What's your house like?
 

Hi :) I'm not in a sorority (about to start senior year of high school) but I really hope to get into one when I start college. I was just wondering what a sorority house is really like. How many girls to a bedroom? Are the bedrooms bigger than dorms? Is everyone using one bathroom? Do you guys have a kitchen? I'm just curious. I know all sororities are different but I just want to know the general idea or what yours is like. Thanks in advance :)

The problem with this is that it can vary widely depending on where you go to school. Granted I'm in a fraternity, but same concept. For instance my chapter we had a small three story rowhouse, yet one of our other chapters has a castle. so you see it really all depends.

Also on some campuses it can vary widely between different organizations on the campus.

It depends so much on the school that it is not even funny. For instance, I know girls whose chapters don't even have houses, some who have houses that hold 5 or 6 girls and some who have houses that hold close to 80 women. Even at the same school, some sororities may have primarily doubles and another may have primarily quads or other differences.

So true. We had doubles, while another chapter had quads and triples. There was another who had apartment-style rooms with mini kitchens and their own bathrooms. There were 6 housed chapters and each had different arrangements.

It definitely varies based on the size of your school and the popularity of greek life, as well as the live-in policies of that school's chapters

I mean, my house personally you can have a single, double, triple, or quad...but you don't sleep in your room, so it's different. Some houses you do sleep in your rooms. Also most of our houses house 80+ girls so it really depends.

Also, I know some of the chapters at my school have 'photo house tours' on their websites, so perhaps some at your schools of interest do as well. That's a good way to see inside a few of the houses before you go into them, especially if your recruitment doesn't do house tours like mine does.

Can somebody please explain this? I don't understand what she means.

I'm guessing this is referring to what is known at my alma mater as "sleeping porches" - where the women keep their things in one room, and then sleep in a large room with bunk beds. For example, you could have a sleeping porch (which is typically a 24-hour quiet room with a bunch of beds) which sleeps 16 people, and those 16 people keep their stuff in 4 separate rooms (4 people per room). Hopefully that makes sense.

ah. That sounds like it is a really interesting arrangement. Thank You.

There's a whole thread on here somewhere dedicated to sleeping porches. You'll find them in many greek systems where everyone is required to live in. Many people grow to love them!

She's referring to a sleeping porch. Many greek houses have them to hold more people. Basically, it's a large room with rows of bunkbeds where you sleep. Then you have a room you share with someone where you keep your clothes, computer, belongings, ect.

I think it probably seems very odd to people who's schools do not have sleeping porches, but they really aren't as bad as people think. It is actually really nice. You never have to worry about trying to sleep when your roommate[s] is studying/getting ready for class/playing on the computer/ect and vice versa. The room is also kept dark 24/7 so you can nap anytime of day! It also seems like you only ever wake up to your own alarm.

Ok, this is going to sound mean, but as an ex-adviser to my organization and a high school teacher.... you're a senior in high school, concentrate on getting good grades, being active, graduating and getting in to college before you really start worrying about what living in a sorority house is like.

To answer the question, every university is different. Some chapters on some campuses don't have any housing.

We call them cold dorms at IU, but yes, they're 'sleeping porches.' You have your desk/TV/futon/clothes/everything else in your room with your roommate(s), but you sleep in bunk beds in this giant room, in which they keep the windows open at all times but it's always dark. Nice way to nap, in my opinion, and you learn the intricacies of using your cell phone as a flashlight, haha.

I have never even heard of sleeping porches before this thread! That seems so strange to me...it's one of those familiarity things I guess.

I can only speak for the DG house at UGA, but the rooms there were mostly doubles, with some three- or four-girl rooms. The house was three stories; the first floor held the chapter/dining room, the big kitchen, living room, Founder's room, and foyer. The second floor had bedrooms and one community bathroom with big "cubbies" for girls to put their toiletries and things in, and everybody's mailbox was on the second floor too. Oh and there was a study room on the second floor. Then the third floor was the same, but there was a mini-kitchen in lieu of the mailboxes, and the officer's room/guest room was in the place of the study room (although I haven't been in the house too much since its facelift so I'm not sure what they ended up doing with that room). My contribution. :)

Question about sleeping porches: Is everyone assigned their own bed or do you get in where you fit in?

Yeah if they are community beds, I think that it is a very good system. For one thing it would give a member a place to sleep if they didn't live in house without entering a private room. And I can see it being more efficient space wise.

Yes, but you know how those XYZ girls are, and one could get pregnant after sleeping on their sheets. :D

Jokes aside, I think the idea of getting in where you fit in is a bit unsanitary, unless the chapter has the money to pay a maid to change all the sheets every night. I mean I've slept in girlfriends' beds before without the sheets being changed, but...making it a nightly custom? Ehh. I dunno about that.

I'm only speaking for my house, but we signed up for bed locations (even live-outs) and the extra beds are where guests sleep, so you're not sleeping on someone else's gross sheets, haha. Just your own ;)

This has been my experience as well, where women are assigned a bed to sleep in. As far as I know, that's the way it's done at most chapters (if not all) at the campus I advise at.

Hmm...Interesting. Thanks for the info.

back in the day, my house had sleeping porches as well as some sleep-in rooms. those of us on the sleeping porches chose our bed for the year as well as which sleeping porch we wanted.

the nice thing about sleeping porches, was no matter what time of the day(or night) the s.p.'s were dark and quiet and you could grab a nap whenever.

Back in the day at my Chapter the pledges who had morning phone duty also had wake up duty for the sleeping porches.

Do fraternities do this as well? If so that brings up a rather delicate question.

Usually it's first come first searve at the beginining of the year, then you stay in that particular bed all year/semester.

Some do but it's not as common, one fraternity at my school does I think but I've never seen it. I'm going to assume that it's the same as it is in sororities.

I think I know where this is going, lol.

And you would be right. lol.

at my school I guess just the new freshman/sophomores who are living in have to sleep on the porch. I've heard some of the guys put up "privacy curtains". I still would find that to be incredibly awkward for all parties involved.

Quick question: I know its different for every school/chapter but about how many years would you live in the house? And what years? Thanks! :)

Well, that's different in each house too, but at my house you can stay as long as you are a member as long as there is room. I know a girl who has lived in the house all four years because she joined in informal recruitment and there were extra rooms in the Spring semester.
My sorority requires you to stay at the house unless you are an RA, petition to live off campus, live within commuting distance, sign a contract with the apartments, or are a First Year Experience Mentor (people who help the Freshmen during your first semester...I'm pretty sure my campus is the only one that has these, or at least one of few). This is only a requirement for us because our Housing Council wants us to fill capacity.

At my school, there is a greek village on campus (right next to the football stadium). There are 7 physical buildings, which are split into two townhouse-style spaces. Each house is home to one fraternity or sorority and has its own living room, dining room, space for chapter storage, and a basement (which is where most chapters have meeting.) The top 2 floors have bedrooms. There are singles and triples- no doubles. Each house has 3 singles and those usually go to the President, House Manager and another senior or "high pin" member. There is one single on the first floor, next to the kitchen and it is the only room with its own private bathroom. On the second and third floors, there is one community bathroom. (If you watch the ABC Family show GREEK, the bathrooms look a lot like that, epsecially when everyone is trying to get ready to go out all at the same time.)

There's room for about 26-28 people in each house, so obviously the whole chapter doesn't live there (my chapter has 75 members.) But, it is mandatory that each member live there one year. Members may also have to live there an additional year if the house isn't full. The houses must be full to fulfill the lease agreement with the University, or the University can (and will because we're low on housing) place independents in them.

Our village makes greek life on campus much more visible, and more close-knit, because most of the chapters are close together. There are only 3 chapters not included in the village. There are 2 national fraternities that chartered after the village was built, and one (our only) local sorority, which was also founded after the village was built. So for those chapters it kinda sucks, especially for Fraternity recruitment. But for Panhellenic recruitment, it makes it very easy to run the "organized chaos" for the week.

I haven't really heard of any other school that has housing quite like this for their Greek Chapters. It has its pros and cons, but it seems to work well for us!

As for whether or not you should be worried about this yet- I say go for it! Being involved on campus will teach you as much or more than your classes will, and figuring out whether or not you will fit into the campus life at a possible school can (and SHOULD) be a determining factor to the choice you will ultimately make. But, having said that, don't choose a school based on how nice the sorority houses are. Chances are, the nicer the house, the more expensive the sorority- and just because the house is nice, doesn't necessarily mean you'll fit with the girls that live there, and that's ok.

My school has a Greek Village too, and I must say it does make recruitment alot easier. At my school there are 5 NPC's and 4 IFC's in the village. Our houses are more like townhomes kind of, so everyone is connected. You walk through the doors and there's a pretty big parlor area which has the living room, dining area, and 4 nooks in the corners of the room. The dining area is set up next to the kitchen. Through the parlor there's the door that leads to the bedrooms. We have like 6 rooms on the first floor, then 10 on the second. There are 2 girls to a room and a private bathroom in each room.

The real fun is in the villiage typically takes place outside. We're always mingling on each others' patio areas We have huge community back yard. There's a sand volleyball court on one side and a basketball court on the other with grassy spaceall around. At almost any given time you'll find some girls and guys playing around out there. My school has a really close greek community so I love being able to be right next to the other houses.

Good luck senior year!

Univ of West Georgia Greek Village
 

http://www.new.facebook.com/home.php...8952731&ref=nf
Not sure if you can view the link without joining the group but here goes.

WOW Much nicer than ours! :)

Open House for the whole UWG Greek Village is Sat, Aug 22 from 10am - 12pm!

At my house we have both private rooms and a dormer. Girls who are higher on chapter role get to pick rooms first (chapter role gets determined by many things like GPA, philanthropy hours, etc). However, just because you're low on chapter role doesn't mean you have to sleep in the dormer. Many girls choose to sleep here because it's air conditioned... private rooms aren't.

We have 2 floors that girls live on with 1 bathroom per floor. However there's enough space where you're not feeling rushed or squished in the mornings. We have a kitchen, and a cook who makes our meals during the week. On the weekends we're on our own as far as food goes, but we have a giant freezer we're allowed to keep food in. We also have a study area with computers that stays quiet for those who want to study there.

We also have a formal living room, and an informal living room. In our informal we have a big screen tv and a DVD player, and lots of girls like to get together to watch Grey's or something else :)

Our house capacity is about 60. We also have a house mom who takes care of a lot of things for us (bill paying, getting things for the house like furniture) and is just generally there to keep us in order. We have set hours when boys can and cannot be on the sleeping floors, but there is no house curfew for us.

It's a really great experience! Just as everyone has said though, it varies from chapter to chapter, but this is how our house works :)

I hope this clears some stuff up for you!

Why do you use the past tense? The chapter and the house are still there!

Actually I used the past tense because the house has changed a LOT since I've spent any significant time in it (what with the brand new facade) and it's likely that some of the details I described may have changed as well. I was just telling how the house was when I was there.

Well, our house is...too small.

Beautiful, but too small. Think Mona Lisa Smile house. But...way smaller.

Bless it's little heart.