What are your thoughts on fraternities and sororities? Have you had good or bad experiences with them?

12 comments

1. [removed]

2. They were for wealthy kids to get an inside track to jobs after college. Selected all the “alphas.” They were involved in a lot of community outreach work. Those that graduated from the Greek system became leaders – either through connections or just from the skills learned from organizing big events.

   I have mixed feelings, mostly not great. Lol…and no, this is not coming from someone dropped during Rush week. I was friendly with a few people in Greek life, but they were always a tad snobby. It’s an intangible air of “I’m better than you.” And I don’t have exact figures, but I suspect most houses charge high enough fees to keep them exclusive. There are a few exceptions now, and I think that’s a good thing. I’m glad to see the emergence of more professional fraternities and sororities.

   The parties were pretty much what you’d expect. Big, loud, sweaty. They were fun, but nothing you couldn’t put together outside of a frathouse.

   EDIT: I’m a bit older…I didn’t experience any sexual assault, but I definitely see how it happens. I’m optimistic young men are becoming more knowledgeable about appropriate behavior, but I think the best line of defense is for women to stick together. I had a great group of friends and we always kept an eye on each other.

3. I’m a big fan of the Divine Nine organizations. My daddy is a Que and my mama is a Zeta. Seeing the connections and life long friendships they’ve made has always seemed so cool to me. I’m considering pledging my mama’s sorority this year since it’s my fourth year.

4. In my country they got a rather terrible reputation.
   Places where mostly wealthy rightwingers and Neonazis connect with each other. Lots of drinking and odd traditions. And duels. Weird af.

5. They’re outlawed at the school where I went to undergrad and from what I can tell, they’re very rare in Canada generally, so I haven’t had any experience with them. I’m grateful for that, actually.

6. There wasn’t a big Greek life scene at my college in the way there would be at a huge university, but there were still a few. The sororities seemed like they all just hung out and made new t-shirts constantly. The fraternities partied a lot but I can’t recall any incidents besides just them being dumbasses or playing music too loud. There were never any hazing incidents reported.

   It really all depends on what kind of culture a college/university allows to thrive on campus.

7. I don’t know if we have them in the UK…but my thoughts are a group of wealthy kids using their power to control others: all the experiences I have come across have been negative..from bullying to racism..mixed with this superiority complex behaviour.

8. I think it is confusing and American. I do not get why they exist

9. I’m in Ontario Canada and sororities/fraternities do exist but aren’t as ‘glamourized’ as it is in the movies ie. people aren’t jumping the gun to rush any of the houses and it takes an incredible amount of money to do so. I went to a few parties at some of the frat houses when I was in uni and well, those parties are pretty much what you see in the movies….I remember sitting on the couch and someone kept kicking the back of it so when I turned around to see who it was, there were 4 people having an orgy on the floor LOL

10. My husband’s small music fraternity was responsible for his vocal training and beautiful singing voice, so that’s a win.

    As someone who only picked up a few credits from a commuter college, I have no experience with sororities.

11. Speaking as an non-American, they are just another thing that I don’t understand why Americans put up with.

12. We had some at my university, I wasn’t interested. Aside from the general reputation for partying (which wasn’t my thing) it also seemed like a huge commitment both in terms of time and money. I didn’t want to take all that on while also trying to adjust to uni, living in a new city etc.