application/resume question
 

Is it advisable to include your fraternity membership and offices held on a resume or application for graduate school if you either resigned from or were expelled from the chapter? I am going into my senior year and am relatively sure that I just don't have the energy to put another year into it so I think I won't be returning to the house, but I definitely want to include my membership and the numerous offices I held on my med school applications, and am not sure if it is advisable to do so if I either just resign or move out of house and get expelled (chapter policy calls for an expulsion vote to be held for any members who move out of house, and as I am not the most popular member due to my loud and confident personality I don't stand a chance of getting voted to remain a member if i move out hahaha). So my dilemma is, do I list all my fraternity involvement on my application since I know this will bolster my application, or is there too great of a risk that the med school would check with Nationals, find out that I resigned/got expelled, and actually end up hurting my application as a result?

Are you serious? Why would you come on to GC and ask a bunch of Greeks whether or not you should include on your resume an organization that you felt the need to abandon during your senior year? If you don't have "time" for your commitment during senior year of college-what makes you think you will have "time" for medical school? Greek life teaches you about balance. Apparently taking an oath means very little to you. To be honest, I have a very hard time taking anyone serious or giving anyone respect that chose to just deactivate from their GLO (unless it was a VERY good reason).

Don't include it. If your resume came across my desk and I found out you had disaffiliated, it would go straight in the garbage because you would be lying and trying to get away with claiming to be a member when you aren't.

I'm a recruiter and I go through thousands of resumes every week.

If you resign or "allow" yourself to be kicked out of your org, it's tacky and misleading to include it on your resume. What message are you putting out there by saying "unlike everyone else, I couldn't hack it in my fraternity through Senior year"?

You don't have the ENERGY???!?!? Give me a fucking break.

The previous two posters pretty much said it all. I can understand why your brothers think you're a dick. I only wish I could forward this thread to them (and to every place you will ever apply for employment in the future0.

Welcome to GreekChat!

Don't put it on there. Not only would you be lying, but Greek affiliation can be as much as a liability as an asset depending on who is reading your resume.

And what exactly would you do if you DID put your membership on your applications and resume, but the person/people reviewing your info also belong to the same organization and they look you up with HQ only to find you disaffliated/dropped out? I'm going to guess you'd wouldn't be extended an invitation to that medical school.

@33girl, I'm sure Delta Chi at Oklahoma State has a contact on their homepage...

But anyhow, you don't have the energy for this, yet you want to go to med school. I'm not a doctor, but I hear that med school and residency and everything is one of the most grueling things that a person could go through, as far as schooling goes. You may want to rethink your intended profession.

He's actually from the Delta Chi Chapter of Delta Tau Delta at Oklahoma State. I'm not trying to claim homeboy as a brother - lol - sorry Delts...

My bad! :o

No worries, I'm just glad I checked before I raged on him, lol.

Haha! I saw one of his posts and didn't read thoroughly- I'm chalking it up to being under the weather today.

But the rest of my post stands. :)

Okay...I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt because I've been there. Senior year is stressful when you're worrying about trying to get into med school, but you've just shown serious lack of judgement on this board. If you really have no interest anymore in your fraternity, go ahead and drop, but do it the manly way and deactivate rather than slither out the door. You can include your work with your fraternity on your application. You did the work. They may be impressed, but if they do find out that you quit in the end, that shows that you were just there to impress them. I'm not so sure they'd be impressed. With hundreds of applicants each year to go through, I doubt they are spending time calling HQs to verify membership in fraternities. I've gotta tell you, though, first year of medical school will eclipse senior year in the first week. Third year will kick your butt. Intern year (while nothing compared to the 120 hour work weeks I contended with thanks to the 80 hour work week law) will make you wish you were back in senior year in your fraternity house. Life only gets harder from here with more responsibilities. Don't I wish I could just move out of the house and have someone just vote a responsibility off of my shoulders. :rolleyes:

I strongly recommend not putting your fraternity on your graduate school application for 3 reasons:

1. You are deactivating. Quitter. Regardless of the reason.

2. I don't think anyone should put GLO membership on graduate school applications. If they do, that's fine, but I would never recommend it unless you did something that directly relates to the graduate degree.

3. Your accomplishments while in that fraternity are at the collegiate chapter-level (unless you did something that was beyond the chapter-level). For many people, such accomplishments are expected, so some people (such as myself) do not find them noteworthy for an application unless (again) they directly relate to the graduate degree.

Therefore, save that space on your application for accomplishments that are more academic and community-based without CONVENIENTLY trying to use your deactivated fraternity membership as social capital.

***
When committees read through graduate school applications, they are often rushed and are looking for the applications that really stand out. An application that references Greekdom may only standout to fellow Greeks--and particularly those who aren't just "Greek when I was in college." WOMP WOMP, if someone was to put your application on top because you have a good application that includes Greek affiliation, only to find out (you'll be surprised) that you deactivated.

***
We aren't talking about a professional organization that you can put "presented at conference" or "2009 committee chair" on your application even if you didn't pay dues for the current fiscal year. Even then, there are instances where people are called out for not being currently active (if their name isn't on the fiscal year roster) if the people reading your application or resume` care so much.

I agree with Dr. Phil--greek affiliation should generally not be listed on a graduate (especially medical school) application. Medical schools are primarily looking for undergraduate research presentations/publications, summer institute participation, paid or unpaid internships in the medical field, etc. Even being president of your chapter will mean little to an admissions committee when you are competing with students who have been cranking out published papers throughout undergrad.

^^^As someone who has gone through the med school admissions process with my affiliation on my application, I respectfully disagree. I was asked about my involvement in Kappa at every interview. Medical schools are looking for well-rounded students above anything else. Yes, those accomplishments you mentioned would be impressive and helpful, but it takes more the pure academics to be accepted to medical school.

I absolutely agree with you. I put all of my AOII extracurriculars on my application and would again. There is another area for scholarly activity such as research. Grad school is a different beast so if you don't know about medical school admissions, don't comment about it. People assume that having success at a social level doesn't factor into medical school admissions, but who doesn't want a physician who can empathize with them or at the very least seem like a normal person?

Thanks to those of you who contributed positively to the discussion without being ignorant and assuming I am considering resigning because "I can't handle the work". I would like to clarify that the fraternal obligations and responsibilities themselves are absolutely no problem at all and I actually enjoy them, I just don't have the energy to deal with another year of drama. I'm sure at least one of you out there belonged to a house where the brotherhood/sisterhood was absolutely divided and half the house despised the other half. I've tried for years to fix the house as best as I can, often to the detriment of my academics (I only have a 3.81 GPA as opposed to the 4.0 I should have). But people consistently choose to put petty differences and jealousies in front of brotherhood year in and year out so that is why I am considering resigning, not because I am some lazy bum who can't handle my work.

You're a quitter so certainly you could have read our responses and just gone away.

ROARRRRRRR!

LOL.

Hey, people can only respond to what you say, which was "I am going into my senior year and am relatively sure that I just don't have the energy to put another year into it so I think I won't be returning to the house" and "I am not the most popular member due to my loud and confident personality I don't stand a chance of getting voted to remain a member if i move out hahaha." Assuming you didn't want to put in the work and that you're "that" member of the chapter was fairly resonable based on what you said.

Well, unlike you, Dr. Phil, I have class and chose to respond to your laughable statements in a dignified manner instead of an ignorant one like yourself. You do not know me (and I thank God for the fact I do not know someone such as yourself), and therefore making snap judgements about my personality with no knowledge of who I am or the situation I am unfortunately subjected to simply reveals your ignorance and petulance. Don't bother replying; I will absolutely still discuss this topic with those who can help me out, but I've wasted enough time dealing with a child like you.

People with class never claim to have class.

And people with class would never post what you just posted.

How about you concentrate on the tasks at hand instead of trying to come at people who may be reading your graduate school applications. Mmmmkay, bye.

...and if you don't know how GC posters might be connected to the medical school admissions process, don't pop off. :D

The problem is, you didn't say anything more than, "I don't have the energy," and "they probably won't vote for me to stay, hahaha," so how are we supposed to know what your "situation" is?

It's like saying, "Well, I flunked out of school, and I don't feel like doing anything anymore," without mentioning that your house burned down and half of your family died because of it. You take out the latter, and you just sound like a lazy piece of you-know-what.

The more you leave out, the more unhelpful answers you'll receive.

That is... assuming that you DO actually have some circumstances that are causing you to want to leave.. for a legitimate reason.

Those circumstances really don't matter. Everyone has circumstances and considers themselves to be exceptions to the rule. Imagine how awesome life would be if our collegiate and alumnae/alumni/graduate chapters never got on our nerves or took more time than we had available. The OP made a conscious decision to disaffiliate and to share that info with us for a rather silly question, therefore...

...we wouldn't be typing about it if the OP had not created this thread. If the OP gets into a graduate program, he needs to learn now that he can choose to share info or keep info to himself. Whichever is his choice, but he can't stop people from receiving and responding once he releases the info. Coming after the fact and saying "you all don't knowwwwwwwwwww...cry...cry..." means nothing to most people, definitely myself included.

The problem with Greek involvement on any application or resume is that it may very well be read by someone who has a negative opinion of Greeks and Greek Life. I would never put it on a resume myself, given my field, but I think that someone considering it should factor in:

1) What are the odds that your resume will be read by someone anti-Greek? This can depend on your field, your region of the country, etc. For medical school, I'd consider putting affiliation on an application to a school with big Greek life to be less risky than putting it on a school without it, or even one where there had been high-profile RM issues within the past year.

2) What offices have you held? Being president, philanthropy chair, or scholarship chair is probably most impressive to a non-greek. You and I both know that recruitment chair and new member educator are critical positions, but a "layman" just may not care.

3) What does your resume look like without it? If you have nine other activities you are trying to scrunch on, do you really need number ten? If you were just a member of a GLO, compared to an officer in other orgs, you want to emphasize those instead.

I thought you'd enjoy that!;)

I would sure hope that someone attempting to apply to medical school had done more to be involved in college than just be a layman member of their GLO. The idea that you have to be active and well rounded is pretty established. I would agree that if that's all you have on your GLO resume and you have tons of other officer experience in campus organizations, leave it off...but that's not the information we were provided. If you have been very active as an officer in your GLO, absolutely include it. Leadership experience is a definite plus on your med school application. I also doubt the importance of RM issues on the application of qualified applicants. It doesn't work that way. BTW, I did not go to school at a Greek heavy school. Despite being from LSU med school, it is NOT on the LSU campus in Baton Rouge. One school is in New Orleans, and the other is in Shreveport (where I went incidentally) the home of very few collegiate Greek chapters.

You mention wanting to quit and not being liked by many of your brothers (enough for them to vote in favor of you staying) so....that equates to you being a QUITTER and possibly a JERK! That was pretty easy!

Sounds like a Doctor I would want! :rolleyes:

:)

When I found out my physician was a not only greek but happened to be KD it totally sealed the deal that I would always go to them :)

For the record, I love seeing Greek involvement on resumes. I don't have to tell y'all about the lessons you learn and skills you develop in Greek life.

But when you resign your membership in what is supposed to be a lifelong sisterhood/brotherhood... that is not what you put on a resume if you want to impress people. I mean, seriously.

How would you even word that? And what would you say if someone misreads and says, "Oh, you're an XYZ? Me too."? Would you take the opportunity to perp, or would you sheepishly own up to no longer being a member?

Complete lane swerve, but I just went to a new doc the other day who noticed that I had an anchor charm on (my husband is Navy). He asked me if I was a DG, and said that his daughter just became a member this past year and he's been trying to learn about it for a bit now. I thought that was very sweet of a father to do. :)