Lots of questions =/
 

I was thinking about rushing the fall semester. I've began looking at a few of the sororities that the university (FIU) i attend offer, but I'm still having trouble deciding and i have some general greek life questions.. First off, i attened community college for a year and im coming in as a sophmore transfer student. do you have to be a freshman to rush? Also, does Beta Theta Pi have a sister sorority? Or actually how do "sister/brother" work?:confused: I'm a little confused on all this, and when i go to greek life on the university's website, its a little less than helpful answering these particular questions. If anyone can help, please do!!!

Thanks!!

Beta does not have a sister sorority because that would tear down it's single sex status.

Plus, what does that matter....at all?

Thanks!

and i was reading through their philanthropy and work was appealing, and like i said i dont quite understand some aspects.

It's against NIC bylaws as well. There was a lot of problem with little sisters and they were banned because of it. The same would be true of sister sororities as well.

If you are interested in going through recruitment and don't quite understand it, read this thread first:

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ad.php?t=54403

It's long, but it answers alot of really common questions.

I believe Beta doesn't have a sister sorority, but I heard once that Pi Phi partially based their colors and name off of Beta (Pi Beta Phi / Beta Theta Pi, wine and silver blue / pink and baby blue)? One of the Pi Phi founders was related to a Beta, maybe? Can anyone confirm that?

Although I hasten to add that whatever history the orgs may share, it doesn't guarantee that on any given campus the two chapters will be related (it's a bit like the Monmouth Duo, Farmville Four, Macon Ga stuff -- the orgs histories intertwine, but the individual chapters may or may not get along.)

Yes, that is a common inaccuracy that is sometimes taught in Theta--FIJI is our brother fraternity (because our founder's brother was FIJI) and Beta is our father fraternity (because the same founder's father was Beta). We hold a special place for those organizations in our hearts because of some shared history but we do not have and have never had a brother or father fraternity. We are indebted to no fraternity.

Although not relevant to the original post, and as I think the notion of sister/brother organizations has been sufficiently dispelled by the above posters, I would like to add a comment about Pi Phi/Beta.

I must preface by saying I am not a member of either organization, so I am very open to the possibility of being wrong. I also don't know the proper term to use, as it isn't a sister/brother relationship, nor really a "shared history," but I was always under the impression that Pi Phi and Sigma Alpha Epsilon were somehow connected. My husband was a founding father of my collegiate campus' SAE chapter, and he has told me they had to learn part of Pi Phi's history because somehow SAE was involved with it. Again, not claiming to know if this is true, just further spreading gossip! :)

Delta Gamma's "brother fraternity" (NOT REALLY--just closely historically related) is Phi Delta Theta! I did find it interesting, though, that the *broken* link to the article used to reference George Banta's membership in DG on Wikipedia is called "Brother Fraternity - Phi Delta Theta" at http://www.deltagamma.org/brother_fr...ta_theta.shtml. Weird.

And yeah, whoever was talking about Pi Phi and Beta--I think their similarities are likely coincidence. Our colors were pink and blue, but we added bronze in recognition of Beta's shared use of the colors, but that doesn't make them our brother fraternity.

Beta does not have a "sister sorority", not even unofficially at FIU. There are certain chapters that they tend to have more friends in/date out of, but if you're basing your entire rush on Beta Theta Pi, then I think you'll end up very disappointed. You can't join them and you'll never be one. Join a sorority because you like it and they like you.

If you have questions, please do my a favor. Go to the orientation sessions and talk to the Panhellenic Council members or the Rho Gammas. The Pi Chis this year are exceptionally experienced women. They can answer any of your concerns. You may have been to orientation already, if not then when you go, actively seek Panhellenic out. They will be present. If not, go to the second floor of GC and go to the greek office. Up the main stairs (by the pit) and to the right. It's right before the campus life office. If no one's in there, keep going back. They'll sit and talk with you if you actually need it.

Most of the chapters have their websites up with the exception of 3 who are currently lacking local chapter websites.

There isn't really that much stigma transfering from Dade. As long as you have a strong GPA you shouldn't have much trouble as a sophmore as far as that goes. However, that isn't the only thing chapters are looking for.

Can someone post the link from the other FIU thread? I don't know how to find it. I answered everything you'll need to know in there. The fact that you don't really seem to be getting the information that you need irks me. It's readily available, please seek it out.

Why does Beta having a sister sorority matter? lol

If you're a girl who just wants to go Greek to get in well with a fraternity, don't bother, because FIU has plenty of those girls already.

Just make sure you have a good GPA (for PC you need a 2.7 transfer GPA to rush).

And go to the pre-recruitment events if you think it'll help you out.

Here's some more info:

http://fiu.edu/~greeks/images/sororityBanner.jpg

ETA: Here's another FIU thread that might help you out: http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...d.php?t=105582

Beta adopted "delicate shades of pink and blue" as its colors as 1879. Pi Phi adopted wine and silver blue as its colors in 1882. While I guess it's possible that Pi Phi was inspired by Beta, I frankly would seriously doubt it.

I figured that maybe her dad, grandfather or brother is a Beta. But based on her comment above about philanthropy, maybe she feels a connection to the FIU chapter's diabetes research philanthropy and thought that a sister sorority might share that philanthropy.