Quote:
Originally Posted by kaitapoul
I just graduated with my bachelor's this year, and am looking at graduate schools. One thing I really regretted not doing in my undergrad was going through recruitment. I'm not really familiar with the technical sides of Greek life, so I thought I'd ask! I'd love to join a sorority, but wasn't sure if it is strictly an undergraduate organization.
Thanks in advance!
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Pretty much all the advice you've been given here is spot on, but I'd like to add something. While there are chapters that may accept a graduate student, please don't take this as a promise that they will. Furthermore, I would implore you to think really hard about what you would get out of joining a sorority while beginning graduate school. It may be one thing to regret that you did not join as an undergraduate, but now that you do have (I assume) four years of college under your belt, it may not live up to what you expected. While you may only be a few years older than the girls, please keep in mind that there is often a huge difference in mindset between recent grads and the more traditional 18-19 year old freshmen/sophomore pledges. Think really hard about how you will handle being the new girl, if you do pledge, among the typical college freshmen...it may be something that you don't want to do.
I say this not to be mean or discouraging, but I am coming from the perspective of a fairly recent college grad who is also currently a graduate student. FWIW, I pledged as a freshmen at my school and graduated in May 2011, before heading straight into law school. Just shortly into law school, when I met a friend of my stepbrother's who was pledging another chapter of my sorority, I realized how big a difference just a few years makes. While I don't want to generalize, I will say that in most cases, it's unlikely that you'll really feel like you fit in with a bunch of women in the undergraduate mindset. I'm not saying that they're irresponsible or immature, because I know how driven, responsible, and all around wonderful most undergraduate sorority women are, but do keep in mind that there is a strong chance things just won't click.
Someone said that you should think about balancing pledging with the demands of graduate study, and I agree 100%, but I should also warn you that it is likely that you have matured to the point where it just might not be beneficial for you either. You may honestly feel like you don't have that much in common with 18-21 year old typical undergrads, and there is a good chance you won't. Graduate schooling in general varies from the undergraduate experience in more ways than just being a higher volume of work. It will likely cause you to grow up in ways you didn't expect...I know that I am vastly different than I was before a year of law school, and it wasn't just because of the intense schedule. So while joining as a grad may be possible, and I wish you the best of luck, I urge you to think about what you would really get out of joining at this point.