Quote:
Originally Posted by interested-one
Perhaps it will be easier if I tell how I think a fraternity is.
Here in Germany there are several types of fraternities. A 'Corps' is an unpolitical fraternity type, in that every male student may start as a pledge of course. A 'Burschenschaft' is political that means that they give petitions to the parliament according to several political topics.
In Germany almost every fraternity has a flag with three colors that represent their historical origin, so Corpsbrothers wear a stripe with that three colors.
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Not quite a matchup in American colleges. I would say that in general, what you are calling 'corps' sounds similar to social Greek Letter Organizations (GLO). Your 'Burschenschaft' sound similiar to a college political club, which are not fraternities. I am not aware of any GLO which is expressly political.
First off, at our colleges we have a wide range of clubs & organizations. GLOs are but one kind. Some are focused on political matters (college version of our major political parties, or focused on a single issue), some are for various interests of students (poetry, movies, science-fiction, games, etc), some may focus on sports, community service, professional fields (business, law, medicine), etc.
Even amoung GLOs, there are certain types. The 'social' GLOs are what most think of when speaking of fraternities. By and large, they are broken down by gender (fraternities for males, sororities for girls). Some are considered "Black GLO", and you also have Latino and multicultural. Social GLOs usually own a house where members live. This is the main draw of GLOs: providing a place to live/eat, but NOT the only draw. GLOs grow out of early dinner clubs and the like (providing students a place to eat and later live, during a time before dorms and such were more common). These groups recruit with a particular recruitment period (traditionally called 'rush', but some may not use that term) and bring in new members thru a period of probationary membership (traditionally called a 'pledge period', but some no longer use that term).
Other types of GLO include Service (doing community service is their main focus), professional (bringing students focused on a certain profession, like business, law, medicine is their main focus), and honorary (recognizing the top students in a particular field with membership). These groups may or may not use pledge programs. Pretty much all of these groups are now co-ed.
While some fraternities may have flags, that is not a main thing. I think the standard items that each GLO has is:
* membership pin/badge
* coat of arms
* motto
* colors (usually 2, which members will get their letter shirts in)
* other symbols (certain animal, flower, and the like)
Membership is usually shown by the wearing of their membership pin/badge (but some groups may limit this to only formal wear), and letter shirts/jackets. Hats & t-shirts are also common. Pledges (whatever a group may call them) will have a different pin and may be provided with a different t-shirt, but usually until they are full members can not wear any of the above.
Please note, I am trying to speak in general terms. Some of these things are not universal to all orgs or all colleges. I've tried to note what is most common, but there will be exceptions, otherwise you'll get a lot of "that's not true of MY group" or "that's not how it is at MY college", etc.
Hope this helps.
Am sure others will add/correct what I put here. :\