"a fraternity is VERY hard to understand unless you are a part of one."

 

It's so cute when boring white people try to create their own mystique :lol:

Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.

 

Not you.  you can't be one of them.

 

Will you please stop stereotyping Fraternities and Fraternity Types?

Will you please stop stereotyping Fraternities and Fraternity Types?

I'm not stereotyping, as per the usual, I'm speaking in terms of my own experiences with Frats and those I know in Frats.

my friends and i at case were not in any frats but we used to tear shit up at their parties.  we hung out with cia people more. 

No, I wasn't.  I didn't care what other people thought, I was in college to get an education, not party.  I got a full ride and I wasn't about to f*ck that up!

 

Sounds familiar.  Though for me it was no big deal since I was and am pretty much a loner anyway.

 

 

 

Yaaay! Let’s hear it for loners, my favorite kind of people (I guess that sounded pathetic). But I suppose the real appeal to fraternities is their..ummm...exclusivity factor--like-minded people who share common interests and goals. Isn't that what freedom of association is all about? And if screening out "undesirables" is all part of the process, congratulations! You're well on your way up the corporate ladder before you actually even start to climb it. Like, you know?

Will you please stop stereotyping Fraternities and Fraternity Types?

I'm not stereotyping, as per the usual, I'm speaking in terms of my own experiences with Frats and those I know in Frats.

 

But you're taking your own experiences from Frats from when you went to college in 1934 and extrapolating them upon other people, fraternities and schools. Sounds like stereotyping to me.

Will you please stop stereotyping Fraternities and Fraternity Types?

I'm not stereotyping, as per the usual, I'm speaking in terms of my own experiences with Frats and those I know in Frats.

 

But you're taking your own experiences from Frats from when you went to college in 1934 and extrapolating them upon other people, fraternities and schools. Sounds like stereotyping to me.

 

1934?  OOP!  HUSH! 

So for those of you who have joined a Fraternity or Sorority, what was your reason?

So for those of you who have joined a Fraternity or Sorority, what was your reason?

 

honestly, meeting slutty girls. Socials rule.

 

My, aren't you just a "catch"?  :roll:

Haha f'n GDI's

God, do I feel old in this thread.

Frats!  ugh :roll: :roll: :roll:

 

Thank you.

Wow @ this thread.... I joined a fraternity because I saw a group of young black men doing something positive on campus and around the community. Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. is the first black greek letter fraternity founded in 1906. Yes we do have parties and we drink but most of the time that stuff over-shadows the real reason we even exists. Nobody talks about the 'Penny Drive' project we do where we raise money for homeless shelters during Thanksgiving. How about 'A Voteless People Is A Hopeless People' where we march around campus making sure students and the community is not only registered to vote, but voices their rights to vote... I could go on and on about the countless projects many fraternities have annually. 'Some' frats are all about the parties, drinking, and women. All of that is cool, but that's not the main purpose for me joining a fraternity.

yubh8tin that all fine and dandy. 

Frats!  ugh :roll: :roll: :roll:

 

Thank you.

 

Again.. I don't wanna hear your opinions on them, if you wanna debate that, start your own thread.

Spike Lee's "School Daze" sort of satirized that black greek system.  I was introduced to it in college as I had a black roommate for a year.  He wasnt involved, but a freind of his had pledged Omega Pi Psi, so I found out about this that way.

 

Back then there where some special interest frats on campus.  There was "Triangle", which was a frat for engineers, and Kappa Alpha, which was a regional frat found only in the South (or used to be).

 

 

I was in Phi Sigma Rho, which is kind of the female equivalent of Triangle.

Frats!  ugh :roll: :roll: :roll:

 

Thank you.

 

Again.. I don't wanna hear your opinions on them, if you wanna debate that, start your own thread.

 

Now...now..now....whippersnapper.  I did ask why peeps joined.  Frats/Sorors aren't for everyone and when I was in college the weren't the most "inclusive" despite many frat members being gay. 

^

I hear there is a gay fraternity now.

 

@@@@

 

The college I went to had very few frat members (in a way it was its own fraternity/sorority due to selective admissions and the nature of the program), so my exposure to the greek scene was sort of indirect, via my involvement with my uni's SGA.

 

Though they adopted the 'preppy' cultural style popular at the time I recall a some of the greeks I served with on the SGA  were actually pretty liberal, politically, which isnt what one expects due to the conservative greek stereotype (or that was the stereotype 25 years ago)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, there are two gay frats now, plus there are tons of gays in frats, two of which have been mentioned here.  lol

I was a Delta Chi at Kent State...

 

O, I had a lot of great times at that place...Overall it was pretty good and positive experience...I meet a lot of my good friends there...

I had been exposed to greek life and had been interested since I introduced to it. I chose my organization because the members did service, had respectable grades, but at the same time could party. I liked what the organization stood for and so I joined.

Frats! ugh :roll: :roll: :roll:

 

Thank you.

 

Again.. I don't wanna hear your opinions on them, if you wanna debate that, start your own thread.

 

Now...now..now....whippersnapper. I did ask why peeps joined. Frats/Sorors aren't for everyone and when I was in college the weren't the most "inclusive" despite many frat members being gay.

 

That was just my way of saying "no". Of course, the non-frat student body doesn't fare much better. Your average college student does little, if anything, to enrich him/herself intellectually, which I agree is another topic all together.

Hey C-Dawg, I looked for this thread and came up first with your "how to frat" thread.  Anyway, here is a post from me...whatever happened to Angela Rito?  I was facebook friends with her but at some point in the last year she slipped away...probably because she googled herself and found our posts on this thread!

 

 

>no, though I know Angie. Everyone thinks she's hot...

 

Yeah she's pretty hot all right and really friendly so there are tons of dudes who think they have a chance.     

 

 

>and she's famous for cooking food at 4am if you ask her to. I remember one time we had a grab-a-date in the Bullpen at Red Brick, and my friend took Angie (he's just friends with her). I was awestruck and decided to completely ditch my own date (who was a random last-minute thing) and concentrate on Angie. She was cool as hell.

 

I rented that place out once and had a decent party down there although their sound system sucks.  It sounds like a $35 ghetto blaster from Wal-Mart.   

 

 

>My friends went to a frat party not too long ago at OU where they literally physically destroyed the inside of the house. Can't remember the name of the frat. 

 

Once when I was working delivery I delivered to one of the places over by Memorial Auditorium.  Nobody answered the door so I walked in, there were huge puddles of beer, couches on their sides, other destroyed furniture, holes in the walls, maybe one working light fixture, and the first person I see is a girl wearing a dude's sweatshirt and just panties.  She went and got whoever the delivery was for. 

 

 

 

Anyway, my single most memorable greek memory from college was atteding the faternity boxing in 1998 or 1999 at Knoxville Golden Gloves Arena, a cinder block building dating from the late 1940's on the Knox County Fairgrounds.  It was one of those events which is techinically open to the public but which few people from the public actually attend...and for good reason.  This was probably the single most dangerous event I've attended in my life...they were breaking EVERY fire code in that place.  I went to a few oversold heavy metal concerts in the 90's in the heyday of moshing, stage diving, etc., but nothing matched this event for sheer sweat and agony.  I'd estimate there were 1,500 people there and since it was actually pretty cold out (rare for Tennessee) everyone stayed packed inside.  The ceiling was about 15ft. high in this place and there was a cloud of humidity and cigarette smoke so thick I was unable to use my camera...the lens fogged up instantly.  I remember somebody in charge assumed I was with the paper (I wasn't) and brought me up ringside so I was in the thick of it but i mostly just acted like I was taking photos since the camera was more or less useless.   

 

Anyway, it was a centuries-old formula...too many people who showed up at a BYOB event too drunk before the event, then there was almost no seating and most people were seriously drunk standing on top of coolers.  The whole floor was wet because of the beer and humidity and as the night went on the amount of broken glass increased steadily.  In about the third-last fight, one of the dudes fighting had had a severe chemical burn as a kid and he truly looked like a monster.  During the last fight a big fight broke out between two fraternities but due to the crush of the crowd they really weren't able to fight because they couldn't physically get to each other.  They just threw beer bottles back and forth until they ran out.  The guy in charge got on the mic and threatened to cancel the event but nobody was even listening to him.  I'll have to dig up those photos...of course this was back in the days of film so it's a bit of a chore to scan them.  I remember at the end the place emptied out and the scene was one of total devestation...the floor was covered with an inch of beer/sweat, forgotten coolers, broken glass, and that horrible human sweat and cigarette smoke cloud still hovered in the ring area.  I've never seen anything like it since, it really reminded me of what I'd expect from some illegal cockfighting in southeast Asia but instead it was from the preppy Tennessee blue bloods.  I remember leaving with my friend and us both agreeing that only he and I would ever be able to understand what we had just witnessed, and we were among the few people to actually witness it since we were only two of maybe 15 people who weren't drinking.  The other thing was the sound system was loud and the only CD they had was the sountrack to Last Action Hero!

 

"Fratmosphere" "Frasshole" etc. How corny. I hope you all don't go around using those words.

 

I hate elitist fraternity groups. Most of the kids are dumb as sh!t, have little talent and aside from a few, most don't have that great of connections. At least the Freemasons know where the national treasure is.

They had Friday Night at the Fights starting in 2003 at Athens High School.  It was revived after a 10+ year hiatus.  I went to it but it wasn't that great.  They had it the next year at The Convo and then the university shut it down for the usual politically correct excuses.  I was actually going to train with the boxing club (I went so far as having numerous conversations with the guys) starting in the fall just to see if I could get to a decent level by March and possibly throw my hat into the ring but I was unfortunately(?) promoted at the paper in the fall and couldn't make the time commitment.  I'm the kind of guy who wouldn't care at all about getting my ass kicked in front of a few thousand people, I'd just laugh about it, but I knew if I trained hard enough I'd have a chance at not embarrassing myself and I wasn't stupid enough to enter the event without being in great shape.  But a truly rowdy event has to have a lawless quality to it that could never be expected to happen in Athens High School's gymnasium or The Convo.       

 

>I never talked about any illegal stuff with Post staffers, did I?

 

I don't know, but I do have a lingering suspicion that you, although unidentified in the caption, were on the front cover of the Athens News Halloween 2005 issue.  There was someone dressed as a Saudi prince and someone nearby clearing drinking on Court St. so I figured it was you. 

I hate elitist fraternity groups. Most of the kids are dumb as sh!t, have little talent and aside from a few, most don't have that great of connections. At least the Freemasons know where the national treasure is.

 

Again, I could give two shits about your opinion, if you think fraternities are dumb, that's your opinion, you're wrong, but hey, you're entitled to your stupid opinion.

 

No dis to anyone but folks in frat, to me, seemed to be looking for something that their family didn't give them.

 

Bad generalization MTS.  I wasn't planning on joining one but after making some friends who were already a part of it, it became a no-brainer.  Its an easy way to meet people and gives you a built in social life.  We had a lot of a-hole typical frat guys in mine, but also normal non typical frat guys like myself and those are the guys I became great friends w/.  My family life had nothing to do w/ my decision either. 

I hate elitist fraternity groups. Most of the kids are dumb as sh!t, have little talent and aside from a few, most don't have that great of connections. At least the Freemasons know where the national treasure is.

 

Looking down on Fraternities?  Sounds kind of elitist of you.

It really depends on the school.

 

I did both routes, Greek and GDI because I transfered schools after my freshman year. I went to GMI in Flint (Now Kettering U) which was something like 75% or 80% greek. So if you you wanted any sort of social life, going greek was practically required. I decided that the school wasn't for me (too much engineering, too small) and that I wouldn't be returning the next year so I never actually was initiated because I decided that I really liked the guys in that chapter not the necessarily the frat. It worked out great for me I got all of the social benefits and none of the bad (hell week, etc). I am still friends with a few of the guys I pledged with.

 

 

After I transfered to OU there was plenty to do and Greek life was not such a big deal I decided to stay independent. They big thing at OU that I think that C-dawg touch on somewhere above is that there are so many groups that party hard at OU that if that is all that you were looking for there is absolutely no reason to join a frat. I did club sports and they were mainly a reason to hold or go to a small sporting event and have a huge party.

 

Overall I found that even the frat guys at OU were cool, I can think of one or two houses that fit the stereotypes but overall nobody was to pushy or gung-ho about greek life. I had a bunch of friends rush Sig Ep our sophomore year, and all that basically resulted in was some of their Sig Ep friends came to the parties that our group of friends from the dorms held.

 

Not much to add, Greek life depends greatly on the school and it is what you make of it.

a

 

No dis to anyone but folks in frat, to me, seemed to be looking for something that their family didn't give them.

 

Bad generalization MTS.  I wasn't planning on joining one but after making some friends who were already a part of it, it became a no-brainer.  Its an easy way to meet people and gives you a built in social life.  We had a lot of a-hole typical frat guys in mine, but also normal non typical frat guys like myself and those are the guys I became great friends w/.  My family life had nothing to do w/ my decision either. 

 

It wasn't a generalization, it was what some (I paraphrased) people said to me as a reason to join a frat.  This was the 80s and I can only commenting on my experience.  When you pledged, I'm sure it was different.

I find the aspect of being in a frat at one school, but not being in one at another interesting. When I talk to my friends who are in "white" fraternities/sororities many of them mention having been in one, but are no longer greek. In the historically black Greek Letter orgs it tends to be a more life long commitment. and lots of people I know don't just drop their letters. Do most "white frats/sororities have graduate chapters?

a

Do most "white frats/sororities have graduate chapters?

 

I think Mov is referring to GRADUATE CHAPTERS, not GRADUATES in Chapters.  My fraternity was a professional fraternity, (but still very much like animal house) and we have graduate chapters all around the country active in the profession.

There's my new favorite quote!!!!

My fraternity was a professional fraternity, (but still very much like animal house)

 

That is still quite different from the social fraternity, meaning Greek Life. Did you guys actually have a large chapter house on campus?

 

CWRU has Delta Sigma Delta the dental professional fraternity. They have a house on campus.

C-Dawg would do well to shut up and stop generalizing.

 

Well, social fraternities don't HAVE graduate chapters, now do we? You graduate and move on (meaning out of the town and away from your fraternity). If you're in grad school, Greek Life plays a smaller role in the historically white fraternities- meaning NO ROLE. There is not a single historically white social fraternity I've encountered with a graduate chapter. You would do well to stop putting your experience on someone else at a much different school. Where did you go to school?

 

I went to OU. You've got to understand what that means.

 

The "do your four years and then you're out" sentiment is not an accurate characterization of fraternity life

 

The people who stay four years are EXACTLY the ones who stay in touch with other frat brothers. I've met some of my best friends through Greek Life. I'm talking about the kids who join for a year or two, then leave. At OU, that is unfortunately quite common. Greek Life has struggled with numbers at my school. Still, once you graduate college, of course you're "out" (out of town, out of school). You leave town and move away. I'm not using "out" in the sense of out of the fraternity. I'm using "out" in the sense of graduated school and moved away. Even the people who don't graduate college can maintain a lot of contacts in the fraternity. I've seen that happen a lot with brothers who failed out or were kicked out of school. Once you're active, you are forever a brother.

 

Of course, once you graduate, Greek Life and college just won't play as big a role outside of your core group of friends that may or may not be frat brothers. You'll always be a member of your fraternity (you earned it), but the truth of the matter is when you go back to visit in four or five years, none of the new guys will know you. That's the beauty of Greek Life, it's in constant motion and always getting new blood. A chapter can completely change every four years. I've seen many change for the better.

 

I still am a member of my fraternity and forever will be.

 

Well, no sh!t...see above.

 

 

The nine historically black fraternities/sororities (The Divine Nine) are social and all have Graduate Chapters.

 

You asked what makes people stay. I can't speak for everybody, but in The divine nine the numbers tend to be smaller, at least in the North and members get a chance to know all members in the chapter pretty well for the most part. Also, when commiting to the Fraterniy/sorority it is known that you are making a life long commitment. Not everybody does it strictly for the social benefits. Now of course every member doesn't stay active or financial for life, but many do. And through the graduate chapters many continue to do community service as well as associate with members they pledged with and are more familiar with. Also the established network of members throughout the country comes in handy when visiting an unknown city or interviewing for a job with someone who is also greek.

Rural universities like OU tend to be much tighter socially and have much more distinct experience than do urban schools.  That strength of being isolated and defining the town then becomes a detriment in some ways because when school's over, it's over cold turkey.  You're out of town and in Ohio's case into one of a half-dozen medium-sized cities around the region or off to the east coast.  If you go to OSU or any other big school in a city, many people get jobs in that city and college social networks aren't abruptly severed.  I've always heard that at a lot of these urban schools like UC which have a lot of commuters, there really isn't a great social scene unless you're in a fraternity.  There are at the very least subtle differences from school to school on how popular the greek life is...and everyone knows that at one school Phi Mu or DZ might be the hot sorority and at another one the dogs. 

 

 

   

Smart people are certainly the minority in undergrad unless you go to Michigan or something like that (people drink as much coffee as beer there).

 

Sorry, I had to quote that one.  That shit's hilarious!  Hahaha @ thinking Michigan undergraduates are coffee drinkers lol!  Right Hayward?  You're all coffee drinkers!

Smart people are certainly the minority in undergrad unless you go to Michigan or something like that (people drink as much coffee as beer there).

 

Sorry, I had to quote that one.  That shit's hilarious!  Hahaha @ thinking Michigan undergraduates are coffee drinkers lol!  Right Hayward?  You're all coffee drinkers!

 

I concur with that absurdity.

Smart people are certainly the minority in undergrad unless you go to Michigan or something like that (people drink as much coffee as beer there).

 

Sorry, I had to quote that one.  That sh!t's hilarious!  Hahaha @ thinking Michigan undergraduates are coffee drinkers lol!  Right Hayward?  You're all coffee drinkers!

 

Kids, you know I just glossed over that considering the author.

Good point.

i hear that people at michigan sh!t gold, pee oil, and belch perfume too.

backyard wrestling was a lot more fun with particle board. Nothing more entertaining than a bunch of dudes pulling splinters out of each other's backs....

^haha......

 

 

 

ewww

There are at the very least subtle differences from school to school on how popular the greek life is

 

It's not always subtle. Go to Miami, go to OU, completely different. 1/3 of Miami is Greek!

 

You're out of town and in Ohio's case into one of a half-dozen medium-sized cities around the region or off to the east coast.

 

Don't forget Chicago and LA for OU grads and also the Carolinas. Pretty much all the education majors I know are moving to the Carolinas right after graduation. There's some teacher boom down there or sh!t like that...

 

Lots of OU Communications majors (our school's only claim to fame other than partying) end up in the three biggest markets (NYC, LA, Chicago). A good chunk head to DC too.

 

Do you have facts to substantiate these claims?  Or do you just type shit for the hell of it?!!  Now you're a recruiter!  :roll: :roll:

^He's clearly an expert in many areas!!!