I guess that I also one of the few people who liked the show...

I learned about Greek life from my older brother. Before he went off to school, my dad sat him down and told him about the Greek affiliations in our family. He went on and on about how great the benefits were, but finished his little speech by saying, essentially, that you could get similar benefits in other organizations that didn't have dues and other costs associated with them. Dad told my brother that he'd definitely be supportive of Greek life, but that he wouldn't be financially responsible. He then gave me the same talk before I went to school (I just knew to expect it).

The welcome packet from my school included a brochure about Greek life. It indicated that those who were interested in rush needed to complete an application, and would move in a week earlier than the rest of the students. At that point, I didn't have to think twice.

Like many other here have said, a lot of what I know now about Greek life has been from GC. My school wasn't heavily Greek, but there was definitely a Greek presence. Here, I've learned a lot about chapters that weren't on my campus. (For instance, there wasn't a Sigma Kappa chapter on my campus, so I never realized how my username would make people look twice!)

I totally think so. :) :p

I first learned about greek life from a neighbor when I was about 14. She gave me "A Southern Belle Primer, or Why Princess Margaret Will Never Be a Kappa Kappa Gamma" to read. Not the best initial experience and I got pretty turned off of greek life!

So I didn't think about it again until senior year when my best friend was gearing up for UGA recruitment. She somehow knew so much about sororities and ended up joining the same chapter as the neighbor - ADPi. I spent a lot of time at the house freshman & sophomore year and heard her stories. So when I graduated from my junior college and went into Emory, I knew I wanted to see if it was for me.

I think it's just a bit ironic that I joined Kappa Kappa Gamma. :rolleyes:

I Learned about Greek Life from a friend of mine while I was attending junior college before I transfer to CSU.

Lol, I think it's just me. But ;) anyway.

No, I keep thinking it too.:p

For me it was church. Many members were members of different greek organizations.

Not only had I never met anyone who was greek, I was only the second member of my family to attend college - and the first was way out west (we're from New England) and I hadn't seen her in years.

The summer before my freshman year, after I had signed an acceptance letter, I got a pen pal.

Turns out, the panhellenic women on campus divvied up the incoming freshmen women, and one or two wrote to each woman. Personal letters. Things like what to take to school, what college was like (yeah, 1973 was before internet; HBO was the "new" channel that came in addition to NBC, CBS, ABC, and local public TV; and I had never run across a book on it.)

The women in no way hid their greek affiliation, or their house.

These women also helped us move in on move-in day, along with the frat guys to lift big stuff.

My pen pal was president of the DG chapter. I never attended a rush event for another chapter.

Nowadays, that's somehow "not fair."

Many of our sisters pledged their sophomore years. Each of the five houses had a real personality, so it was easy to see where you might fit, if you just watched for a while. Then it was just a matter of seeing whether the feeling was mutual.

Hey there brother. Good to see another member posting on GC.:)

so bengay, DIKMeister, and one more... interesting. reallytho? god.

Now don't laugh...my first exposure to sororities came with the Saturday Night Lives- Delta Delta Delta can I help ya, help ya, help ya? skits! I think back and wonder how mad this must have made the Tri Delts. When my sister went to school, my mom pushed her to go through rush, since she would be 180 miles from home without any of her friends. She told my sister that she had a roommate in college who was an AOII pledge. She would have loved to join AOII, but she didn't want to ask her parents for more money since money was tight. She also, incidentally, told us that our aunt was a ZTA (at the same school) which was a "Jewish sorority!" Yeah...I know, I have no idea what she was talking about, especially since this area of Louisiana has never had a very large Jewish population! ZTA had dissolved at NLU by the time we went. My sister went to school, loved AOII and Phi Mu and had a very hard time choosing between the two. When she became an AOII, it almost seemed like fate. I still think about getting my mom to join as an alumna.

My father iand other family members are greek. The first university I attended also sent me a booklet on greek life as well. Other than that, I learned from watching greeks on campus and reading articles about them in the student paper(there were as many good articles as bad ones). It wasnt until I transferred to another university that I found out greek systems are different at each school.

I've gained some knowledge about other greek systems here on greek chat and I think we all have to a degree. SO many though that come here seeking information fail to consider the source before making decisions.

I joined way back when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth. I had no intentions of having anything to do with Greek life and all those "rich, snobby, clicky girls." My father had been in a national fraternity that is now defunct and he never talked about it (I did not know about Kappa Nu until quite a while after I pledged). The first I knew of rush, was when the school sent out a mailing during the summer. It all went directly into the trash. Since my mother and I did not get along, right after a really bad fight, I saw the rush information still sitting in the trash in my room and pulled it out. Included in the information was the fact that there would be one dorm opened a week early for rush, you could move in there during rush provided you rushed and should you drop out of rush, you could remain in the dorm until the other dorms opened. Ok, so I would go to the first day parties, drop out and spend the rest of my time at the beach. Didn't work out that way as I loved KD which was my first house, so I changed my plans, I would stay in rush until KD dropped me which I knew they would since I had no self confidence and had been the least popular person in my entire HS so who would want to pledge me. Well, the rest became history, and I am and have been a KD forever now.


DaffyKD

I really didn't know too much about Greek Life except for what the school sent out about the chapters on our campus. It was basic...colors, symbols, etc. Once I found out which chapters were on my campus I looked for their sites online. None of the chapters (on my campus at least) had their own at the time so I looked at their international sites and a few sites that popped up first on google. :)

I wanted to rush my freshman year (the last year my school did formal recruitment) because I thought it would be fun to join Theta Phi Alpha since they were a Catholic sorority and hello, penguins! Little did I know they had folded the previous fall. My boyfriend at the time joined SigEp that spring and two different local sororities were trying to convince me to join, but they did so much stupid hazing. I think I was researching hazing laws or something when I tumbled onto GC and then decided I would rush the one NPC left on our campus.

I'd always heard of greek life from Black GLOs and "A Different World" etc. When I got to college, they gave a presentation on greek life at orientation and all I heard (or remember rather) was "rush a fraternity" which didn't apply to me since I was a girl! I didn't see or know a lot about Greek Life at my school, I went to classes and then went to work honestly.

Then my soon-to-be boyfriend rushed TKE and they hung out with lots of Phi Mus. Then we started dating. Then I met the Phi Mus. That was all the greek I needed to know! (Although I did my research on everything before joining). Rushed my junior year (finally!)

I worked at McDonald's with a Sigma Kappa brother one summer. He had a tattoo of his letters. I asked him what EK stood for. After getting the lecture about the Greek alphabet, he told me all about Greek life. I wasn't necessarily convinced I was going Greek, but having the option was one of my criteria for choosing a school. Sophomore year I decided to rush, and boy am I glad I did!

RaggedyAnn - I'm kinda thinking you mean Kappa Sigma, not Sigma Kappa.:p

Ah, just looked up the school Greek life. Sigma Chi. It's been a very long time! :) Good catch!

So it would have looked like "EX" - I can imagine someone thinking "Why would someone want a tattoo of their Ex?"

Fixed it. :cool:

I know y'all know the difference. But that is one of my pet peeves. Regardless of how it is written, S is not an E and is one of the more commonly known letters of the Greek alphabet. As such, SC should never be abbreviated as EX. Especially by anyone that is Greek or knows the Greek alphabet. EX is Epsilon Chi.

"looked like"

Using the example above it "looked like" an EX to a non-Greek which Raggedy Ann was at the time :)

I understand the concept of "looked like". I'm just saying it is a pet peeve when someone mistakes a S for an E. Even if they are a non-Greek and perhaps do not know any better.

RaggedyAnn - I'm pleased to hear that a Brother Sig was able to help you down the path of enlightenment and knowledge. ;)

In a way, that was how I was introduced to Greek life. My mom was in a sorority (as were my grandmother and great-grandmother - all the same one, I might add), but it was the Sigma Chi thing that got me really interested in it.

When I was a freshman in high school, my mom had a good friend who was a Sigma Chi alum. He had attended the University of Texas, and had his letters on his class ring (which he still wore). He was also active in the Texas Exes, the UT alumni association. I kept teasing him that his Greek letters were really EX, for Texas Ex (give me a break, I was 14). Needless to say, he set me straight.

When I was a bit older, I started hanging around SMU and got a taste of Greek life while still in high school.

I forgot to add something, until I read TStevens' post! My sixth grade teacher, born & raised in Louisiana, made us memorize the Greek alphabet backwards and forwards, since, "When y'all go to college, it's best you know it for when you pledge a fraternity or a sorority!" She was a HUGE influence on a lot of people in my school equating college with going greek.

Different? Names been in use since at least 1998. I do hope you have received copy write clearance in order to use the name.