Living In the Sorority House
 

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Haven't housing contracts already been signed?

I vote YES. I go to a small school, and our entire chapter lives in and I LOVE IT. Living in the chapter house is the best!

The power went out one time...and you would not BELIEVE the pranking that went on. It was hilarious!

In the dark ages, our house had a sleeping porch and four women to a room. I was unsure as to how I would like the sleeping porch. As it turned out, I LOVED it. The sleeping porch area was a "quiet zone" and we all respected that. If you had been up late/all night studying, the sleeping porch was always cool and dark, which made taking a nap easy. Also, not having to worry about meals was just wonderful. I also found living in the house much more economical than living out, so I stayed for three years.

Are we twins? My sentiments exactly!!!

We had to live in the house when I was in college, and I LOVED it! I didn't have to clean or cook, and we all got along. You'll have your whole life to clean house, plan and prepare meals, and have a lot of privacy in your living arrangement. You only get one chance to live with your sisters and build these memories.

Frankly, I just don't understand why anyone wouldn't want to live in the house. Every once in a while I have a dream that I'm young and living in the house again...and then I wake up and have to figure out what we're having for dinner!

I loved living in the house. We didn't have a sleeping porch but the fun times are still burned in my memory all these years later.

And I didn't have to clean up my own kitchen or bathroom. Science is right, I've had the rest of my life to do that!

I wouldn't trade my time in the Theta house for any apartment!! It brought me much closer to many of my sisters, far more than I would have been had I lived off campus. Rolling out of bed to a hot breakfast with home made biscuits several times a week was better than being at home! Those were my very favorite years.

This, this, this!!! And this is exactly what I tell my daughter now. I will have her living in the house until she's forced out.

We never had a house while I was an undergraduate but I think it would have been great. I sometimes think that when I retire and sell my house, I might want to be a house mom somewhere :)

Same with me. To this day I wish I could have had that experience and loved visiting chapters where I could stay "in the house". Dee, maybe we should find a campus where you could be an AOII house mom and I could be one for AGD? :D

I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the time I lived in the house. I wouldn't trade those memories for any thing. SO MUCH FUN! You will not regret it.

I loved my time in the Gamma Phi house! If you want more stories, take a look at this old thread I started a whole back.

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ad.php?t=99821

I LOVED living in the sorority house. You're constantly at the center of everything.

That being said...make sure you have a place (preferably one that has zero to do with your sorority or Greek life in general) to escape to when you DON'T feel like being at the center of everything.

That is a grand idea :)

Just adding my two cents, living in the house is something that not everyone who is Greek gets to experience, whether it's due to lack of housing, too much interest not enough beds, etc., let alone people who don't go Greek. I suggest trying it for a year, because with a few exceptions, people I know who lived in-house said that it was an amazing experience.

College life is about experiences.
I believe that everyone should live in house for at least one year.

Sorry to be Debi Downer. However, let's not sugar coat it. Living in the house is not rainbows and roses.

Yes, you will get to be closer to your sisters and everything is there for you.

There are down sides to it.

• Privacy - sometimes I just wanted to watch TV alone or crawl in bed without feeling like everyone was watching me.
• When one girl gets sick on the sleeping porch everyone gets sick. I don't care if make them sleep on the day bed in the room, everyone gets sick.
• SNORING - Despite the sleeping porch being quiet, some girls snore. And you WILL hear them. One girl talked in her sleep.
• DRAMA - Everything goes on there; the good, the bad and everything in between. It can be a bit much at times. Find a way to get of there. Go to a friends.
• GUYS - Everyone has different rules on them. Back in the day, they were not allowed upstairs or only on move in and move out days. Some have visitation hours. I had several guy friends and it was weird to have them sit in the formal foyer.
• DISTRACTIONS - I found that I studied best away from the house. It was too easy for me to go hang out with my sisters. My favorite was the Med School library; 24 hours and quiet.
• ALCOHOL - Don't even think about bringing it in the house even if you are 21. Fraternity guys can get away with it but not sorority women. Some people have problem with this.

When I was there, our kitchen was closed on the weekend. No kitchenettes on the floors like there is now. We went out for food on the weekend.

For me, I always thought it was odd walking down stairs from my bed to my room to get my clothes and get ready.

However, to this day, I can't not sleep in the same place that I studied. I only sleep and dress in my room. I think that I got that from living in the house.

Yes, Yes, Yes live in the house if you get the opportunity. While lack of privacy is a little bit of an issue, there is nothing better then living with your sisters! Getting ready for mixers and dates in the house are some great memories for me!

On my campus it was pretty standard for pledges to "live" in the house during I-week. In fact, one group told their pledges to keep their bags packed starting around week 5 of pledging because they never knew when a sister would show up to get them for the start of I-week. Yes, that's probably hazing - I think that would have been fun.

Anyway, that week gave you a pretty good idea (worst-case scenario even since there were extra people) of what living in the house was like. I moved in for I-week, out for the last two weeks of the Fall semester, then right back in for Spring semester that same year. Best part if my college experience. Nothing like putting your key into the lock of a beautiful mansion and knowing it's your home, and that there would be someone awesome to hang out with.

I'll play the Old Lady card and say that in my day -- when chapters were smaller overall (quota 35, self-determined total, house capacity average 70) -- sophomores, juniors, and seniors HAD to live in the house unless they were town girls (=living with their parents). I was able to move in the second semester of my first year and lived in the house August-May thereafter. That was my address, my home, my paradigm of college residence. (And it beat the heck out of the dorm.)