What's the consensus on fraternities?

[Goro]

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Members don't see this ad.

I don't have an opinion of sororities. My was is a former Phi Mu, BTW.

One of the things that I want to reiterate that simply listing membership in a frat or a sorority will not be viewed positively by me for an EC, unless one documents the good works one has done.

Curious to know if you adcom members view women's Greek letter organizations in the same way as fraternities? My sorority was stricter than strict (had a "house mom", no booze or boys in the house, zero hazing, risk management policies out the wazoo, etc) and we had numerous philanthropy projects, great leadership-building opportunities, and strong bonds with one another. But if people just see "binge drinking and partying" when they see any Greek letters, I guess I'll elect to leave that off of my apps.

 

[IlDestriero]

I hired 2 cooks, fired one, and managed a significant food budget for 2 years. Good times. It's easier to get the food you want when you're paying the cook. 🙂
I was also the president. But the year that I spent as social chairman was the most rewarding. 😉
Usually 10-20% of the fraternity do 90+% of the work. If you're in that leadership track, it should be obvious in your activities.
My greatest accomplishment was establishing the "XXX Senior Leadership Award" that every pre professional 4th year President awards to themselves. It still exists to this day.
#MasterOfTheSpinZone


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Il Destriero

 

[IlDestriero]

The funny thing is that both my parents are involved in hiring decisions in the business world. They actually choose to interview candidates from Greek organizations with decent GPA's because they know that this candidate will 1.) have some set of social skills and 2.) know how to balance a work/social life.

It's true. There are an awful lot of weirdos out there. Successful but significantly personality disordered weirdos. I don't want them as my partner, I don't even want them as my resident/fellow.
Even the nerdy introvert fraternity develops some teamwork and social/communication skills in it's members and weeds out those that are 2 SD off the mean. Where I went to school the presidents and social chairmen were automatically on all the guest lists. The nerdy fraternity always went all out to attract a good sorority for their pre mixers. I would always go over immediately following their pre mixer as they usually had leftover good booze, etc. They were good guys. And the pickings were pretty good for a dashing young athlete in the land of the pocket protectors.
Lol!


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Il Destriero

 

[alpinism]

How do Adcoms view joining a fraternity, could it hurt your chances? Does it show that your preferences are in the wrong place because fraternities are more like drinking tanks than the character building institutions they used to be?

Thoughts?!


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Bro there's only one question you need to answer.

What's your chill to pull ratio?

 

[alpinism]

total frat move bro

Hell yes.

 

[LateToTheGame755]

I have it mentioned under a couple activity descriptions and a national award, but I'm not going to put the fraternity itself under its own even though I have a fair amount of leadership. I think I'm just going to save it for either secondaries or hopefully talk about it during interviews. Not worth trying to justifiably explain big leadership positions with strange names in a small amount of space

 

[coldcase331]

For what it's worth, I had 3 EC's that were related to the fraternity and had pretty good cycle success. Just be sure to say the right things about it.


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[Crayola227]

I completely understand your point, but why would this be limited to Greek life? Honestly in my experience Greek members are so much more responsible in their drinking/ partying habits versus non-members. As VP of mine I had to take care of a lot of problems my house would have and 90% of the time a person was too drunk/ had to have an ambulance called/ started a fight/ etc. they weren't involved in Greek life. We all take alcohol and safety classes and are educated on proper sexual conduct (i.e. sexual assault and whatnot) and do things that the general student body does NOT do. Out of every female I know, only one who was sexually assaulted was in a fraternity house. The countless others were by random people in the community, student body, or their friends.

I get that fraternities have negative stereotypes and I understand why some may have that, but to think that just because someone is in Greek life means they party anymore or drink anymore than literally any college student is naive. If this were actually true, why are the all-Greek, sorority, and even the fraternities GPA averages significantly higher at my undergrad than the overall GPA of the student body? Apparently having balance to ones life is effective.

I don't know. Ultimately it doesn't matter and I know for a fact my leadership roles in my fraternity won't leave me out of medical school, it's just annoying to hear these things coming from actual admissions officers.

Because it's a scientific fact adolescent to early adult males are a problem in groups. Gangs of boy-men, if you will. There is always more mischief. Ritualizing it into Greek life? Maybe it's better. Call it whatever you want but any "gang" will have that stigma on the basis of what I argue is evolutionary behaviorism.

The negative stereotype *I* have of it: to my knowledge just paying to be part of a frat isn't that expensive but isn't cheap, either. For those that pay to live in the house, seems like a *lot* more money being put out for just having roommates. If you're going to quote to me all the reasons that it's worth the money, I hope that most of them look good on a med school app and sound responsible. Otherwise, you've told me you spent a lot of money to be in a "gang," if it's not for the leadership etc. than it sounds like a dumb purchase, and now we have that stereotype to add.

Hence I will stand by, if you are not telling me you spent all this money to build connections and to exercise leadership blah blah, then I'm going to think you have money to burn to "be cool" in a clique.

 

[IlDestriero]

Your argument about paying to live or eat in the fraternity house is faulty. You can pay the university their overpriced rates for a dorm and meal plan, you can go it alone overpaying one of the slumlords that rents 100 area units, or you can pay to live in the fraternity house. We had a lovely large place right next to campus and room and board there were cheaper than the other options. I tried all 3 and the fraternity house was the best arrangement. The time and money I saved moving into the house paid for many miscellaneous expenses I would have had anyway. I also saved quite a bit on the extortion that the university called a parking permit, for a student lot much less convenient than the fraternity quad. Paying for my gang membership paid for my spring break trips in savings. That's where I saw plenty of roving gangs of alcoholics and potential rapists btw, not on fraternity row.
At my university a significant percentage of the student body was Greek and many more used it as their weekend social outlet. The university supported the system and they used it as well. We were scholars, athletes, university leaders, etc. We all supported various charities and provided tens of thousands of man hours of community service every year. We provided a couple major campus wide events a year, and we were a safe social outlet, essentially on campus, for a significant percentage of the student body to blow off some steam.
Your stereotypes are tired. Every university Greek system is going to be different, as is every individual fraternity, so to look down on anyone that was part of that system is a foolish as looking down on them because they belong to some minority group or particular religion.


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Il Destriero

 

[jsf0120]

"How do you present safety in drinking in a frat where no one should be drinking?"
Gonnif, I describe the safe driver program, to prevent drunk driving by everyone (including the 30 or so member that were 21plus)

 

[clippers50fan]

Because it's a scientific fact adolescent to early adult males are a problem in groups. Gangs of boy-men, if you will. There is always more mischief. Ritualizing it into Greek life? Maybe it's better. Call it whatever you want but any "gang" will have that stigma on the basis of what I argue is evolutionary behaviorism.

The negative stereotype *I* have of it: to my knowledge just paying to be part of a frat isn't that expensive but isn't cheap, either. For those that pay to live in the house, seems like a *lot* more money being put out for just having roommates. If you're going to quote to me all the reasons that it's worth the money, I hope that most of them look good on a med school app and sound responsible. Otherwise, you've told me you spent a lot of money to be in a "gang," if it's not for the leadership etc. than it sounds like a dumb purchase, and now we have that stereotype to add.

Hence I will stand by, if you are not telling me you spent all this money to build connections and to exercise leadership blah blah, then I'm going to think you have money to burn to "be cool" in a clique.

Considering it cost me 14,000 dollars to live in a really ****ty double in the dorms, 9,000 to live in a double in an apartment (without food, parking, or brotherhood dues), or 7,000 to live in a large single in my fraternity which includes a meal plan, parking, AND my dues, your argument that I paid more is completely wrong. I saved so much money living in my fraternity. And considering my fraternity was the most diverse on campus and we made sure brothers who couldn't afford it were on special plans, reduced dues, or paid in other ways, I think our "gang" was incredibly inclusive and a great way to save for what's already an incredibly expensive and hard to access education. I apologize for allowing those that couldn't afford it a nice living situation that didn't cost them arm and leg. So in reality, I actually made the wise financial decision to join and move into my fraternity so that my college education didn't cost more than it already was. Not to mention all the philanthropy we were able to do with out fraternity and Greek resources. I'm sure St. Jude Children's Hospital is reallllllly upset with the thousands we donate to them every single year (not to mention the MILLIONS Tridelta donates to them). Yeah, how dare they accept gang money.

 

[coldcase331]

Considering it cost me 14,000 dollars to live in a really ****ty double in the dorms, 9,000 to live in a double in an apartment (without food, parking, or brotherhood dues), or 7,000 to live in a large single in my fraternity which includes a meal plan, parking, AND my dues, your argument that I paid more is completely wrong. I saved so much money living in my fraternity. And considering my fraternity was the most diverse on campus and we made sure brothers who couldn't afford it were on special plans, reduced dues, or paid in other ways, I think our "gang" was incredibly inclusive and a great way to save for what's already an incredibly expensive and hard to access education. I apologize for allowing those that couldn't afford it a nice living situation that didn't cost them arm and leg. So in reality, I actually made the wise financial decision to join and move into my fraternity so that my college education didn't cost more than it already was. Not to mention all the philanthropy we were able to do with out fraternity and Greek resources. I'm sure St. Jude Children's Hospital is reallllllly upset with the thousands we donate to them every single year (not to mention the MILLIONS Tridelta donates to them). Yeah, how dare they accept gang money.

I thought Tri delt was the only Greek organization that donated to St. Jude's?


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[clippers50fan]

I thought Tri delt was the only Greek organization that donated to St. Jude's?


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Nope! They just do it the best lol

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

Re: drunk driving initiative

I actually had an interviewer who was suspicious about my frat and asked if we ever had anyone with substance abuse issues.

Told a true story about my best friend/pledge brother who picked up a pill addiction and how the brotherhood organized an intervention for him. We set him up with appointments with a substance abuse counselor, and had someone stay with him 24/7 to keep him on track in school.

Definitely a risky move but that interviewer absolutely loved it. Moral of the story is that every adcom is different, and to use your social skills to read the conversation.

 

[Chemistry>Physics]

Your argument about paying to live or eat in the fraternity house is faulty. You can pay the university their overpriced rates for a dorm and meal plan, you can go it alone overpaying one of the slumlords that rents 100 area units, or you can pay to live in the fraternity house. We had a lovely large place right next to campus and room and board there were cheaper than the other options. I tried all 3 and the fraternity house was the best arrangement. The time and money I saved moving into the house paid for many miscellaneous expenses I would have had anyway. I also saved quite a bit on the extortion that the university called a parking permit, for a student lot much less convenient than the fraternity quad. Paying for my gang membership paid for my spring break trips in savings. That's where I saw plenty of roving gangs of alcoholics and potential rapists btw, not on fraternity row.
At my university a significant percentage of the student body was Greek and many more used it as their weekend social outlet. The university supported the system and they used it as well. We were scholars, athletes, university leaders, etc. We all supported various charities and provided tens of thousands of man hours of community service every year. We provided a couple major campus wide events a year, and we were a safe social outlet, essentially on campus, for a significant percentage of the student body to blow off some steam.
Your stereotypes are tired. Every university Greek system is going to be different, as is every individual fraternity, so to look down on anyone that was part of that system is a foolish as looking down on them because they belong to some minority group or particular religion.


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Il Destriero

I 100% agree and this is what Greek life is about, I'm going to be pledge a frat for these reasons.

But because of realities I think no matter my involvement I will not mention it on a med school app.


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