I'm sure you've participated in Rush. If you have, you must know that the P.O.S. houses tend to lie in order to get numbers. They then blanket bid, lie, do whatever they must. They are not in the game for dominance or quality, they're in it because they have to have x number of pledges in the house to pay the mortgage.

This is the case on my campus with a couple of houses (or it was when I was active). I can't imagine that any campus wouldn't have its worthless houses from which no one could blame a kid for realizing that they made a mistake by pledging there, and then cutting their losses.

Not necessarily. Fraternities at Iowa State rush just-graduated HS seniors in the summer right after school's out. Some guys may not even get to see the house if they go on a rush trip to Apple River or an ICubs game.

I lived in two differerent fraternities over two different summers and neither of them were very clean, even during rush events.

Also the ones that are clean at my Univ. are usually the newer ones or the ones that care about what people think of them, or just don't like the smell of ammonia.

Well here's whats wrong with all of the fraternity houses that don't smell bad.

1. They care what other people think about them. Huge mistake.

2. They're new.

3. They don't clean with ammonia. Ammonia destroys trace blood evidence so when you kill a drifter in your house you can drag it outside without worrying about using a tarp. The smell is just one of the side effects of being a house that kills people, and if your house doesn't kill people, you're clearly second tier.

If this is Iowa State, then I'd agree with ISUKappa's statement about the grade situation, the Resources section of the Greek Affairs page backs that up. The chapter is above the All Fraternity Average, but not in the top 10 chapters. Grade reports for all chapters are available for the past few semesters. If that's something that's truly important to you I'd check it out.

That said, I also agree with her that if you're truly interested in joining another house and other chapters expressed interest, it is possible at ISU to join another fraternity. I knew of guys that went this route and joined chapters of all different sizes. That said, if you're looking at joining some of those other chapters, there may be a much larger time commitment expected of you. With the fall comes Homecoming and that means Yell Like Hell, building lawn displays, community service, etc.

At my old chapter they tried to get me to do YLH, but with my study groups meet at night...seeing as how that's when it's convienent for them, so I skipped YLH most nights because again I had more important things to do.

Supporter: I agree that some of the activities you described may have been overly burdensome, but really, there are 24 hours in the day. As long as your chapter isn't asking anything unreasonable, you should do it. Budget your time accordingly. Your studies do come first, but they don't have to necessarily be the only thing in your life.

It sounds like you may need to learn how to balance things a little better. YLH sounds like it's something that just about everyone does. If everyone's doing it and still making good grades, you would have been okay if you hadn't blown it off.

I don't want to make any judgments, I know you're a smart guy, but do you really think that you have the time for Greek Life? You may seriously want to reconsider going through rush again. It's not for everyone.

I was rushed summer after my senior year and during my senior year. I went to rush events and didnt see the house till formal rush of freshman year and I was well aware of who was good, what houses were bad, etc.

I'm sure a lot of guys that rush have an idea of what some of the chapters are like, especially if they have older brothers or friends in chapters, but there are definitely some who haven't had that exposure who don't know what chapters are like. Bids can be given at any time during the summer, so if you only see one house and are given a bid there, some guys might accept it right away without seeing the other chapters.

greeksupporter...if youre gonna rerush a different fraternity, you should probably talk to people on campus that are in them to find out before rush what theyre all about. you can express your concerns and see what the guys say...this way you wont be disappointed twice and youll know what to expect!

Yeah that's what I've been doing, I look at all the fraternities that the guys in my old house called "douchebags" those guys tend to be cool. However, I learn their campus reputation party with them and see if they let me crash at their place if I'm 'unable' to make it home. So yeah, thanks for the advice.

just a question, but why do you want to join a greek organization? it seems like youre just interested in how their parties are, what girls they hang out with...and thats not what were all about. partying is part of what we do, but there are millions of other reasons that should be more important than that. philanthropy, community service, support system, belonging, brothers/sisters for life...that should all come first. you dont have to be part of an organization to party with them...most groups will let you come to parties if you arent pledging/initiated anyways. so when i said to research the organizations on your campus before, i meant to research their involvement on campus and what they are all about--not what kind of parties they throw and what kind of girls they hang out with!

This post would be a whole lot easier to read with some punctuation and a few capital letters.

Well the thing I've found is the coolest guys tend to do the most partying and they also tend to hang out with the most women, I mean ladies do you honestly like to spend your time with a bunch of assholes?, so that's what I'm worried about for now. Than after I find out which ones have the coolest guys, than I think I'll find out which ones tend to have the most in common with me.

So you're saying you're cool? But what if you're not?