Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It depends on the school and the vibe.

At Cornell, it dominates. At Vanderbilt, it dominates. At Duke, it's off campus, but it dominates social life/culture.

At Northwestern, it's growing. 3 more frats came back over the summer. Too much demand and not enough after the failed Abolish Greek Life movement.

I think social media (all those frat parties with big-name performers and the sorority dance/videos) has had an impact even at the most selective schools.

I have experience with all 4 schools listed here presently (my own kids, relatives, and very close friends' kids attend) and can attest to the fall frenzy for Greek life for all of the kids. Yes, both the freshmen males and females want to attend the parties. The females have the easiest time all around. Males are stressed about wristbands/invites every week. It's demoralizing for them at all four of these schools presently, where dirty rush abounds.

Now all of our kids attended private (feeder) HS and are probably looking for something similar in a college experience (going to parties, bars, drinking, socializing, work hard/play hard). I am sure it all works out, but Greek life culture at each of these schools is probably more alike than people think.

None of the kids is CS or eng or pre-med if that makes a difference to you.

This is kind of a hilarious post. So yeah, all the kids I know partied hard in high school, which is totally normal bruh. And of course that's what they're doing in college because what else is there to do?! Oh and yeah not any loser majors. Don't know what those nerds are doing.

Sounds rough out there to be a partying rich kid. Real stressful to get those invites.

+ 1

Anonymous wrote:I went to NU where 35-40% is Greek and I did not rush. I did not feel it took away from my experience or that I was missing out on something. Not many people in the engineering school were in Greek life. The women who were in it were not the women I would have been close friends with anyway so it didn't make much difference. My roommate freshman year rushed and loved it. Every rush/sorority story she told me confirmed it was not my cup of tea. But she and I got along great.

So maybe it's school by school. I wonder about this also for my DD who doesn't want Greek life. But think about it, if 20-40% are Greek, still the majority are not, so probably no big deal.

Same for me! Back when I attended rush was during new student week--so think 3 days after you arrive on campus. Before you could really even make friends yet. Everyone on my floor rushed except 2 of us (yes I lived in Bob/Mc when it was "the" place to live) it was crazy to watch it but yes I wasn't going o be friends with those who rushed anyhow. Once classes started I easily found my friends

Anonymous wrote:I am suspect of an 18 year old who states they are not interested in Greek life. What exposure have they had to the Greek system to form that opinion?

There's this new thing called "social media." Google it.

Greek life can seem like a bigger deal than it really is only because the people in it tend to make it their entire identity and personality (see: the Greek God poster who shows up to every one of these threads and posts about his fraternity years like they were the pinnacle of his life). This isn't usually the case with students who occupy their time with non-Greek clubs and campus activities. Even varsity athletes aren't as loud and obnoxious about their team affiliation as so-called "top tier" frat bros are about their letters.

Once you learn to tune it all out, you'll quickly realize that going Greek is not required to have a social life on a campus of 20,000+ students when 16,000 of them aren't in frats or sororities. The very idea is ridiculous. You're literally living within a few hundred yards of more people your age than you ever will be for the rest of your life. There's no reason you shouldn't be able to find friends and have a memorable experience.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It depends on the school and the vibe.

At Cornell, it dominates. At Vanderbilt, it dominates. At Duke, it's off campus, but it dominates social life/culture.

At Northwestern, it's growing. 3 more frats came back over the summer. Too much demand and not enough after the failed Abolish Greek Life movement.

I think social media (all those frat parties with big-name performers and the sorority dance/videos) has had an impact even at the most selective schools.

I have experience with all 4 schools listed here presently (my own kids, relatives, and very close friends' kids attend) and can attest to the fall frenzy for Greek life for all of the kids. Yes, both the freshmen males and females want to attend the parties. The females have the easiest time all around. Males are stressed about wristbands/invites every week. It's demoralizing for them at all four of these schools presently, where dirty rush abounds.

Now all of our kids attended private (feeder) HS and are probably looking for something similar in a college experience (going to parties, bars, drinking, socializing, work hard/play hard). I am sure it all works out, but Greek life culture at each of these schools is probably more alike than people think.

None of the kids is CS or eng or pre-med if that makes a difference to you.

This is kind of a hilarious post. So yeah, all the kids I know partied hard in high school, which is totally normal bruh. And of course that's what they're doing in college because what else is there to do?! Oh and yeah not any loser majors. Don't know what those nerds are doing.

Sounds rough out there to be a partying rich kid. Real stressful to get those invites.

Anonymous wrote:13:31 here: To clarify -- I'm not suggesting social hierarchy is the reason TO join. Merely saying that if someone is opposed to greek schools because they don't want to feel like they are lesser, then they may want to avoid greek schools. But in my view, that's on them, not on the Greek system.

I think this is a good point that expands to other areas as well. If a student is inclined to care about social stratification, it should be something on the radar when looking the culture of a schools. Students will create social strata around college (High Ivy, Low Ivy, T20 or not), within a school at the college (Business vs Liberal Arts vs Engineering, etc), majors within a school (CS vs Gender Studies), Greek and specific frats/sororities within Greek, Clubs, internships etc)

The systems are what they are. Its up to the student reflect on what is important to them and how they want to navigate them.