Is the stereotype of the fraternity or sorority college kid correct? (reputations, best)
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A group of us were looking at a story about spring breakers in Cancun and one of us said, they look like fraternity or sorority types. Then we talked about what is a stereotypical fraternity or sorority type of college student.
Most of us agreed that the vast number of fraternity and sorority types are:
Big Men (or women) on campus Good looking
Jocks Popular
Drinkers and party types
Not overly academic
Do you agree that there is a typical person in most College Fraternities and Sororities?
The one's I bolded, I agree with. Not the others.
Believe it or not (though I'm sure you should) frats and sororities choose based on looks. To be frank, they don't let ugly people join.
And they are usually popular, as long as they're in a group or wearing their greek colors, etc. But they aren't always "Big Men On Campus" types...at least individually.
And most of them are partiers and drinkers.
However, most of them do well academically (as thats a requirement for admission). And most aren't jocks. The whole meathead frat brother stereotype is pretty much dead (though not entirely).
The fact that you have to apply to be in the fraternity or sorority tells me that a common personality or appearance is going to be encouraged. Birds of a feather flock together.
Yeah, but your original post was referring to all fraternities and sororities as a lump, and while each individual one attracts certain types, I think there's a broader range among the whole than your initial list of proposed traits suggests. Also the role/influence/prestige of the Greek system and the resulting associated boost (if any) that members get as a result varies by school. At my school I never paid much attention to the Greek system (there was a Greek presence, and there were houses, but a fairly small percentage of the campus body participated - not a small number given that the school was large, but not enough to be considered an integral or visible part of campus life for the vast majority of students who did not join), although I did know people who were involved. I'm not sure, but I don't think most of the serious athletes were in them (no time, I assume), and I don't think membership translated into (or resulted from) "popularity" in the larger campus context. My friends at other schools have had different experiences. Overall there's not one universal, nation-wide Greek type, other than I agree that there's probably a lot of drinking involved.
The fact that you have to apply to be in the fraternity or sorority tells me that a common personality or appearance is going to be encouraged. Birds of a feather flock together.
There can be a lot of uniformity within a frat/sorority, yes. Moreso within sororities (i.e. they all look the same)
Quote:
Originally Posted by 540_804
The one's I bolded, I agree with. Not the others.
Believe it or not (though I'm sure you should) frats and sororities choose based on looks. To be frank, they don't let ugly people join.
And they are usually popular, as long as they're in a group or wearing their greek colors, etc. But they aren't always "Big Men On Campus" types...at least individually.
And most of them are partiers and drinkers.
However, most of them do well academically (as thats a requirement for admission). And most aren't jocks. The whole meathead frat brother stereotype is pretty much dead (though not entirely).
This isn't true where I went to school, but I also didn't go to a big "greek" campus (about 3-4%). They basically were a mix of all sorts but each frat/sorority had its own demographic; some were lazy, some liked to party, etc. But for the most part you couldn't distinguish them from anyone else on campus. I was friends with several and they were mostly good guys and fit the general college student mold. I think the stereotype mentioned by the poster is dead for the most part, but as I said, I didn't go to a big "greek" school so the stereotype may still be alive and well in the south.
Except for the drinking, which is why people like to join, I'd say no. My D was in a sorrority and her BF in a frat and there were all kinds of people in each. But this was at a school in CA where Greek life isn't all that popular and they basically took everyone who wanted to join to keep their numbers up.
The academic requirement for admission to a frat/soror is generally around a 2.5. Not exactly rocket science material.
It varies by sorority or fraternity; some have much higher GPAs.
No one joins traditional sororities or fraternities because of academics, but membership in one doesn't automatically reflect a person's attititude towards academics (or abilities).
Still, from what I've heard and read, different chapters at different schools have varying degrees towards the importance of school in the grand scheme of things - I've heard of some pretty strong pressure in some place to put the sorority/fraternity first at the expense of pretty much everything else, including school. I would hope that prospective members were aware of those attitudes before making the decision to join those specific groups.
On the other hand, I knew some hard-partying non-Greeks on campus who would have benefitted from the fraternity/sorority pressure to maintain at least a 2.5 GPA - certainly nothing impressive, but better than getting kicked out altogether.
A group of us were looking at a story about spring breakers in Cancun and one of us said, they look like fraternity or sorority types. Then we talked about what is a stereotypical fraternity or sorority type of college student.
Most of us agreed that the vast number of fraternity and sorority types are:
Big Men (or women) on campus
Good looking
Jocks
Popular
Drinkers and party types
Not overly academic
Do you agree that there is a typical person in most College Fraternities and Sororities?
I agree- but not for reasons that one may automatically assume. I think that the average sorority/fraternity member can embody any single or combination of the above qualities. In every fraternity/Sorority (or to be honest grouping of students) there will be some who are naturally athletic, some who have drinking/drug problems, some who are academiclly gifted, others who struggle academically. Some will be attractive, some will be less attracitve.
I think that trying to stereotype sorority/fraternity members is like trying to stereotype everyone in their 50's or all city-data members or all people who live in New York. Sure people will try as they always do but I think that most of the stereotypes are not based on actual experiences or encounters but rather on the medias portrayal.
A quick example, at the school I attended a little under 10% of the student body were greeks however off the top of my head: the sga vp and president were greeks (different years), athletes on the football, swimming, cheerleading squad, soccer, and even womens rugby team were greeks, greeks chaired the planning of 2 leadership conferences, greeks were active in many organizations around campus many times holding president/executive board postions.
Yes there were drunks, people who were easy, unintelligent greeks.. but when looking at the student population as a whole there were certianly students who were drunks, easy, or unintelligent that were not greek. In fact greeks were known to be the most involved people on campus. So sure there were Big Men (or women) on campus, good looking people, jocks,Popular people, Drinkers and party types, Not overly academic students, but on the reverese side there were also people who were unattracive, unathletic, straight A students, Resident Assistants, club presidents, student workers, some were very wealthy, some were not wealthy. Some were from the farm, some from the city.. the greek body as a whole included a variety of people from different backgrounds, with different strengths, weaknesses, and qualities.
When I was in college, all the fraternities were as you described - the 'beautiful people', jocks, ROTC guys, athletic types, etc. I tried joining a fraternity with my friend and they humiliated us. So, along with a bunch of others who were persecuted by the frat guys (they called us "nerds" and "geeks"), we formed our own fraternity. It was tough to get a national charter but we got one.
We thought that was it, and that we'd be OK, but no, the jocks kept harrassing us, and they ruled the Greek Council and made rules so that we would lose our fraternity. So we decided we needed to get on the Greek Council, but there was only ONE way to do that - win the Greek Olympics. And the leading fraterity never lost the Greek Olympics.
Well, we didn't have brawn but we had brains. We used all our science and technology to develop ways to win a lot of events. Like these anti-alcohol pills we gave one of our guys for the "Tricycle Race" where after every lap they have to chug a beer. It was neck and neck between us and the jock frat with only one event left - the talent show! The jock frat did this really well choreographed number with their hot sorority friends in it, and they beat everyone else - but just as they finished, we started OUR performance. First, we lit fireworks to draw attention. Then we did a computerized song with lazers and neon lights on a dark stage. Then one of our brothers did a rap song, and another brother came out and did break dancing with him, along with our brother Poindexter's electric violin (that we made using our nerd know-how).
Well, we won fair and square, but then the jock fraternity tore apart our frat house. Then our president went to the pep rally that the jocks were having and he tried to take the microphone. The coach of the football team said he would beat him up and then the dean of the school stood up to the coach (because the dean was a nerd who never stood up to the coach before)!!! Just then, when you think the coach would beat up our nerd dean and the jocks would beat up our nerd president, all of a sudden our national chapter showed up and threatened the jocks, because our national fraternity was all big huge guys!!!
Then our president made a speech and he said, "We have news for all the beautiful people, we nerds are here to stay! We will never be free until nerd persecution ENDS!" Just then the hottest chick from the hottest sorority ran up to become my girlfriend and I did this nerd laugh, it's like "HEEEEPP!!! HEEEEEPPP!!!" It was AWESOME!!!!! So not all fraternities are jocks anymore, now there are a lot of us nerds in fraternities!
I have an old videotape of it, if you want to see - it's our frat president's speech:
I think that trying to stereotype sorority/fraternity members is like trying to stereotype everyone in their 50's or all city-data members or all people who live in New York.
Agreed.
Greek life is different in different parts of the country.
Greek organizations are different in different schools, within the same part of the country.
Greek organizations within the same school can have characteristics which vary greatly.
And then, of course, the individuals within one fraternity or sorority can vary greatly.
I went through rush my freshman year with the goal of finding the coolest people, who hung out with the best looking girls, were the most respected and had the most fun. This is generally the measuring stick to gauge good fraternities and bad, since after you cut through all the B.S., they are nothing more than an elaborate scheme to meet girls.
The fraternity I joined wouldn't consider anyone who wasn't a heterosexual white male, born in the south. If you had dark skin, dressed "trendy" like a California or New York person, or if you didn't have a southern accent, then you had zero chance. Athleticism, wealth, and academic prowess were all minimally relevant to the rush process. If you were cocky, if you were funny, if you were good with girls, if you were an obvious alpha male, if you knew how to party, if you routinely pushed the limits of sanity, if you were an adept outdoorsman - then those things were viewed very positively.
The unspoken objective was to break as many rules as possible without facing any consequences. With so much testosterone involved, it was a lot like being in a gang. If nothing else, I've got some great stories from that time in my life.
Last edited by le roi; 06-01-2009 at 01:53 PM..
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