Confused English Girl
 

I'm reallly confused, and i was wondering if anyone could please help me.

I'm going to go to a university in America, which is kind of hard in itself because it's not very similar to in England.

Several people have advised me to join a sorority and i was wondering what they are and how to join?

Please, I'm really confused!:confused:

Luu,

My best advise is to check out the website of the school you'll be attending here in the States to see if they have Greek Life. Hopefully you'll find a lot of information there and more links to sorority websites. You may also wish to search here on Greek Chat for the name of your school, maybe it's been mentioned somewhere on here before.

This forum link is a great start if you haven't already read it: http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/an...?s=&forumid=27

Good luck!
Christin

Well, if you are willing to tell us the name of the school that you will be going to, I'm sure that we might find someone who is familiar with it.

If you don't feel comfortable doing that, check out the website of your school and find out what sororities are affiliated with the campus. Then, look at each sororities website to find out a little more about them. It might make it easier when you move down here to be somewhat familiar with the sororities.

Also, even though I am part of a NPC sorority, don't disregard the local sororities at the school. If you are interested, many schools also offer multi-cultural sororities for girls of all ethnic backgrounds and a wide range of other sororities.

Good-luck! Please post some more if you have any questions! Everyone on the boards will be more than happy to assist you in any way we can!!!:)

thank you, you've both been a great help

i will be attending Harvard but it does not state if there are any sororities so i wasnt sure

In general sororities are groups of women who share common goals and hang out/live together (if they have a house, but some don't). We have Social activities with each other (sisterhoods) and fraternities (mixers/socials/exchanges) We also do community service, sometimes in the form of fundraising, sometimes by donating time to a cause. It is a great way to make a large university environment feel a little more like "home".
In general there are three types of sororities NPC (national panhellenic conference) which is 26 sororities that have come together and have agreements which help each other out. these orgs. have to abide by these agreements and they all have chapters all throughout the US (and some in Canada) there are also organizations that have chapter all over the US but aren't part of NPC... (gamma sigma sigma, comes to mind) There are also Local organizations which only have chapters at that particular school. There are also NPHC (another council that has come together there are 9 groups in this council) organizations belonging to this council are historically african-American (although they are not exclisively for people who are african american) There are also other councils for Multicultural orgs.

Since I am a member of an NPC group I can really only tell you about that... you join through a process called "rush" or recruitment which lasts a week and you get to meet all the sororities at "parties" (no, not those kind of parties, just sisters and prospective new members or "PNM"s, people who want to join) at these partes you talk to the sisters and they will tell you about their organization and chapter and you can get to know them and they get to know you. I suggest you read the rush forum for more information on exactly how that works and I know there are threads about NPHC recruitment or intake that will give you more info about that. This thread may help as well different recruitment styles GOOD LUCK and feel free to ask any questions you want because someone around here almost always has an answer for anyquestion you can think of !

Harvard has chapters of 3 NPC sororities. They're not recognized by the university because Harvard will not recognize any student group that restricts membership based on criteria such as sex, and of course sororities are single-sex. The administration will tell you there are no sororities or fraternities... if you ask around, though, you should be able to ferret out some information about the sororities, when recruitment is going to take place, etc.

The three NPC sororities at Harvard are as follows:

Kappa Kappa Gamma

Delta Gamma

Kappa Alpha Theta

All three of them I am sure are just great. If anyone on these boards belong to these sororities, then they can help you better than I can b/c I belong to Sigma Kappa. We haven't colonized at Harvard. YET!:)

Web Sites
 

I found web sites for two of the three. They are:
Delta Gamma and Kappa Alpha Theta. Kappa Kappa Gamma is the newest at Harvard, so they may not have a web site up yet.

Also, here some articles on sorority life at Harvard:
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=269508
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=347587
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=349063

I strongly recomend joining a sorority, especially at Harvard. This university has a reputation for being one of the finest in the world, but that reputation does not extend to student life. This is why sororities have recently appeared in Cambridge. They are filling a need. A sorority will also help you to quickly get involved in other campus activities. Most importantly, you will have a new family to help your stay at Harvard be more fulfilling.

Best of luck!

This might sound like a dumb question but it has to deal with sororities at Harvard.

Awhile back, for Founders Day, we had a guest speaker who happened to attend Harvard. She at one point was going to join a sorority (DG I believe) but the school found out and she was told that she couldn't join. I'm not sure if this is an accurate statement or not, but since the chapters aren't recognized by the school could Harvard in fact do that? I believe she was on scholarship and they threatened to pull her scholarship. Can that be done?

Like I said, this might sound like a completely stupid question, but I was just a bit confused on how sororities work at a school that doesn't recognize them.

Technically, Harvard could pull a scholarship, because they are a private institution. As far as I'm aware, Harvard has not penalized a single student for involvement in any fraternal organization. My guess is that it was a (very) idle threat.

Thanks for the answer PhiPsiRuss

Send a PM over to IvySpice because she'd probably answer your question best.

-Rudey
--Good luck

Ok, so I don't get it, what is the difference between a sorority and a final club?? Can anybody explain?

As I recall, final clubs were once for single classes only, and usually seniors, hence the name. They are local fraternities, and most were once chapters of national fraternities. Final clubs are relatively elitist. They have been declining in popularity for decades.

Here is an article that goes over some differences:
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=358400