Im a freshman at Florida State University and am debating whether or not to join a fraternity. I was wondering who has joined one and what they have to say about it.
My second question about it is how i go about researching and getting info about the fraternity in general. it seems like whenever i go on a website ranking fraternities, the comments are either “OMG they throw the best parties i love the guys in this fraternity” or “there’s more wood in this fraternity than home depot”
Does anyone know where i can get unbiased (or at least less biased than the above two comments) information about the frats here? [/quote]
I pledged Sigma Chi as a spring pledge in 2007. Best decision I made. I dont know how things are at FSU, but at the UofA and other major universities nearby, pledging a fraternity still carries a large amount of prestige and honor. My pledge brothers are the best friends I will ever have, and I wouldnt trade the past 4 years for anything.
[quote]Stuntman Mike wrote:
WestCoast7 wrote:
Just because a few individuals had bad experiences doesn’t mean anything. Fraternities have been around for decades, and there are plenty of reasons why. I can understand that some find the experience ridiculous, but just as your experience isn’t the same as everyone elses, every frat isn’t a bunch of d-bags.
Maybe it is different out here or for SAE, but I still stay in contact with most of my brothers, was provided with great job opportunities through alumnus when I was looking for employment, and have a network of business connections throughout the country that is supported and updated by our organization.
The experience is going to be different for everyone, and for most it is going to be what you make of it.
Hahah it’s funny you mention SAE, at our campus they are the biggest group of douchebags, collectively. [/quote]
It’s almost like we go to the same school stuntman, haha. I had a few good friends that I met freshman year, then they joined SAE and became the hugest douches ever. They axed all their old friends. To each their own, though. I’m a member of Theta Tau, a professional engineering fraternity, and I can say that most of my best friends I met there. I just graduated, and they all remain my good friends.
Just research around before joining one. Each school typically has a different stereotype for the same fraternity. PIKE may be full of rapist rednecks at one school, but a good group of guys at another.
Haha i go to FSU and im in a fraternity, rush doesnt start till spring semester again, which fraternities were you looking into and ill tell you something about each one.
I highly recommend at least checking out the fraternities at FSU during “Rush Week,” asking around, and then taking a shot at one. I pledged one fraternity at my university (SAE), and half way through pledging I dropped because I didn’t feel comfortable. The next semester I joined Kappa Sig, and have maintained contact with those guys for 20 years. See, you’re not stuck if you don’t like it.
I’m still best friends 20 years later with a couple of guys I met in my fraternity. I also had friends outside my fraternity…you don’t have to be around 100% of the time if you don’t want to. And it’s not like you have to be friends with everyone in your fraternity. Some of the guys in my fraternity were dicks, so I just didn’t hang out with them. No big deal. But the guys I clicked with, we still hang out today.
Don’t mind the guys claiming you’re paying for friends. In the end fraternities do cost money, but you get back a shitload of fun memories, connections, and some real friends for life.
Like everything else in life, it’s all about what you want to get out of it and how much effort you’re willing to put into it.
dday and matt of you dont mind me asking where are you guys at? its always cool to hear about other guys from your house lol. See here OP i just made 2 new friends because of my fraternity and tnation is free!!!
[quote]fighting_fires wrote:
dday and matt of you dont mind me asking where are you guys at? its always cool to hear about other guys from your house lol. See here OP i just made 2 new friends because of my fraternity and tnation is free!!! [/quote]
I’ve been out of school for 14 years now but I was at Central Missouri State University, it’s now called University of Central Missouri. Our chapter was not a huge party group, we did our share but were more into athletics and studies, good group of guys and no D-bags that I recall. I wasn’t there long but long enough to create some great memories.
It’s funny how there are at least 3 Sig Pi’s on here, at CMSU we were a very small fraternity.
im a teke at FIU. i know FSU is really big on greek life. honestly look at each fraternity and see who you get along with better and who you could see yourself with. thats IF youre 100 percent sure you want to join.
IT IS a huge distraction. they make it out to be something that might not necessarily be, “brotherhood”, “academics”, “help u with a whole bunch of shit”, that sounds amazing… in the end… its not all its made up to be for all pledges. thats how i feel about greek life, atleast at FIU.
but if you need to meet people, party, live it up, then join. you will meet many people and always ahve your guys there, but be weary specially when u pledge, your grades will prolly suffer, specially at FSU
[quote]jp_dubya wrote:
Why not?
If you are having trouble meeting people and making friends, you can always rent them and join the ranks of douche-baggery.[/quote]
[quote]dday wrote:
fighting_fires wrote:
dday and matt of you dont mind me asking where are you guys at? its always cool to hear about other guys from your house lol. See here OP i just made 2 new friends because of my fraternity and tnation is free!!!
I’ve been out of school for 14 years now but I was at Central Missouri State University, it’s now called University of Central Missouri. Our chapter was not a huge party group, we did our share but were more into athletics and studies, good group of guys and no D-bags that I recall. I wasn’t there long but long enough to create some great memories.
It’s funny how there are at least 3 Sig Pi’s on here, at CMSU we were a very small fraternity.[/quote]
I graduated in 1999 from the University of Findlay. Our chapter had a inherited bad reputation. We were an off campus house but had to abide by university rules ( dry campus ) but we all know how that goes. We weren’t your typical fraternity, had a lot of football players and some non-athletes. We had no dress code or anything like that and it was not that expensive. I can tell you one thing though, to this day if I ever get into any sort of a bind I would be able to call any one of those guys for help. had a lot of good times and great memories.
No offense to any of you guys, I don’t know yall personally… but I have never met a guy from a frat that isn’t a complete douche. That’s just my experience.
Im a freshman at Florida State University and am debating whether or not to join a fraternity. I was wondering who has joined one and what they have to say about it.
My second question about it is how i go about researching and getting info about the fraternity in general. it seems like whenever i go on a website ranking fraternities, the comments are either “OMG they throw the best parties i love the guys in this fraternity” or “there’s more wood in this fraternity than home depot”
Does anyone know where i can get unbiased (or at least less biased than the above two comments) information about the frats here? [/quote]
I would definitely look into it. I am a member of KA and joining is one of the better decisions I have made. People who talk about rent a friend or any B.S. like that obviously were never associated with greek life. It is definitely different at every school but you’ll get what you put into it.
I pledged one, and got kicked for selling coke to members. Pledged another and got black balled from the frat I was trying to hustle. Then went to a commuter school and got serious about studies, and just randomly show up at their frat parties and hit on their women with mixed success and am reasonable cool with the guys there.
I dont really see any use for it, I have my own intimate network of intelligent young latino & russian dudes from my area who help me out, and vice versa so its whatev. Perhaps, if you get in a winner fraternity its a good idea, but really it just seems like a lot of pussies trying to act hard and party.
I’d check them out and just see if they fit your style or not, if it seems like something you wanna be a part of then do it, if not then just bail.
At the end of the day man, its all about YOU TAKE YOUR FIST, and MAKE YOUR LIFE. So if this fits you’re master plan do it, if not don’t.
[quote]maddogjimmy wrote:
im a teke at FIU. i know FSU is really big on greek life. honestly look at each fraternity and see who you get along with better and who you could see yourself with. thats IF youre 100 percent sure you want to join.
IT IS a huge distraction. they make it out to be something that might not necessarily be, “brotherhood”, “academics”, “help u with a whole bunch of shit”, that sounds amazing… in the end… its not all its made up to be for all pledges. thats how i feel about greek life, atleast at FIU.
but if you need to meet people, party, live it up, then join. you will meet many people and always ahve your guys there, but be weary specially when u pledge, your grades will prolly suffer, specially at FSU
:P[/quote]
Damn I didn’t know anyone from FIU posted here haha. I’m actually pledging for Pike at FIU right now. But back to the OP, most of the people I talk to that joined a fraternity said they loved it, and all the people that graduated said they wished they would have rushed. I know that at FSU the Pike house is the largest fraternity house of any chapter of any fraternity in the U.S., so you should check that out. The best thing you can do is just try to meet as many guys as you can from each fraternity and you will know which ones you are more interested in. Usually all the fraternities have different events for potential pledges, so I would suggest to go to as many of those as you can.
[quote]Amiright wrote:
No offense to any of you guys, I don’t know yall personally… but I have never met a guy from a frat that isn’t a complete douche. That’s just my experience. [/quote]
Name’s Mike. Nice to meet you.
The reason why people seem to think there aren’t any non-douches in frats is because the douchebags are the loudest guys at the party and the first ones to scream about being in a fraternity. I’ve met many guys who are just normal guys who are also in a fraternity. I’ve also met a TON of guys who were athletes, not in frats, who were HUGE douchebags. Club Frisbee and Club Rugby especially, although Crew seem to be a bunch of alcoholics but nice guys.
The kicker is that, when it comes to hazing, I’ve heard some bad shit from the douchier fraternities on campus but I’ve heard MUCH worse shit coming from the Club sports teams. I don’t know about sororities, but if you’re a guy you’re gonna get hazed a hell of a lot more by the sports teams than the fraternities.
[quote]waylanderxx wrote:
DOHCrazy wrote:
A guy I know is in a frat here. They have a written dress code (literally) and also have to smoke cigarettes.
I’ve met some cool frat guys, and there are quite a few who are awesome guys. But most of them are losers from high school who now think they are bad asses because they pay to have friends and meet girls.
All I see is mid thigh khakis, bow ties, polo’s, boat shoes, sunglasses with the croakies (sp? you know the sunglasses holder things) etc, and it just looks ridiculous.
And for the poor souls that are pledges, they have to wear a blazer, khaki pants, and oxford shirt every day for a semester. No thanks!
All you really need to do is try and find you a cute sorority girl to hit on and she will invite you to their parties if you succeed. That is of course if she doesn’t have a problem with you being a GDI (God Damn Independent). Fuckin skanks.[/quote]
This post pretty much sums up my thoughts. Especially that last part. Fuckin skanks.
Sounds like there are a ton of fraternities out there that forget what it’s about and turn it into an excuse to be ass hats. My fraternity was nothing like what any of you mentioned, as a pledge we wore a pin, that’s it no ties or sweaters or any other mentioned BS.
“hell week” was nothing more than a week of fun, they stuck us all in one room of the house and pranked us throughout the week, the worst thing that happened to us was one night a sorority came into our room, made us get out of bed, lined us up in the hall two by two, then made fun of us, no crazy sexual stuff just a bunch of hot girls running around in their PJ’s. The week ended with a private party at a brothers parents cabin. Of course the year I pledged there’d been a rash of pledges die around the country from stupid shit so they were cracking down on the hazing.
Guess that’s the difference between some big school and podunk Missouri.
BTW monthly dues were $15 a month, 10 of which went to maintaining the charter the rest went to our chapter.
[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:
jp_dubya wrote:
Why not?
If you are having trouble meeting people and making friends, you can always rent them and join the ranks of douche-baggery.
lol, so true[/quote]
Ba-zing! Of course there are always exceptions, but stereotypes tend to exist for a reason. Also, as others have noted, fraternities and how they are viewed by the student body differ from school to school.
Crew and alcoholism are most certainly two things that do not go together (at least in my experience).
