Hey everyone, so I've done a little looking around SDN but can't seem to find a thread this specific about including my fraternity involvement in my application. I transferred to a University as a Junior and joined a social fraternity, taking on a few positions as a pledge and newly initiated member that Spring. However, I was only a member for a semester as my fall semester of senior year was off-campus in the form of a graded internship. During that time, I was on "abroad" status, but the fraternity got kicked off campus and the newer members made the 'extra-curricular' social activity of the fraternity known via a video that actually caught a lot of attention online during the Spring... Should I forego putting this on my application even though I was technically not affiliated during this? Am I rolling the dice if I list this and if I do, should I somehow try to explain that I wasn't even in the area when all of this happened?
Including Fraternity on Application Despite Getting Terminated
- Thread starter Coltuna
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If you were an officer and/or had an influence on the fraternity before the incident, then maybe you can include it. I personally would not, especially if your chapter is suspended.
If you do decide to, they will for sure ask you during the interview. I was asked about my fraternity at every single one. Just be sure to mention the positive aspects and not the "social" aspects
If you do decide to, they will for sure ask you during the interview. I was asked about my fraternity at every single one. Just be sure to mention the positive aspects and not the "social" aspects
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You were involved for a semester on-campus. If you did anything notable, then perhaps include it, like raising tons of money for a charity or the likes. Otherwise, I don't see what it could add to your application, especially if the chapter was notorious for an incident. Don't give them any reason to question your application.
Imagine if an AdCom remembered seeing the news of your chapter and its incident and then that was the permanent association they had when reviewing your app during a committee session.
Imagine if an AdCom remembered seeing the news of your chapter and its incident and then that was the permanent association they had when reviewing your app during a committee session.
Thank you for the response. So holding a leadership position like pledge class president and philanthropy chair and adding to my app most likely wouldn't offset the negative feelings that an adcom may initially hold?
I would avoid anything contravesial. Your involvment is not likely to help get you accepted and could only raise questions. Questions are problematic.
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On initial impression so you were there and after you left things got really bad. That could raise the question of what could you have done to instill better values on the incoming class?
I'd personally leave it off, unless you really did something awe inspiring. Seems like the potential for downside is much greater than up. You totally don't want to waste interview time defending your role in a frat. Much better things to discuss during an interview.
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I'd personally leave it off, unless you really did something awe inspiring. Seems like the potential for downside is much greater than up. You totally don't want to waste interview time defending your role in a frat. Much better things to discuss during an interview.
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If it's your most substantial leadership experience, then I would definitely put it. This was the case for me, and I was asked about it in all my interviews and I was easily able to communicate the positive outcomes of my fraternity experience. If it's just to put as padding or checking off the "leadership role" box, I would avoid. You have to be able to relate how your experiences have prepared you to be a med student/future doctor. If your fraternity role made you a better person/student/leader, yay, if not really, nay. Addressing being affiliated with a controversial chapter, I think you should be fine, I bet most Adcom's aren't even aware of the specific (many) chapters that get booted from campuses every year, unless you're SAE from OU...
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If an adcom decides to google the fraternity and the first thing they see on google is a NYT article about how it was kicked off campus for something inappropriate, how do you think that is going to color their view of your application?
There is really no benefit to adding this and there is a huge risk of it working against you. I think it would be a very bad idea to include this on your application. It's all risk with essentially no reward.
There is really no benefit to adding this and there is a huge risk of it working against you. I think it would be a very bad idea to include this on your application. It's all risk with essentially no reward.
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I didn't include anything about my frat, and we didn't get kicked off or anything (in fact we almost quadrupled in size during my time due to my brothers' and my efforts lol) . It's too big of a gamble. You never know what kind of person will end up interviewing or looking at your app. And as we all know from social media and news headlines... frats are a polarizing issue. Keep stuff like that away from your application imo.
Completely agree with this. Fraternities(especially social ones) have a stigma associated with them. Especially since your fraternity was kicked off of campus. This not only looks terrible on an application but it even shows you were associated with people who did this. Does this make you a bad person? No, but when applying to medical school, you are going to find dozens of people with your stats or better, so why give them anything to think about when looking at your application? Especially when the aspect of you being in the frat, doesn't really add anything to you.
It showed leadership skills, true but does it out weigh all the massive negatives associated with it? I'm going to say with 95% confidence, no.
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Probably nobody will remember what your fraternity did. Only paranoid premeds dream of people googling that kind of stuff or remembering it.
Nevertheless, only include it if you did something positive. Otherwise they may actually question why you joined and did nothing.
Nevertheless, only include it if you did something positive. Otherwise they may actually question why you joined and did nothing.
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Same train of thought-- how big of a news story was the fraternity getting kicked out, and how much are you interested in your state school(s)?
A fraternity was kicked out of my undergrad a few years ago, and it was a big deal locally. An adcom wouldn't even have to bother to google the fraternity to know about it-- they would have seen it in the local news.
I don't understand the logic. Why risk anything for this? Does it have a huge payoff? No. Does this even greatly affect the application chance of you getting accepted? No, in my opinion. Then why add it? There doesn't seem to be any point. You are just risking something that really has no payoff whats so ever. Unless you saved families from a burning building or something ridiculous in this fraternity that will make them turn a blind eye to anything they might of seen. Why even risk it?
