University Fellows and Fraternity

VeronaGentleman
Fri, 15 Jan 2016 17:47:38 +0000

In recent years, there have been many UFE students who are fraternity men as well. These include members of smaller houses as well as larger houses that are thought of as perhaps more representative of the “typical” fraternity experience at Alabama. The majority of male UFE students will not pledge, but this is true of the university as a whole. Your decision whether or not to rush should be made independently of your involvement with UFE.

Also, the advice to wait until you are a sophomore to pledge at UA is not credited. Every year, UA fraternities have enormous amounts of rising sophomores who decide they want to pledge after being on campus for a year. They meet guys in dorms, classes, etc. and become interested. Sometimes, fraternities have nearly the number of rising sophomores on their “contact lists” as they do rising freshmen. The problem is that depending on the house, the vast majority (think 80%-90%+) of spots in their incoming classes will be reserved for freshmen. There are several reasons for this, but the primary one is financial. Chapters see more reward in extending a bid to someone who will be around for 4 years than one who has only 3. You’re essentially competing with an equally large pool of potential new members for a far more limited number of spots because you’re one year older. It sounds unfair, and in some ways it is, but this is the reality.

As for maintaining academic performance while pledging - it can be done, and this is in no way uncommon. I’d encourage you to check out the “Reports” page of the UA Greek Affairs’ website for GPA information on all the Greek chapters. Look for the All Men’s Average - the avg GPA of all undergraduate males at UA for a given semester. This is a bit of a generalization, but typically the chapters that consistently post overall GPAs above that figure will be more academically oriented than the ones who consistently fall below it. That said, I have known multiple fraternity members who belong to chapters not typically recognized for their scholastic achievement that do very well - including members of UFE and CBH.

If you’re selected for UFE, there are fraternities who will recognize that as a big achievement if you tell them. You can absolutely pledge freshman year and thrive academically.