<p>Hey daddio…why sweat it? Just keep your own kids out of the Greek system and you’ll be all set. Perfect students who won’t touch a drop of alcohol. BTW, it’s Friday night–why not take a break from this tedious board and chill out? Better yet, just take a page out of the fraternity handbook…sit back and crack open a cold one.</p>
<p>I’m with you GBmom. Two hours to go and it’s single malt time.
And I think it’s pretty clear that the myth to be busted was the one that greeks way underperform regular students. Busted.</p>
<p>My sorority experience was not good. That was in 1977-79. It was at a smaller, “second-tier” state univ., so it could be argued that the students there were less serious and more into partying. Most of the girls (like 80-90%) got drunk 2-3 nights per week. I saw 2 girls become alcoholics. It was scary.</p>
<p>On a more recent note, when we dropped our son off a few months ago at Texas A&M, a large public university, we saw a girl at the gas station paying for 2 24-packs of long necks and she was wearing a shirt that said “Delta Zeta” on the front, and “Staff” on the back. 48 beers… It looked to me like things probably hadn’t changed a lot since my sorority days.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Just 48 longnecks? Sheesh, you’d think if she was making a beer run for the night, she could have at least asked if anyone else wanted some.</p>
<p>According to a study done at the UW, where they should know, people who drank frequently in college drink less than average afterwards. It’s called getting it out of your system AKA been there done that. The poor schlumps who did not party much in college are now trying to makeup for the lost fun times while working fulltime. No wonder more UW grads become CEO than any other state school. ;-)</p>
<p>for what it’s worth (and it’s probably worth very little), a large portion of fortune 500 ceos were/are in fraternities.</p>
<p>Sybbie, even though this is several pages back, I want to thank you about the very detailed post on rush at your daughter’s school. I’ll be going through rush next fall and it’s nice to have the “preview edition.” Although I’m very excited to rush, I agree it’s nice that we don’t rush until fall of sophomore year - all my friends who rushed as freshmen don’t really have female friends outside of their sorority.</p>
<p>Thanks and have a good holiday season!</p>
<p>G,</p>
<p>She is so happy with her decision. She feels she belongs to a great sorority that is the right place for her and crossed over with a lot of her friends and has even grown closer to some of the 08 women she just “knew by face”.</p>
<p>All the best during finals and you have a great holiday season too.</p>
<p>ASDF, you’re looking backwards in time when you take into account that most of today’s CEO’s were in fraternities. There was a time when almost all were women, too. As they say in the prospectus, past performance is no indication of future behavior.</p>
<p>Fredo-
If you haven’t already done so, check out the Greek Chat website and do a search on recruitment threads. There are a lot of threads about rushing as a sophomore and it is harder than you might think at some schools. Please get your daughter as many recs as you can, even if the school says they are not necessary- they will help. Some schools have lower quotas for sophomores and juniors who rush and that increases the competition. Good luck.</p>
<p>Also, make sure you tell your daughter to make sure her facebook profile does not have anything incriminating on it. Sorority members search the facebook profiles of the potential new members and now that photo albums are included, routinely check them out. Any pictures of drinking or other activities will not help!!!</p>
<p>Since your D also has friends who rushed and pledged last year, she really should try to maintain her realtionships with those girls. Sad to say at the end it about who you know and who knows you. She will have to make as many connections as possible with different sisters during the short period of rush. Her friends who crossed over last year, whether or not they get to deliberate this year they can still “spark” her (say good things about her and write in on her behalf as why the house should extend her a bid).</p>
<p>I never got the whole allure of a frat party. Went to them at Brown, Dartmouth and U.Mass and couldn’t wait to get out of there. I guess I was strange, but my friends felt the same way! Everyone was bombed…boring! A little of that went a long way. This was back in the 70’s so maybe its different now, but from what I read, I doubt it!</p>
<p>They are fun until you get a real live gf/bf. Then there is no reason ever to go again.</p>
<p>My daughter is a high school senior and is looking forward to recruitment at whatever school she attends (still undecided). My sister and I are members of the same sorority and my brother was a fraternity man at his school. We all went to different schools. There is no accurate stereotype for any one sorority. Our chapters were very different as were our colleges.</p>
<p>When we visited schools, I made sure we “stopped by the house” if my sorority happened to have a chapter on campus. I have received a tremendous amount of benefit through my involvement with alumnae associations of my sorority, far beyond my years of Active Status as a college student.</p>
<p>When my child was young, she said she would never go Greek precisely because I had! I just kept my silence but the family saw the ABC presence in my life today. She has a lot of friends who are currently college freshmen at a variety of schools ranging from Ivy to public. The majority of them did pledge somewhere. Now she’s saying she wants to go through recruitment. Again, I won’t encourage or discourage her but I am jumping up and down.</p>
<p>If you want a more accurate representation of what Greek Life is all about, check out greekchat.com. The posters come from many schools, many different types of Greekletter organizations.</p>
<p>My D is deliberately applying to schools that DO NOT have the traditional greek life…she just is not interested and does not want to be part of a school where if you are 'different" and not “picked” by some arbritary standards, and not part of a club that basically IS your college experience, that there isn’t much else to the school </p>
<p>My D knows she has a lot to offer, but to be part of something that has the appearance, and I said appearance, of picking people just like themselves to join, who will “fit” in with that group does not appeal to her at all</p>
<p>From reading some of the posts here in the past on other threads about being in a school where so much is about being Greek, the social life, the parties, the activities, it saddened her that if you were maybe the heavy girl, the girl to shy to go Greek, the guy who wasn’t into that whole group dynamic, that in SOME schools, the life outside of greekdom wasn’t much</p>
<p>Read about the poster who’s daughter had such a difficult time last year and wanted to leave school</p>
<p>Or the hazing</p>
<p>Or the group mentality</p>
<p>And intresteddad made some very valid points about how grades are reported, or underreported</p>
<p>When stats are done, one must pay attention to who is reporting, what they have to lose or gain by the reporting</p>
<p>That said, if going Greek is what someone wants, fine, go for</p>
<p>I just don’t get it though, as a GDI, I never did, and never will</p>
<p>As far the all the benefits people have from being part of a frat or soritity, those benefits can be gained elsewhere, and are not exclusive to being part of a club</p>
<p>In fact, I would bet that many opportunities were missed from being part of something that is closed off to those that don’t match up</p>
<p>Here on CC we praise the exclusivity of schools but not of social organizations of the NPC, NIC, and IFC. </p>
<p>Having seen a bunch of my sorority’s chapters over the years and having been an alumna advisor to several, they were all different. Even within a particular chapter, there is diversity. There are girls of different ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. They have different majors and interests outside of their sisterhood. Many of them are the leaders of campus, not just of Panhel. Despite the stereotypes that are perpetuated, they are not all blonde, blue-eyed Daddy’s Girl WASPS.</p>
<p>I was on a campus yesterday that had a Greek Info table for the prospective freshmen. The school itself is 15% greek for both men and women. The NPC Rho Chis who were there were a blonde Caucasian woman, an African American woman in braids, and an Asian woman. They did not tell the hs srs what house to which they belonged. When I visited the house of my group later that day, I looked at their composite. The faces and names were very diverse, a true reflection of this school.</p>
<p>It does depend on the group, that is for sure, but with just 15% of life at a school greek, you will get a mix of people who want that life, in a school 70% or more, i would bet their is more segregation by personalliy type (no talking color), it is easier to pull similar people together from a larger pool and divy them up as is done at schools that have a large program</p>
<p>That is why my Ds don’t want a school with a frat and sororities having a big impact on campus life</p>
<p>If 70% of students in a school are greek, 70% of school activies will revolve around greek life</p>
<p>Just not that attractive an image to us as a family, but for others, it seems to work</p>
<p>She doesn’t have to join. Actually some would say the non-Greeks at DePauw and W&L are more exclusive because there are so few of them!</p>
<p>BTW, if the poster whose daughter had a rough rush freshman year is who I think it is, the daughter went through recruitment again and found herself a home.</p>