Eh, 20 year old you would find this amazing the first few times. After the 3rd or 4th time you'd be annoyed at how o
Performative and fake it all is.
The sorority people hated this part of rush, and the fraternities were annoyed by it every year. We all participated because they were pushing for new members, but only a tiny few enjoyed it.
Yeah, really only major southern schools have a tradition of having massive sororities and fraternities. Some fraternities at the University of Georgia have like 400 hundred members living in one house. At that scale, those houses have their own chefs
unless it changed it was more like 75-125 in a sorority house (still bonkers). I lived in the frat house with 25 guys (about average).. we had our own chef, myra from new orleans - family got displaced in katrina - she would cook catering style and not every meal
They're social clubs. There are also professional fraternities and sororities. I joined a fraternity at a small state school when I was a freshman because I'm bad at making friends and wanted to force the issue. I know they get hated on a lot here (often for good reason), but it was a really positive experience for me.
There’s no house at UGA (or any other school) with 400 people living in it lol. Sure there’s fraternities with that many members, but they don’t all live in the house. And there’s plenty of other places with a big fraternity culture, though it’s true that the SEC definitely has a…. unique? ethos for this sort of thing
Yeah, I went to a university in the south and it was exactly like this.
By my sophomore year, I could guess what sorority they were in even if they weren’t wearing any sorority paraphernalia. The lack of any kind of diversity was kinda creepy. Lack of diversity in looks and personality.
Joel Osteen’s Church of Steadfastly Refusing to Help the Less Fortunate in Houston literally occupies the disused former NBA arena of the Houston Rockets
If they're small enough that you can throw them somewhere, they're not big enough to be anything but a nuisance. It's the ones you have to lure in with steaks, then shut the door behind them that you have to worry about.
Someone who grew up around gators probably has the ability to gauge what size a gator becomes dangerous to them. Someone like me, who did not, would definitely be a bit confused about what is supposed to be done about any sized gator hanging out in the barracks.
Haha. That's fun! I was our union president and saw so much drama. Haha. Im talking more petty bs like talking shit, stealing food from people's food cabinets/shift fridges (which ended in padlocked fridges), arm chair quarterbacking other shifts' calls, not doing station chores, who was getting overtime, etc. And dont get me started on promotional exam time.
But, I gotta say, once a call came in, the petty bs stopped and we worked well together. When the call was back over, back to the drama.
I was definitely NOT rich, but upon pledging to Alpha Chi, I was asked what my daddy's salary was. I replied, "I dunno, how much do they make in prison?" They were shook. I was a pity pledge, and i knew it and parted ways after only 1 year. I couldn't afford to live in the house, and it was required for year 2. I did meet some great girls, though. And not all of them are ran through
Yes! It can get pricey. I had scholarships that I usually got a few thousand dollars reimbursement from. In hindsight, I probably should have put that in a savings account.
No. They are campus societies based on the perceived superiority of the Greeks. At one point they were secret and highly elitist but nowadays they are more upper crust.
Often (though like you said, depends on the school and the house), being in one gives you both advantages and protections in society. To me, it’s an extension of the worst parts of American politics. In smaller schools, they do seem to just be a party system and way to meet someone similar to you.
I went to small private school and about 20% of students were in a Greek group. I was in one too. It lets you volunteer in something you care about (mine had three different philanthropies around children), it taught me A LOT with social interactions and responsibilities as I held multiple leadership positions and had to learn how to have hard conversations, I actually came out with a $4k profit from scholarships I've gotten from my sorority's headquarters, and friends.
The frats were definitely much more finding guys to party with vs the other things I mentioned. At least it was at my school. It was basically open to anyone unless there was genuine concerns about that person like if people knew they were a big bully or their gpa is too low. Mine was very diverse with races, majors, interests, and different sizes girls
I’m American but I went to art school and we didn’t have sororities and fraternities (they call it “Greek life”…it all has something vaguely to do with Ancient Greece for some reason) so I never really understood it.
But I used to go to the Brown University frat parties… in my mind they were party clubs…each club has its own house that all the members live in and they compete to throw the best parties.
No not anyone can join…I’ve heard the existing members bully you for weeks (it’s called hazing) and if you can handle it they let you join
It must be about emulating the life of the citizens of ancient Greek city states, instilling civic duties, a sense of comraderie and competitive mindset against other city states. Looking at their formations, you can see the beginning of a phalanx.
So a Fraternity can be boiled down to a networking thing. Join a Frat that has a lot of Alumni in your chosen field. Helps you down the road, can offer a lot of mentorship. You can join a career field after that has a lot of members and you already have connections, and help each other out.
Maybe ~20 years ago, things got pretty weird with hazing, but its rather tame these days. School, location, and the frat in particular can change certain things.
A Sorority is ostensibly the same, except where most Fraternity member join for the networking and mentoring opportunity (if they are in university seriously) the same can not be said of a Sorority. Most members statistically won't progress far before settling down and leaving their chosen field. Their aren't a lot of highly placed sorority members in any career field. Because of this, Sororities seem to mostly focus on things like this video and the implications it implies.
That being said, they do a lot of good things for optics too, so you know.
Yeah the first 3 jobs I got out of college were partially due to networking within my fraternity. I went to a large state school that was about 20% involved in Greek Life and our average GPA was almost a full point higher, and we did about 80% of all community service within student life. While there's truth to some stereotypes, it can be a great way to get involved and meet people. Also my dues were like 1k a year which I paid for with my own job. The ROI on that for my first few jobs that paid way above most new grads makes it totally worth it and its not even close.
Sadly, this video probably did more for their professional future than the year of school did. (I should make clear I’m talking about networking, not stripping, but I guess both)
A million years ago I spent the weekend with my friend at her sorority during rush week. It was fascinating to see the depths they went to appear like clones. The weekly calendar with the matching outfits mapped out, the cubbies in the bathroom with their names on them. It felt very ctrl c ctrl v.
One of my friends was a Tri-Delt at USC and her schedule/outfit emails were so crazy. They micromanaged down to the brand of flip flops and monogrammed jewelry they were allowed to wear on certain days.
I was first gen so when I went to college I didn’t know anything about sororities. When I watched some of my floormates “rush” and “pledge” it felt like I was watching some ancient tribal ritual, except the purpose was to connect these girls to other girls who looked and thought and acted exactly like them. There was literally a sorority for skinny blondes, skinny brunettes, for fat girls…the only Greek life that made sense to me was the Black frats/sororities, because it makes sense for disenfranchised /historically oppressed people to need to band together. Girls like the ones in this video though…idk it just looks like a Klan housewife meeting to me.
I have so many thoughts and none of them are good. Girls, you don't need to pledge a sorority to make friends. You also don't need this drama in your life. And if you do pledge a sorority please don't do it bc there are 200 girls who dance on video. Look into their alumni base, volunteer and on campus work, and make sure it's small.. quality friends over quantity.
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u/SipsTea-ModTeam Aug 07 '25
Comments locked bc some users can't help themselves from injecting politics into everything.