It may sound harsh, but I would not pay for my child’s continued enrollment if “minivacations” involved missing class. I’m sorry your daughter is choosing to focus on everything but her actual intellectual life.
Wow didn’t know that Greeks were that prominent at Berkeley. No wonder why my kid says there are hardly any girls around lol. He’s typically heads down studying or at the RSF working out. 7 days a week. Typical life of a CS geek.
So interesting to read everyone’s experiences, thank you. Whenever my daughter talks about her sorority life I try to keep my personal biases to myself, but I express my concerns. She loves her new sisters and I am happy that she’s happy. As long as she maintains her grades I will be satisfied that the sorority activities are not interfering with her academic life.
I hope I didn’t offend anyone with the use of the word “pretty”, that makes it sound like the other girls are not as attractive. Maybe I should have described them as “girls who seem to spend a lot of time on their appearance” lol. I dislike labels but I didn’t know how else to describe them.
@greenbutton so interesting, the targeting! I don’t think she started school with the intention of joining greek life. It all sounds so contrived. I also didn’t realize that some schools forbid freshman from rushing, is it because they are more vulnerable? What is the penn state report card?
@bamamom2021 I’m happy to say that my daughter’s sorority does encourage studying and they often have study groups. Sounds like your daughter has had a great experience!
@twoinanddone thank you for the correction. I haven’t seen the girls much in person, all I see is their apparently carefully crafted social media presence. 43 year reunion? How cool is that?!
@brooklynlydia no, they don’t miss class. When it was three days they left after classes were over.
Hi @ProfessorPlum168 we “spoke” a couple of times last year awaiting ucb decisions 
yes, Greeks are not prominent at Berkeley. Sounds like your son is working hard. Did he go away for spring break? My daughter was away most of the week, as were her friends. I don’t know if that’s a sorority thing or maybe all kids go away on spring break these days.
The Greek Report card is not unique to Penn State, but creating a national database is their idea. national Greek orgs have fought hard against that. Locally, they fought hard as well.
I understand the impulse of those who think highly of Greek life to defend it, but I think maintaining a good gpa is not necessarily the only metric of nothing-to-worry-about. Similarly, the argument that not having fraternity parties just pushes the alcohol off campus is weird to me. It’s not wrong – but why should a college tacitly endorse 4-nights-a-week binge drinking? Why wouldn’t they attempt to put boundaries on these student groups as they do others? The legal problem is that unlike every other student group, Greeks are often privately held properties, privately run.
Sorry, off topic! OP, best wishes to you and your daughter.
The Greek Report card is a good idea at least campus to campus. But they should go into detail. More transparency of issues will help students make an informed decision.
As for the regulation of Greek organizations, it seems to be driven by the thought that if they just get rid of the Greek orgs. that drinking, sexual assault and other issues will all be solved. That’s just not true. And I would argue, today Greek parties.are probably safer than off campus situations – as was indicated in early posts. But the pendulum can swing too far – and the trend is going towards unaffiliated Greek organizations. Then they University has zero control.
Does the reputation of sororities carry over from school to school ?
^^Absolutely not, and it doesn’t always stay with the same house from year to year. A house can be #1 one year and fall to last within 5 years.
My house is #1 at a lot of the west coast schools, but doesn’t have a very strong presence in the north east. The national headquarters decides which houses it wants to close, where it is interested in expanding, where it financially can thrive. Some campuses require new chapters to have houses, and those cost a lot of money. While our national will guarantee the bank loan, it doesn’t provide the $5-10M.
My daughter was in a sorority and my son was in a fraternity. The biggest positive for us was housing. My daughter lived in a gorgeous sorority house with a cook and a maid. And the girls seemed to look after each other. My son’s fraternity house (at Berkeley), was disgusting, but economical and in a great location. Both enjoyed the social aspects of Greek life, and made a lot of lifelong friends. They also had friends/interests outside of Greek life.