Reply to Can someone please explain the whole frat thing to me? What goes in rushing and what is it all about

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My son is in a 2nd tier frat at the University of South Carolina. I will answer what I can, but I have no sorority experience either.

If it's a Southern school, and if he is from the DC area, he most likely will not get into a first tier frat (Not a bad thing, first tier frats hold the biggest parties, have the biggest douches and egos and are the ones that have the party houses on campus.) Southern frats are very big on southern pride and tend to only let kids in that are either legacies and/or have deep southern roots. Your child, with a non sorority nerd mom that doesn't live in the south, wouldn't qualify. I was super leery about my son joining a frat, but he is now a Junior and in his 3rd year in the frat. I have gone down for football games and spent time with his "brothers" and they are very nice guys. They are always there for each other for support such as packing/unpacking someone in and out at the end of the year, picking up my son from the airport, etc. A few of them have come home for a weekend to see DC, they are genuinely nice kids. The cost for us has been about 1200 a semester- that includes dues, formals (he will need a well fitting tux), weekends away (beach weekend, mountain weekend, etc.) but about 5-6 t shirts that you have to buy each semester for some sort of fundraising activity. Many frats are now non- hazing. That doesn't mean no drinking- that means no disrespect such as tying up someone, taking them into the woods, taking their clothes and leaving them naked overnight. Yeah, that happens. But in some frats it doesn't. Have an honest talk with your son about respecting himself and others- that no group is worth being disrespected for, and when the time comes for him to be top dog, how would he feel doing that to someone else? My son now has a "frat family" of brothers, and as on only child this has meant a lot to him. He has one brother who was selected to be his "big brother" and look out for him, and this year he got a "little brother" he looks after in a mentoring type way. So, for rush week, your son will go to events and choose who he wants to apply to. Then the frats will choose who they want. There is usually a ceremony. Many kids will not get picked for any frat. That sucks, but it's like a grown up version of picking teams on the playground. If you son is picked, he becomes a pledge and attends "pleducation" classes and learns about the frat. It's like a trial membership. He will get inducted later in the spring after completing his pleducation and following through on his initiation time period. In general, yes frats have minimum GPA's. Greek kids are the leaders of the social community in school events such as homecoming. It will give him more social opportunities, and in general kids that are greek do have higher GPA's then their not greek peers as a pool of people. I hope that helps. 
[/quote]

this was great! Thank you.....apparently this is a top tier frat (for whatever that means) one of the three tops at his school (only because he knows a lot of kids in it) how long does this rushing take place? The worry wart in me is visualizing all his energy and brain power going in to this instead of why he is actually there...to study! A few weeks? hope not much more than that. How do they find out if they are "in"?  
I am happy to hear about the min. GPA and that Greek kids tend to have higher GPA's..thats really nice news!
Agree about the boundaries and a gentle reminder...which I will give him again today. Thank you![/quote]

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