Which Greek system would you want to join?
 

It's so slow this time of year on the forums that I thought I'd throw out a question.

Assuming you were not at your own school, which college/university would you choose based solely on their Greek system? (Forget about majors and whether or not your own group is on that campus.)

What appeals to you? Is it different from your own Greek system? Similar? Bigger? Smaller? More traditional? Less traditional? Houses versus no houses? What draws you to that particular system?

After surviving IU, I am game for an SEC school. Probably Georgia or Arkansas. I think I'd be up for the challenge.

Ole Miss or Alabama for me. I went to a small school in the Midwest with only a few chapters and no sorority houses, so experiencing rush on that scale and living in a house would be cool. ( Although I freely admit as an 18 year old, it probably would have been intimidating.)

I love Mizzou's greek life, but I'd love to try out Greek Life in the SEC!

I would go to Alabama! I was actually originally going to go there and sometimes I still regret that I chose not to

Psst - you're already trying out greek life in the SEC!

;) I know, I totally know what you meant. I'm just picking on you. It's really hard for me to remember that Mizzou is now an SEC school, since it's not part of the group that we refer to here on GC when we talk about the SEC.

I think I'd just do Alabama over again!

I'd definitely want to try out the SEC experience: insane rush, wearing pretty sundresses to the football games, huge chapter; that whole thing.

Of course, if 18 year old me would have gone through rush in the SEC I would have no doubt ended up bidless because I was absolutely CLUELESS about things like recs and networking and what to talk about at the parties!

Here's a question related to this that popped into my mind (for anyone to answer)...

Which of the SEC schools are least dependent on the in-state networking machines?

I like the system at TCU. I could be a Horned Frog -- I look good in purple (and red & yellow)!

My guess would be Florida.

Dartmouth.

I would say Kentucky and Vanderbilt aren't the same as the others, although Kentucky is getting more that way. Vanderbilt has a lot of out-of-staters and northerners and deferred recruitment. I think that makes them different.

TAMU and Mizzou are new to the SEC, so their systems are different, too, but still very large and competitive.

Northwestern, Alabama or UT(Texas)

Northwestern for the houses alone, and Bama for the SEC feel and game days.
UT sounds like a different world altogether, would love to experience the crazyness that is southern rush.

Ivy League. Not necessarily because of the Greek system but because of the universities. Alternatively, one of the selective liberal arts colleges, because of their size. When I was a leadership consultant I loved the time I spent at DePauw.

If I was 18 again and on my way to college, I would want to rush at U of Alabama. It just seems like it would be the ultimate Greek experience, if not the biggest deal in the country. I think getting a bid from any chapter there would be a great honor.

This. Although I would have been open-minded enough to give any house a shot, so I may have survived.

Haha! All you just THINK you want to experience an SEC rush. I loved my sorority experience so much at Auburn but that rush...

When I was a Leadership Consultant for Delta Chi I got to see a lot of different Greek Systems up close, and I'd have to say I probably saw more of them that I wouldn't want to be a part of than those I would, haha!

That being said, I definitely would have liked to try out a housed experience since that was not present at my undergraduate institution. I think Georgia Tech would have been an environment I would have enjoyed, likewise for the University of Oklahoma. Maybe Southern Cal, though I could see a lot of things I wouldn't like about that community.

FSU and Alabama for me.

I definitely would have wanted to try out a big school where most of the GLOs have houses and there's a lot of rich tradition in a lot of the houses.

I have 3 on my list:
- University of Michigan b/c I love the Midwest
- University of Miami b/c my sister went there, loved it, and I'm a Hurricane fan b/c of her
- Georgia Tech b/c of the huge Greek system and it'd be so different from little LTU.

I would head to west Texas to Texas Tech. The campus environment is very different than Mississippi State and they also have a very respected program in my field of study.

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

You in Big Trouble.

Vandy for sure.

To answer the original question, I'd like to experience an SEC system with housing. I'd also like to experience one of the schools where multiple sororities were founded: Longwood, Syracuse, Monmouth. I also think a Big 10 school with lots of single letter chapters would be fun.

Agreed.

Also, I'm surprised there are no Big 10 takers in this thread. I'm obviously biased, but I think that Illinois, Purdue, Northwestern, etc. have a lot of the pluses of the SEC without some of the downsides.

I agree! I can't imagine a system better than that at Illinois.

Ahem.

And what would be a downside of ours?

Not trying to put words in anyone's mouth, but with the exception of Indiana, I think that maybe the competition is not quite so intense in the Big 10.

But I could be wrong.

I'd be lying if I didn't say that I sometimes wonder what my life would have been like had I gone to William and Mary, but it's more for career/academic reasons than sorority.

The others would have been Washington & Lee, and possibly an SEC recruitment. Although, much like Killarney Rose, I'm not sure how well I would have handled a SEC recruitment!

When I first read the thread, I actually thought of Illinois. Indiana would be interesting, but I'd rather observe it. Vandy would be fun and many of the SEC schools would be fun, but I'd rather do FSU or Florida. I would love to check out some of the larger PAC 12 schools like Arizona, ASU, Washington. Some NE schools as well, maybe Lehigh? Had a friend who went there who seems to be having fun as a Zeta.

Well, somebody in another thread just said that one could expect to pay 8-10K for dues without even living in the chapter house. If that's a real number, I'm gonna go ahead and consider that a downside.

Oh, and I can't remember which school it is that has no problem whatsoever scheduling recruitment over the Jewish high holidays, but I'm gonna go ahead and say that's a downside for a lot of women.

For me, the do-overs likely would have been W&L or Hampden-Sydney.

Well, since that includes the meal plan at over $3000 a year and dues and formals and all that other stuff they just "have" to have, it's not so much.

As for the other, I assume you don't have a problem with it being scheduled on Sunday,or Saturday for 7th Day Adventists, or football games, etc on the same. Why are single out the Jewish High Holy Days?

Regular Sunday/Saturday worship services are not equivalent. A better comparison might be Christmas or Easter.

-ducks for cover-

I suppose I should add Arizona so I could hang out with AzTheta and AZ-AlphaXi all the time, but I don't know if I'd fit in in Tucson - I don't think I could commit to spending that much time at the gym! Seriously, I'm not sure than any fraternity man at the University of Arizona owns a shirt, and they're all buff and muscular. I have never felt so wimpy as I did in Tucson!

My thinking was also Big Ten or another campus with a lot of older, single letter chapters. With nice houses. I would enjoy the tradition aspect of it.

My introverted self would never survive or thrive in a cut-throat SEC recruitment. And I would be lost in a chapter of hundreds of women. Our chapter got to around a hundred before I graduated and frankly that felt too big to be personal.

If being in a sorority had cost that much (even adjusted for today's dollars) I don't think 95% of the women in my chapter (including me) would have been able to enjoy sorority membership. And that would have been a real shame.

If I'm reading this correctly, you just compared a football game to the Jewish High Holy Days, and then you want to know why I might see the SEC as having some "downsides". Clearly, this is not something that you are inclined to understand.

UCLA Recruitment schedules around Jewish holidays as it starts late September.

I'd probably want to go thru at Georgia Tech. All the houses are close to campus and ...
the men outnumber the women (something like) 5 to 1!