Frats!

Woah woah! Academics and eventual work related success can happen! Just ask these guys...
Approximately 80% of all Fortune 500 executives are fraternity men
Of the nation's 50 largest corporations, 43 are headed by fraternity men
71% of those listed in "Who's Who in America" belong to a fraternity
Fraternity men make up 2% of the entire American population
76% of all Congressmen and Senators belong to a fraternity
40 of the 47 Supreme Court Justices since 1910 have been fraternity men
100 of the 158 cabinet members since 1900 have been fraternity men
All but 3 United States Presidents since 1825 have been fraternity men

(EDIT: DARN MARK YA BEAT ME TO IT!)

 

im thinkin the only reason i may join a frat when i head off to college is for business purposes.

 

This is actually a topic I've been thinking about for a while. I'll be transferring to a different college Fall of 05 and am considering going through the rush process and joining a fraternity. However I'll be a junior and 1) I don't even know if you can pledge as a junior and 2) if it will be worth it to join a fraternity as a junior.

So does anyone think it would be worth it to go through the process as a junior (granted, I’ll be an 18 year old junior but still a junior) or better to just forget about it?

 

Believe it or not, a guy in my fraternity pledged when he was a senior he wanted in so badly. He had come to college with a bunch of credits, so he wasn't as old as the typical senior, much like your situation.

If you want it, do it. If not, worse things have happened.

 

Leon, glad to hear you're considering Greek Life. I'm in Sigma Phi Epsilon, the largest fraternity in America, not sure if they have a chapter on your campus though. First off, make SURE! that you go around to every single fraternity and meet their guys. Every frat. is different and you want to make sure you join the right one, there is a reason i say this but will stay away from it. Most people think that all you do is sit around drink, and have sex, as much fun as that is there is a lot more to it. A Lot more! Community service, projects, school stuff, waking up early to go to meetings. I'm actually in the process right now of setting up an Exotic Car show at my school West Chester Univ. as a community service project for my fraternity. But seriously if you join the right one it will be an amazing experience, and you'll have close friends forever. If you have any questions, feel free to pm or email me.

 

i have to say that those who call upon cliches such as "paying for friends" and "you dont get any help in the outside work force" are, more often than not, wrong. In my fraternity at Cornell, our dues with a house meal plan costs less than a meal plan provided by the university. what do these dues provide? no, not the "privilege of being friends with the other guys". nope, it pays for a $60,000+ social budget for the year, $10,000 philanthropy budget, etc. long story short, it gives u the means of doing things you couldn't even imagine (both good and bad ). The money we put in we also get out.

as far as the connections go, I don't know what other fraternities do, but mine has an alumni recruitment fair where every year alumni in NYC have a career fair for members in our chapter. I wont say what positions and what they do, but obviously if they are capable of bringing recruiters from their company to meet you exclusively, it can't hurt.

long story short, great experience, worth looking into, but as always, make sure its right for you...it certainly has been for me.

 

rt207- If you are not in a fraternity you could never understand what they are all about. From the outside you dont know what really goes on. I would hardly think of it as buying friends. All you hear about are the good things. The good things never make the news most of the time. My house is actively involved in big brothers big sisters, american cancer society relay for life and a local home improvement for low income families project.
Also, your college career is what you make of it. Most of the mechanical engineering students my year didnt go greek but my GPA is higher than all of them (as far as i know). I dont let that or varsity rowing get in the way. I know if i was an employer i would prefer the kid who had sports and fraternity experience because i know first hand that its an indication of ability to work as a team, and good time management.
So moral of this post- unless you are in a fraternity you really dont know what they are all about. If you are good friends with someone who is greek, you could have an idea, but you dont know the full story.

 

One of my graduates pledged spring of senior year back in 98. Thats how bad he wanted it. He was only a brother for like 2 weeks during his college career before going to harvard law. If you ask him he would say its worth it. Brotherhood is not for college days alone.

 

This shouldnt be the only reason you should do it. It requires a lot of time and sacrifices once you are in the house, at least if you want to have a leadership role.
As for business connections, the fraternity that i and a few other guys want to recolonize (the chapter at my school died in 1869) is DKE, one of the most prestigious (5 presidents, 4 VP's, 4 current governors, and many business execs). I originally didnt want to recolonize a different house, but theres no choice due to insurance coverage. you do what you have to do to survive. my house has been on campus for 111 years through some very tough times, so we arent going to let it end now. Anyone who learned 'Persistence' would know what im talking about.

 

How do you know you can trust people you just meet? Is that trust ever tested?
Who do you think my core group of friends are, and the guys i can trust the most? Yup, the guys i pledged with, and the older brothers (they are about equal with my long time friends from home). Not only do you have to trust them, but you have to be able to work with them. You think that there isnt a lot of work and management involved in fraternities?
You have to be able to trust the guys you pledge with. This is another one of those things you couldnt understand looking from the outside.

 

I just wanted to add a few things that I learned while in a fraternity. People are either the fraternity type or they're not, its pretty black and white. Everyone's experience is different, but I really enjoyed my time while I was an undergrad. I learned a ton about working with other people, organization, motivation, etc. Honestly, I learned more business/people skills as a leading member of a fraternity than I did in any class. It is understandably hard for people who have never been in a fraternity to understand how they work. Even things as simple sounding as throwing a party or organizing an event take up a lot of resources and time. Im not trying to convince anyone to join a fraternity or not, but for me it was well worthwhile (even with all of the stereotypes and other BS that goes along with it).

PS. Dont call fraternities "frats", thats like calling you country a ****

 

I known was in a nationally known fratr. my first year in college (fall 1968). I lived in the house first semester (BIG mistake), didn't make my grades, and moved ino a dorm for second semester and got my gradepoint up to a 3.5+ and was going to get initiated when I returned in fall '69.

The next year I decided to room with an old highschool buddy who was transferring to my school (a VERY stupid move) and drifted away from the frat, never got initiated, then came back to Texas for my 3rd yr. and on from there until I finished up.

Regarding my experiences: If I had it to do all over again, I would have stuck with the fraternity. Yes, a lot of the stereotype BS about frats is true but I never felt that the friends I made there were "bought". Some guys I bonded with right away and we became close friends. Others were just off in different directions than me or a lot older and we never were close but were always cordial. And there were the 3 or 4 A-holes who were jerks to everyone, and I guess they've continued to act that way all the way through life. The fraternity was a positive stabilizing force in a very uncertain and volatile time in history to be on a major college campus. Yes, there were a lot of good role models there: guys on their way to medical and law school and a few sons of very, very wealthy families on their way into the family business and fortune, who also happened to be nice guys. There was also a goodly number of mainly likeable screwoffs, drunks, and druggies (I saw as many drugs in that frat house as I ever did with any hippies that I knew along the way). There were all the usual hazing experiences and hell week and that kind of stuff but I just took it in stride. One huge bonus: the selection of women was unequaled and endlessly abundant If you needed a date, the older guys had a list of choice sororities to tap, and the chicks were eager! I had a very nice steady girl friend within 2 weeks of arriving at school.

All in all, good memories set in a very tough era.

 

My best friend loved his fraternity.

I was never interested.

I think the quote above is dead-on!

If you know yourself, you'll know what to do.

My friend got a great job with NASA after college. It wasn't his grades or his fraternity connections.... the hiring manager had a son that cut grass to earn college money... and my buddy Dan did the same thing, so the manager hired him. (funny how people get job offers)

 

I was Tau Kappa Epsilon.

Nobody calls it a "frat" except stupid high school kids. Call it a fraternity and avoid sounding stupid.

Being in a Fraternity can indeed have BIG advantages later on. I was once hired for a management position by a fraternity brother (much older than me... different school and we had never met before) and from the other side of the desk I have hired people because they were TKE's even though they were otherwise no better qualified than other candidates.

A Fraternity is a bunch of guys pooling their resources in order to have parties and fun that would otherwise not be possible. Period.

I know that today due to drinking laws, school policies regarding drinking and fraternities and such the Greek scene is very different from when I was in school. The parties are underground and screened. Oh well.

When I was in school we had Anhauser Busch and other companies sponsor big parties. We had big name live bands play on the front porch of the house while tractor trailer refrigerated beer trucks had beer on tap for everyone. A good party would have 5000 people pretty much totally out of control. We had bands like Drivin & Cryin, Widespread Panic and Allgood play at our house frequently. We had midnight madness every wendsday and it got CRAZY. Basically... the parties were AWESOME. Animal House the movie had NOTHING on us, we had parties that blew that away. I'll have to tell you sometime about the 10 foot long, white smoke spewing paper mache' penis and how offended the Kappa girls were at our use of such a device!

I also do know that those days are gone. It is no longer possible to have the sort of open and crazy parties that we had in the mid 1980s due to changed legislation and college policies. Oh well, Im sure they still have some pretty good times. This applies to hazing as well. Our pledges had it pretty hard (including me). Physical and mental abuse that sometimes was a bit too much. Having this change is a good thing as I dont think it served any real purpose except that hazing is, after all, fun. Face it, making some pledge come to your house at 4am, stoping at the grocery store to buy you a steak, and then cooking it for you with all the trimmings just because on your drunken binge it sounds like fun is..... actually FUN.

I served as treasurer for 2 years. Controlled a $300K annual budget. HAd to answer to the alumni and national and do lots of planning and accounting stuff. Fantastic experience.

So, feel it out. Thats what Rush is all about. If you find a group of guys that you think you would fit in well with, go for it!



Terry

 

Re: calling fraternities "frats":

Yes, if you're going thru rush, I'm sure it's very uncool. It was a definite faux pas in 1968. In my college days hippies referred to fraternity guys as "frat rats."

I'm 55 years old, and if I use the term "frat", it just doesn't make a squat!

 

Don't forget the secret handshake!!! NEVER forget the secret handshake!


Terry

 

It was several months after got my first real career-level job that I found out one of the firm partners was a member of the same fraternity that I almost was initiated into. I hadn't put it on my resume because I never became a full member. When we talked about this mutual aspect of our college days, all he was really interested in telling me about was how one of our clients, who was a frat brother and his roommate at the house, would regularly get roaring drunk and stand outside on the windowsill facing the street and take a piss in full view of passersby.

So much for my business world contacts made in school.

 

Basically, if you think it's for you, check it out. If not, then don't. Not joining a house because others tell you not to is no better than joining one because you want to do what everyone else does. Either way, you're just following others. All rules apply to all people. I had as many friends outside the Greek system as I did in it. I would have to say that, overall, there were more a-holes within the system. However, I sure met plenty of jagoffs and wenches who were not in houses. Our house had as much a mix of personalities as you could assemble. White, black, asian, redneck. Dance music, heavy metal, Deadheads. Straight A students and those dancing with probation. Rich kids, poor kids. That's what I liked about our chapter, especially since so many of the 50+ houses flaunted their stereotypes (Jocks, pretty-boys, Animal House types, etc.) and ours just didn't have a pigeon hole.

 

just say no

 

Leon, you've chosen a great fraternity. I'm a brother of Sigep. Are they traditional or balanced man? Either way, Welcome to the Gentleman's fraternity.