a huge number of young adults who are carefully cultivating an online presence. Not too different than the perfect fakebook pages of many of our peers. These young adults grew up in front of their parents cameras with every milestone and event recorded and posted. The very best of these hundreds of photos were tweaked and retouched and posted as candid casual shots. They are bombarded with the beauty ideal from targeted adds and influencers. It is no surprise that they have perfect instagrams. At least on my DD campus this does not carry over to day to day life. Watching girls on campus on their oversized shirts, messy buns, and sneakers heading to class you would never match them to their fashion instagrams.

As an upperclassman she now attends many events and parties with her other organizations and she really appreciates all that her sorority does for keeping sisters safe. Don’t fool yourself that parties only happen in Greek settings. Kids are drinking and doing drugs in dorms, apartments, and houses around every college campus. Those that are going to take part in such behaviors but don’t have the organized safe social options will find a way. She has experienced more out of control behaviors and unsafe situations outside of the Greek community than at any Greek party. Every campus is different and there are certainly Greeks that are shameful but it is not an exclusively Greek trait.