Fraternity life at Alabama
 

First off, I want to say that I am currently a Junior in High School. My school is blue ribbon, I have a 3.1 with a 173 on my PSAT (1730 SAT).

That being said, I have heard a TON about college and parties associated with frats. I want a college with great parties, but also a place where I can get a good education.

My number one school was U of Alabama (I am from Washington state). I like the traditions there as well as the feeling of companionship that I can see from lots of articles and videos.

My first question: Are most frats at Bama geographically selective? I have heard that about 45% of them will not give bids to people who are not from Alabama (and me being from Washington, ugh...).

Secondly: Are there any fraternities that are ones that I should make sure to try to get bids on? I want to keep my options open, and my father was a DX so i know that would help me for sure in that house. I think I would have a shot at most houses, given that they don't pick from just local boys.

Third: How does school play a role in fraternities? I see all the time, guys bashing people who go to class and stuff, saying that partying is the only important thing to do at a college. I know that although I want to party, I am going there to get an education. My family has enough money to put me in a house, but not enough to give me second chances if I totally mess everything up the first time.

Fourth: Are there any special features about fraternities that I should know? I am on TFM and things like that often enough to know how most of college partying goes and stuff like that, but I want to know a bit more about the special parts of each fraternity that I can't really find unless i go to the campus (about 3,000 miles away, not happening any time soon).

Fifth: Any other things I should know? I just want to have a great time, and I think Greek is the way for me to go. I want to feel a bit more prepared for when I go off to college, so everything you guys give me will be taken to heart.

Thank you all who reply, your comments are greatly appreciated.

Cole

EDIT: Also, wanted to say that I go to school every day in boat shoes, button up collared shirts and shorter shorts. Not because it's "frat" but because I love the look. Thought that might help for anyone suggesting houses.

qfp

IMO, I think your GPA isn't too exciting, and your SAT score would likely be below the 80th %ile. Suggest you focus on improving that GPA in the short time you have left in high school. I have no comment about your taste in clothing. I'm sure you'll get some great advice from the fraternity men here on GC.

I will give a few words of wisdom:

Work on your grades. Grades are important to fraternities. See Grade Report for Spring 2014 http://greekaffairs.ua.edu/documents...radeReport.pdf
The undergraduate GPA for Bama Spring 2014 3.04 IFC average 3.0. Looking at those facts, you can see that fraternity life is not all parties and skipping class. In college, you skip too many classes you will automatically fail that course. You fail too many courses, you could be expelled from the university.

Stop looking at TMF.

No I did not attend Bama, but as a fraternity man, I know a little about life in a fraternity chapter.

Good luck with your quest for college, enjoy your last year of high school.

I'm just glad you are keeping up with important websites like TFM. :rolleyes: Oh, and you should probably take out most of what you put in your initial post regarding identifying information. I wouldn't assume that because your father is a member of Delta Chi that you are automatically in. I am hoping that this entire post was supposed to be satirical and not real.

So it doesn't get talked about seriously, I know TFM is a little rediculous. It's the way everyone wishes college was about, but we all know that it would suck to just party and then realize we've failed out of the school and will never see the light of day from our parents who have financially supported us to get into college.

Also, if GPA weight is taken in to account, I would have a 3.4 or 3.5. My school is one of the hardest in washington so UW and WSU will take kids with 0.4 lower than most kids, knowing how hard my school is.

RE: this part. That's all well and good if you're staying in state, but the admissions officers at Alabama are not going to know this or take it into account unless you get a guidance counselor to state as much in a letter of recommendation, and maybe not even then. You will be competing with out-of-state students from all over the country, and it is impossible for an admissions officer to know the relative strength of a high school across the country with that many applicants.

Hmmm. Glad I'm not the only one calling shenanigans on this OP.

Ridiculous. <--correct spelling, just fyi.

I know next to nothing about Bama outside of football.

That said, don't go into it already picking a house or two you want to join. Rush almost every chapter, see where you fit in and where you get a bid.

I would not even consider going to a college campus if you can't visit it first. I visited my own far-from-home undergraduate campus in the fall of my senior year to ensure that it was a good fit for me.

There are plusses and minuses to attending a campus very far from home. One significant minus is that you will be leaving a number of friends and potential contacts behind in Alabama and the south once you leave school. If you plan on making your future in the south then this may be a good move for you. But if you plan on making your future elsewhere, then you may be leaving many friends behind.

Another minus is that your visits home to Washington state may be very limited. For instance, I was never able to make it home for Thanksgiving.

Consider that there are other schools somewhat closer to home that would meet your needs just as well, in places like California, Oregon, Colorado, and Arizona, to mention a few examples.

I absolutely love my alma mater and the time I spent there, but I have made certain ongoing sacrifices to attend that school. I have not been back there for many, many years.