College Frats (opinions? experiences?) - Page 5

This is incoherent.

I think you are trying to take the internet tough guy thing a bit too far.

I have a question. I realize that not all fraternities are the same, but hopefully this is a general enough question that could be answered.
I will be transferring schools after this year, and this will bring me out of province. The school that Im currently at is very small and doesn't have any fraternities. I will be 22 at the start of next school year, and still have 2 - 2.5 years left in school.
Would a fraternity let me rush, or is that something freshman(or younger than 22) normally do?
How does one go about living in the house? Is it hard to get into, or do all pledges get the option to? Since I won't be living in the city before hand, what would be one of my options if I wanted to rush and then move into the house after I pledged?

DEpends on the fraternity and the school. I remember pledging with a guy that was about 25 and a senior. Most of course are freshman and sophomores.

I think your age doesn't matter, the main consideration if I were you would be the guys in the frat and how many years I have left to enjoy the frat when I corss. We had couple of 26 year olds that plegeded and corssed. They were Marines who just came back from Iraq. They fit in perfectly. When we were rushing kids, I actually personally prefered olders kids than 18 or 19 years olds.

cool sounds good.
Can anyone give me some info on the rush festivities?
What are the steps to getting into a fraternity?
Also like I have said I dont live in the city that Im going to be transferring to right now, how would I go about getting into a house, or are they all full normally?
Do lots of brothers live outside of the house?

The process really depends on the what particular organization you are interested in. The best advice I can give is get to know some of the guys already in the fraternity-it will give you a little insight into what kind of people you're dealing with. When I was a freshman, I had absolutely no interest in pledging a fraternity. In fact I was dead set against it due probably due to some idealistic individualistic bullshit. But in meeting some of what turned out to be some of my future fraternity brothers, I ended up pledging (almost on a whim) but it was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I was the youngest (18) on line, but I had a line brother who was 28 at the time. Just in case you are pledging a NPHC fraternity, the process really is hell on earth, but the aftermath has been great. Out of the seven of us, 5 are married and I been in every wedding and am a godfather to one of my line brother's daughters. I realize this isn't too typical, but we all remain close.

Depends on the person. My personality would not work out well being in a frat. A friend of mine, however, loves it. If you think you want to join one, then you probably should. It just wasn't for me and my lifestyle though. Plus, i'm at UF which as one of the 3 biggest Greek lifes in the country. Frat life here is a lot more serious here than at other schools and i'm not a huge fan of it here at uf or fsu.

Rush festivities differ from university to university, but I think you can imagine what it entails: alcohol, girls, alcohol, repeat.

As far as living in the house goes, this can differ from frat to frat. More often than not, the house is located in a prime location near campus, has better amenities than any apartment can offer at a comparable price, and cheaper rent than would be normal for the location. For this reason, the house rooms are usually reserved for the upperclassmen. At the end of each year, the frat votes who gets to live in the house.

And for the aforementioned reasons, plenty of Greeks live outside of the house. You can usually find that the apartments/condos nearby are chock full of Greeks, and they can make a whole Greek community unto themselves.

Really, the most important thing is to have fun, be smart, and make sure your personality jives with the other bros. Yes, there's a lot of drinking and drugs, but that's nothing new. It's up to you to decide whether or not that shit'll fuck up your academic life. From my observations, most Greeks mature enough to handle their shit by the time junior year rolls around.

I should add that I never joined a frat, but the vast majority of my friends/roommates were in various frats during college (I went to UT). Not a bad way to free ride off some of the benefits of a Greek and get some phone numbers


Chi-o, chi-o, it's off to bed we go. . .

Frats and Sororities were illegal where I did my undergrad.

In my experience, this is the mentality of most frats, at least where I went to school.

MrR

You're right, their not all bad. In fact, there are a lot of GREAT fraternity and group organizations to join on every campus. There are business frats and film clubs, surf clubs (in California), philanthropy and academic fraternities. This is of course, a small percentage, and when someone mentions a fraternity or sorority they automatically think of the social ones; and there in lies the rub.

Of course there are great guys and complete idiots in each fraternity. However, you have to view them as an entire organization. I'm not here to bash frats or sororities. My book is intended to answer all those questions that I wish someone would've told me before I rushed and to offer some perspective of how a frat works.

I'm about 1/2 way through my first draft of the book and I welcome any questions that I can answer, PM me.

This is very true, and probably one of the most important aspects of a frat at a big school.

I went to a big school. I wasn't in a frat but I was in the "Campuswide Honors Program," which provided a lot of the same benefits of a frat (meeting people who became friends, tight community, hookups, parties - although you can guess the parties were not as often or large as the greek organizations). I think I probably would have fit into a frat my third and fourth years of college, but not my first and second - I'm glad I had something to substitute for that community.