Fraternity involvement on AMCAS

[LateToTheGame755]

I'm new here, so hopefully I'm posting this in the right place. But I'm heavily involved in my fraternity, and have been since freshman year, but I know that fraternities and Greek life in general can often be polarizing topics. Do you guys think that I should include that involvement or could it lead to possible false stereotypes?

Edit: it is a social fraternity

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[Espressso]

Depends on the frat/sorority. Is it a scholar/academic fraternity?

 

[benjamin94559]

If you've spent a considerable amount of time doing stuff for the frat then I would list it because it would be an unfair representation of yourself to omit it. Plus I assume most frats, even the super broie ones, do a good amount of philantrophy related stuff and that you as a good premed frat member were involved in at least some part of the stuff related to philanthropy and not just the social stuff.

 

[LateToTheGame755]

Depends on the frat/sorority. Is it a scholar/academic fraternity?

It's a social fraternity, but we have philanthropies and community service events throughout the year

 

[MaxPlancker]

Well I don't think adcoms will judge you based on whatever conceptions of Greek life they may have. They are taught to be as neutral as possible and evaluate you based on the credentials you present on paper and in interview. Greek Life can be a great thing.

 

[LateToTheGame755]

It can show long term commitment in something as well perhaps leadership/mentoring. Of course as @EspressoDrip42 notes it also depends the overall reputation of the fraternity. If it is more like Delta Handa Poker or Tappa Kega Beera, then probably not

Yeah that's kind of the stereotypes that I'm worried about, because while I see it a lot different and know about everything I've been involved in and contribute I'm worried that i won't be able to successfully convey that over the engrained stereotypes. Because like what @benjamin94559 said I've spent a ton of time and poured a lot of my soul into bettering the chapter but I feel it could potentially hurt

 

[jsf0120]

I've put my fraternity experience on my application. I discussed the leadership and philanthropic roles I had as one of my most meaningful experiences.. In my personal statement, I have a few words about my actions to prevent drunk driving in my chapter when a drunk driver killed a friend of mine.

 

[FindingNismo]

i plan on including my fraternity involvement. i held a bunch of leadership roles which took up a significant amount of my time outside of the classroom, and we were able to achieve some important goals (fundraising targets for philanthropy, revised academic policies, etc.). these experiences are important, and i don't see them as any different than holding an officer position in any other organization and i doubt most adcoms would.

i think as long as you held some type of leadership role or had some type of responsibility, include it. if you didnt', then i would say exclude it as that would seem to imply to me that your fraternity involvement was more along the lines of the aforementioned tappa kega berra than an important leadership experience.

 

[TheOneTrueKingofWesteros]

I put my social fraternity experience on my application too. I mostly wrote about the unique community service work I did with the group and the leadership positions I held. If anything, I think it helped me in interviews. All of my interviewers wanted to hear more about the projects I worked on with my brothers and how we came up with the ideas.

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

I included my fraternity involvement because it was something I was legitimately passionate about and spent a ton of time doing in undergrad. However I'd spend some extra time thinking of how you're gonna describe it on amcas and how you plan to speak about it during interviews.

Personally I tried to aggressively focus on the leadership experience and professional skills being on the exec board helps develop. Try to be ready for any questions the interviewers may ask about the more "unsavory" behaviors some fraternities are know for...

 

[CowboyNiceguy]

I did not list mine because I could imagine someone judging me negatively for it, while I couldn't see it adding a lot to improve my application. Just seemed like an unnecessary risk without a large reward.

 

[Chamomile Tea]

I planning on adding my sorority (it is a social and academic one) on my application. I think adding it helps if you had a lot of philanthropy/leadership that you worked with your Greek Letter Organization to do. Now if you were one of the members who just joined and went inactive most of the time (and only came when there was a tailgate or mixer) I'd probably leave it off. You might be asked what all you did service wise for your organization and if you can't come up with a coherent answer there is a chance they might start to assume the negative stereotypes.

 

[Goro]

One of the problems I see with listing frat as ECS is that people seldom go into detail. This leaves people like me to fill in the blanks that they were simy busy binge drinking, tormenting pledges, vomiting on their boaters, or raping drunk coeds.

Well I don't think adcoms will judge you based on whatever conceptions of Greek life they may have. They are taught to be as neutral as possible and evaluate you based on the credentials you present on paper and in interview. Greek Life can be a great thing.

 

[bananafish94]

One of the problems I see with listing frat as ECS is that people seldom go into detail. This leaves people like me to fill in the blanks that they were simy busy binge drinking, tormenting pledges, vomiting on their boaters, or raping drunk coeds.

The year I've spent as a member of my university's committee on sexual misconduct has rendered me permanently unable to view fraternities in a positive light.

 

[Benjoe11]

I listed my social fraternity experience as one of my three most meaningful. Because it was. I was highly involved, held multiple leadership positions and provided very clear ways we positively impacted the campus and community. It's only a stereotype if your organization fell into that. If you can speak intelligently about it and not just say things like "I had so much fun and made great friends" I don't see why you wouldn't include it.

 

[Benjoe11]

The two years I've spent as a member of my university's committee on sexual misconduct has rendered me permanently unable to view fraternities at my school in a positive light.

Fixed.

 

[bananafish94]

Fixed.

Yes, my school was included in my original post.

 

[Let'sGoO's]

I included it as 1 of my top 3 most important because it was and it gave me most of my leadership experience while at school since I was heavily involved
Yet It was one of the only things on my application that never came up in any interview, I really doubt it helps, there's just such a poor stigma around fraternities these days