Graduate assistantship for Greek life?
 

Hey all,
so this is a random question and wasnt sure where to put it. I am finishing up my undergrad and am looking to go to either a DC school or a school in upstate NY for graduate. Both the schools I am looking at dont have my organization sadly, but I was wondering if most schools have graduate assistants or students that can work with greek life. I know my undergrad does, but I wanted to see with other schools. I want to stay involved, in addition to joining an alum chapter, but I was just curious.

It really all depends - some schools cannot generate enough revenue to have a graduate assistant that pertains just to Greek life (some may be a general campus activities position, or handle Orientation, etc). And other schools have multiple GAs that assist Greek Life.

All you can do is look around at the institutions you are interested in - do understand, though, that most Greek Life graduate assistantships are not just an "involvement opportunity." They are primarily offered to graduate students pursuing a master's degree in higher education administration, community counseling and similar programs that will provide their chosen GA professional experience to utilize in a future job search. For example, if you are studying chemistry or engineering, you will likely not have the opportunity to be a GA for Greek Life. This is not held fast to every institution, but it is a commonality.

The bottom line is, if you are looking for a more casual way to keep involvement in Greek Life overall, look for an alumnae chapter, a collegiate chapter (whether it is a Greek organization that you are personally affiliated with or another Greek organization that can use your experience and expertise in an advisory capacity) or even an Alumnae Panhellenic group that can help to fill that void. There are likely also short-term and long-term volunteer positions in your National Organization that are available to someone as passionate about Greek Life as you seem to be! :)

Not a brief message, but hopefully gives you the info you need. Good luck!

I know you're not interested in Arkansas, but we have two grad assistantships (I think...around that) for Greek Life.

If you go to a smaller school that does not have a big Greek life and get an assistantship, BE CAREFUL. You may end up biting off more than you can chew. Sometimes the turnover for the paid Greek advisors is crazy nuts (because they get paid peanuts) and the GA is the one who does all the real work.

I was one of 2 GAs for Greek Life at Mississippi State, although my doctoral major was horticulture. (I was also a TA in hort.) Right before rush, the Greek advisor landed in the hospital with an emergency C-section. I'd been on the job for a week and there I was having to direct a major recruitment with only the help of the PH President! (We are still great friends, bonded forever by our week in hell.) Once rush was over, the job was a lot easier except that 2 sororities wanted to wipe each other out.

Although not DC, University of Maryland has graduate students that live in the fraternity and sorority houses called SARFs (Student Affairs Resident Fellows) who get free housing, free 10 credits per semester (4 in the summer), and have all utilities and probably most meals included. Pretty sweet deal. Go to the UMD greek website if you want to know more because there is a lot of information.

I was a Greek Life GA last year. It was a wonderful year working with a huge Greek system, and I was able to gain more hands-on student affairs experience than many students in my program. Most schools I looked at reserve those positions for students in Student Affairs/Higher Ed and only open them to others if they aren't filled.

My university (George Mason) has graduate advisers for Greek life, and its not a terribly large Greek System so you might be able to find them at more universities than you think.

That UMD program sounds awesome. And they have an excellent program in my field, hmm...

I happened to be looking at jobs and found out that WVU has a live-in house manager position for Student Affairs/Greek Life.

I don't know if they give any tuition remission, but they do give "room/board and salary ( $ 6,400 per annum ) provided for 9 month contract August 15 – May 15." Not great, but not terrible if you've got the tuition bit covered...

I was just looking at jobs at George Mason!

Also, the UMD program sounds great. I'm sitting here thinking of other degrees I could get and how to fund it through the assistantship, lol.

I don't know if you have a specific school in DC in mind or if you are interested in going to school in or near DC. The University of Maryland is VERY close to DC and has its own Metro stop.

The SARFs are "House Moms/Dads" but supervised by the University rather than through the House Corporation (though they do have some say).