I don't know about the other schools, but mine is considered pretty small. Ohio Northern has somewhere around 3200-3500 students. I honestly have no idea how many students we have in our greek system, but I do know that we have 4 sororities and 6 fraternities (it may be 7, but there's a reason why I'm confused about that...)

UFlorida is a pretty big school. It's around 48 thousand students. (When I started it was 3rd biggest, I think it's #4 now in student population though). Anyways we have our letters day on Wednesday. I don't know if it's official or not (probably not), but on that day everyone wears letters. We don't get in trouble or anything if we don't wear them (lol), but we pretty much all do it. All the NPC and NPHC sororities participate. I'm not too sure on the guys... I'll have to check.

It is not really a matter of school size, but of who the Greeks are and how they fit into the overall tone of a campus.

At Texas, as with many major southern schools where you have a significant number of students from within the state, Greeks tend to be from certain circles- and we have as much interest in associating with GDIs as they have with us. So we don't feel the need to wear our letters to prove anything as reality is already out there for all to see.

And so it was before we went to college and went Greek, and so it goes after graduation as we enter the real world.

It's different at every school but at mine fraternities and sororities usually set up everyone to wear their "billboard" or "block" letters on a certain day. Usually its wednesday for every organization. About 75% of my chapter has billboards. We all have rush shirts and greek games shirts though.

This isn't actually seeing but dreaming. (Yea I've been spending too much time on Greek stuff (wink)).

My dream last night.

1. There is a open hole in my celing and 3 cute squirrels are peering down.

2. I have to go to the convenience store because Johnny Beckman (retired TV Weatherman -- just read an article about him) has stolen a Little Debbie's oatmeal cookie. When I look in a box, there are several little items. One is a HUGE purple pacifier with a sorority badge as a ring on it. I buy it, hoping to return it to a sorority member. The clerk gives me the badge without the pacifier and it has tape over the front. The clerk says that the pearls open up and it has "Don't Argue" as it's motto. (I looked on their website and what I think is their Badge doesn't have pearls.)

3. On the way home, I'm on WGa campus, and happen to sit next to a little ole lady. I get excited because I think she's wearing her Alpha Gam badge but then I realize it says AOPi. (I think that's because I have a cell phone entry of Melissa AOPI but I can't remember who that is, lol.) I didn't even know what the AOPi Badge looked like until I looked at their webpage.

4. Then I make my way over to a display. It may be a future pic because it shows the different sororiities on campus doing some event, I think it has something to do with the Greek Village that WGa is considering. (I'm on the committee.)

Then, I woke up.

Wearing letters after college isn't 'playing' fraternity necessarily... you are showing everyone you are a member of a renown organization with christian principles and stands for sisterhood, and service, and...well maybe that's just us Deltas...

NPHC groups(as a whole) were never 'playing' when they joined...for us its lifetime baby. You dedicate yourself to the principles of your respective orgs as long as you are here, otherwise why pledge? why go 'through' anything to chock it up in a year or two? This is why NPHC orgs have such a huge presence in the form of alumnae chapters, we keep working AFTER we've 'played' in college...hell, most of the 'work' done is after college!

Thats great. However, i'm going to be alot more concerned about being a good attorney than making sure everyone knows I pledged a fraternity in college.

A wise approach.

I don't actually think school size or popularity of greek life has much to do with wearing letters. I think it's just based on tradition.

Chapters at my school decided for themselves when they wanted to wear letters. It just so happened that Wednesday was the day most chose because it was a day that offered the most visability. It certainly wasn't hard to coordinate...all it took was someone saying to the chapter, "Hey, everyone wear your letters to convo this week!"

Although my school has only about 3,100 undergrads, greek life is pretty popular. About 30% of the students are greek (a higher percentage than at most large schools), and the administration supports it. So when I mentioned that wearing letters was an easy way to show unity, I wasn't really meaning greek unity. It could be seen that way, too, but I was really talking about chapter unity. On my campus you couldn't tell who was greek and who wasn't (or which sorority/fraternity they were in) by just looking at them, so wearing your letters was an easy way to tell people who you are.

Back in the dark ages, when I was in college (mid sixties) people dressed up more for school, so you usually didn't see lettered t-shirts or sweatshirts except for things like Sigma Chi Derby Day or similar events. Instead, the sorority members all had uniforms that they wore one day each week. Most of these consisted of a dress and jacket, or a suit. Gamma Sigs wore ours on Monday, NPC sororities wore theirs on Wednesday, and members of Sparks (women) and Spirits (men) wore theirs on Friday. Sparks and Spirits were organizations that promoted the sports teams and ushered the football team onto the field at home games.

Some of our members, if they also belonged to an NPC sorority and Sparks, wore uniforms three days a week. We used to joke about it and say they got to spend less money on clothes.

That stems from the thinking that your fraternity affiliation is just a "college" thing. That also means you may place way too emphasis on what other people (may) think.

For those of us whom consider our fraternal bond a lifetime committment, we don't judge people that way, and those of us who come from that type of "greek" (read, fraternity) culture recognize that. We reserve the right to wear letters when and wherever we want.

That being said, I don't go around sporting paraphernalia all the time like it's the only stuff I own, either. We look at Greeks who do that and immediately think, "neo" (neophyte). I don't wear letters often anymore (except when I'm working in an official capacity with my org or in a service-related event). But I do have the license place/keychain/etc, and I do have a couple of jackets/sweaters that I may wear to specific events when appropriate.

Bottom line: My fraternal bond is for life. Many of us look at it that way, while others may not. In any case, I don't let other people's opinions affect whether I "wear letters" or not. Some of those same people will tell you that you're a "loser" to have joined a fraternity/sorority in the first place. ;)

At my school, wearing letters is popular... more people wear party shirts than jerseys though... I like wearing both though... my sisters and I really enjoy carrying bags with our letters on them... they're really nice:)

I think everybody joins a fraternity for life. I can't wait to be an alumnus and help my chapter. I think the basic point of this argument is that people dress the way the position in life dictates. If you're making plenty of money, or command a powerful position in your business, I don't think you're going to be wearing your "badge" or whatever sort of pin you have to a dinner party. I'd rather new guys have my old shirts then myself wearing them even to work out. Being a member of a fraternity for life, does not mean you have to wear your fraternity’s clothes to prove that. When you are alumni there are so many better ways you can prove this. I don't see myself in the future ever wearing t-shirts besides the odd day that I can relax; even then I hope to be wearing smarter casual apparel.

In my view, wearing fraternity shirts = college. College matures you. When you’re finished with college, hopefully you adopt a more mature style of dress.

I agree... there are many of my sisters who give away their shirts to the newer girls during senior service... I think it's a good thing to do... I'm a sophomore and I can't wait to give away my stuff to a younger sister... When you join an organization, you join it for life, you will always be what you initiated into