Secret Societies - Eating Clubs, Finals Clubs etc. at Elite Universities.?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Same experience as prior Yale poster with secret society. Some of the traditions are rather silly (Tap Night especially), but the experience in general is not shallow or vapid . Several from my society are lifelong close friends of mine, and I had not known them before senior year, nor would I have been able to meet them otherwise.

There are very few people on this forum that can speak to Yale Secret Societies (Skull and Bones, Wolf's Head and Scroll and Key). I'm sure others have opinions on these societies, but can you speak directly to your experiences with these societies?

I was not in S&B, but the partner of a close friend was. He is a FASCINATING person. Beyond intelligent and a master of "soft skills" but has gone on to a very interesting career as well as gratifying personal life & philanthropic activities. I don't know that S&B is what *got* him there, but he believes the connections helped him at the beginning but also helped him sketch out what his life could look like. My understanding is that he got into S&B because they take certain figurehead people from around campus each year (e.g., captain of lacrosse team, editor of paper, class president, whatever. To be clear, I am not saying that if you have one of those positions you are automatically invited to join - only that it puts you on their radar.)

[Anonymous]

^^^ that should be "and has gone on..." not "but."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is an example of how the secret society members give philanthropic gifts to UVA. https://newspub.live/south/virginia/virginia-athletics-receives-40-million-gift-from-former-student-athlete/

This was a former student athlete who turned pro. I don’t see anything here to indicate it was a secret society member? That said they DO a lot for the school from a philanthropic standpoint.

[Anonymous]

Aren’t you not supposed to disclose you were in a secret society? How do people know their co-worker was, etc?

[Anonymous]

Most of the secret society stuff at UVA is small. Pizza showing up at a library during finals, flowers to a student who had a death in their family, a dinner for first years who did good deeds, etc.

The ones that do that kind of thing are semi-secret.

There’s one group that is probably mostly alumni called The Sevens that gives bigger gifts. That’s the secret one. No one knows who they are or how many of them there are.

Anonymous philanthropy is the point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An anonymous forum seems the perfect place to ask this question. What is their purpose? What is their future? How do other students not selected feel about their presence on campus?

As a Harvard student who didn’t run in these circles, I was minimally aware of them, and their existence had no impact on my experience.

You had to work a lot harder for your grades, without a library of old homework and essays and tests to work from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is an example of how the secret society members give philanthropic gifts to UVA. https://newspub.live/south/virginia/virginia-athletics-receives-40-million-gift-from-former-student-athlete/

That's a "spinning" spam site.

Here's the real article the spam site spun:

https://www.si.com/college/virginia/football/virginia-athletics-receives-40-million-dollar-gift-from-former-athlete

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So you kill yourself to get into “Harvard”, and they let you in because you satisfy some sort of stats they need to prove to the world that they are not really a beacon of white privilege. Then, you grind away a second time gunning to get a job where you will slog away the rest of your life at Google or McKinsey or whatever with the rest of the mere mortals, while the pre-ordained back door legacies get a tap on the shoulder, run around naked and are handed keys to the “real” power that was their family birthright anyway. The “big” connections are still closed to admission. And the goal is to meet 2 times a week to spill your guts to make sure that damage control is on the ready lest you are a dud? Sounds awesome!

PP here whose nephew was in one of the most prominent societies at Yale.

I guess from what I read in the press, maybe skull and bones is something like what you describe, but the one my nephew was in is nothing like that. It's also the one commonly described in the media as the wealthiest, and I saw no evidence of that when I went to several of their events over graduation weekend. The kids were extremely diverse in terms of ethnicity and income, including several and first gen kids. It was really pretty laid back.

How is it secret if they are throwing events for their aunts and uncles to attend?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Aren’t you not supposed to disclose you were in a secret society? How do people know their co-worker was, etc?

Coded greeting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An anonymous forum seems the perfect place to ask this question. What is their purpose? What is their future? How do other students not selected feel about their presence on campus?

As a Harvard student who didn’t run in these circles, I was minimally aware of them, and their existence had no impact on my experience.

You had to work a lot harder for your grades, without a library of old homework and essays and tests to work from.

Np here: I believe that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So you kill yourself to get into “Harvard”, and they let you in because you satisfy some sort of stats they need to prove to the world that they are not really a beacon of white privilege. Then, you grind away a second time gunning to get a job where you will slog away the rest of your life at Google or McKinsey or whatever with the rest of the mere mortals, while the pre-ordained back door legacies get a tap on the shoulder, run around naked and are handed keys to the “real” power that was their family birthright anyway. The “big” connections are still closed to admission. And the goal is to meet 2 times a week to spill your guts to make sure that damage control is on the ready lest you are a dud? Sounds awesome!

PP here whose nephew was in one of the most prominent societies at Yale.

I guess from what I read in the press, maybe skull and bones is something like what you describe, but the one my nephew was in is nothing like that. It's also the one commonly described in the media as the wealthiest, and I saw no evidence of that when I went to several of their events over graduation weekend. The kids were extremely diverse in terms of ethnicity and income, including several and first gen kids. It was really pretty laid back.

How is it secret if they are throwing events for their aunts and uncles to attend?

OP started the thread by not understanding the difference between secret societies and non secret societies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There were secret societies at Duke. Their initiations were weird, silent processions around campus. It was the wealthy kids who were the obvious members, and since I was on 95% financial aid, I wasn't part of it. Without the public initiations, I wouldn't have known they existed, and it made no difference to me.

NOT TRUE. Both my husband and I went and that is simply a fabrication. There was a greek system at Duke that has now been disbanded but exists off campus to some extent.

What part is a fabrication? You didn't disagree with any of the facts posed. Neither did either of you stayed what years you attended.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They aren't good people at UVa, but they will give money to the school and will make $$$.

I hope this is sarcasm. Please go read “Secret Societies at UVA” in wiki

This keeps getting posted but the Wikipedia article describes a bunch of self serving clubs and some recent philanthropy.
It looks like UVA had some elitist societies at the start and much later some people started making their own societies to make it a trend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Aren’t you not supposed to disclose you were in a secret society? How do people know their co-worker was, etc?

That was my understanding. I'm skeptical of some of these answers, especially from women. Most of these societies were all male.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Aren’t you not supposed to disclose you were in a secret society? How do people know their co-worker was, etc?[/quote


The UVA ones are all about secret philanthropy-no you do not talk about it