What makes Greek life "hot" in the south?

[oldu]

Why is Greek life more popular in the south than anywhere else? At schools in the northeast, many Big Ten institutions, or the mountain areas like Colorado, and even the west coast, all of those places seem to have an attitude of indifference toward fraternities and sororities, and a much smaller percentage of students joining, compared to the schools in the southeastern states. What do you attribute that to? Maybe the rest of the nation can learn something that they are overlooking in marketing themselves if they understood why Greeks in the south are doing so well.

[33girl]

Tradition in general is bigger in the South. Tradition breeds tradition.

Other areas could "market" till they're blue in the face and not have the same results. Not that I see that as a bad thing. Greek life at some Southern schools is seen as a "must" and those who don't participate or are left out can really suffer.

[nittanyalum]

Originally Posted by oldu

Maybe the rest of the nation can learn something that they are overlooking in marketing themselves if they understood why Greeks in the south are doing so well.

No offense to anyone in the south, because hey, if that's what interests them, great, but from what I've learned from this board, there's no way what flies down south would fly up north. So with all due respect, I think saying that the "rest of the nation" needs to learn from what the southern chapters are doing is over-reaching.

The chapters up north operate the way they do because they fit the personalities of the universities and the people that make up their populations. If you tried to come to Penn State back in my day and tell us to start having high school "teas" and have fashion shows and resume review workshops for HS SENIORS to get them ready for rush, you would have been laughed off campus. Or if area alums had come in to tell us that they were doing that and expected to then have input on who got bids to our chapter, that would have stopped at the door, too. We had a healthy, thriving chapter of 110 (limited to total by the university) and not one of us had been "bred" to rush.

The southern method fits the southern schools. I'd wager their methods are extremely region-specific in terms of guaranteed success.

[ree-Xi]

I think that part of the issue is that in the northeast, we aren't necessarily "bred" to go to the same school as our parents, whereas in the South, several generations of families are affilated with a particular school.

Second, kids around here tend to want to "go away" to school, and end up somewhere brand new, and don't have the Greek connections that many in the south do. For example, I have read that sororities at some southern schools have girls picked out from certain high schools that they want to pledge. Without those connections, students may be less likely to have any insider knowledge into the system, let alone certain chapters or members.

Stories about girls dropping out because they didn't get the right bid are beyond my comprehension. Many kids who go away to school end up living around the area they went to school. Most of my friends never came back after college. Therefore, the roots just aren't planted as deeply as they are in the south.

Third, at many schools (like mine), the curriculum is "college prep" - meaning that they prepare you for college. Ninety-eight percent of my graduating class went to college immediately after graduating. We were encouraged to go to apply to schools with higher academic reputations above anything else; anything else was secondary. Very few people went to state schools; if they did, it was for financial reasons. (I am not saying that state schools lack academically; many private schools usually have a higher percentage of rejections than public universities).

From what I can remember, not too many kids from my HS went Greek. Out of my group of friends, only one other person did, and I remember some people looking down on that.

[exlurker]

Originally Posted by ree-Xi

I think that part of the issue is that in the northeast, we aren't necessarily "bred" to go to the same school as our parents, whereas in the South, several generations of families are affilated with a particular school.

Second, kids around here tend to want to "go away" to school, and end up somewhere brand new, and don't have the Greek connections that many in the south do. For example, I have read that sororities at some southern schools have girls picked out from certain high schools that they want to pledge. Without those connections, students may be less likely to have any insider knowledge into the system, let alone certain chapters or members.

Stories about girls dropping out because they didn't get the right bid are beyond my comprehension. Many kids who go away to school end up living around the area they went to school. Most of my friends never came back after college. Therefore, the roots just aren't planted as deeply as they are in the south.

Third, at many schools (like mine), the curriculum is "college prep" - meaning that they prepare you for college. Ninety-eight percent of my graduating class went to college immediately after graduating. We were encouraged to go to apply to schools with higher academic reputations above anything else; anything else was secondary. Very few people went to state schools; if they did, it was for financial reasons. (I am not saying that state schools lack academically; many private schools usually have a higher percentage of rejections than public universities).

From what I can remember, not too many kids from my HS went Greek. Out of my group of friends, only one other person did, and I remember some people looking down on that.

ree-Xi: Well said, and, I think, very true. About the only thing I'd modify is "Many kids who go away to school end up living around the area they went to school. Most of my friends never came back after college." Instead, I'd say kids "end up living around the area where career opportunities are strong." That may mean the vicinity of their alma mater, but it can just as easily mean a couple of thousand miles away, or more.

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally Posted by nittanyalum

If you tried to come to Penn State back in my day and tell us to start having high school "teas" and have fashion shows and resume review workshops for HS SENIORS to get them ready for rush

People do this?

Yikes.

[DSTCHAOS]

So stuff like moving away from home and being bred to go to a stellar college versus being bred to go Greek at a "Greek school" are things that people outside of the South and Deep South experience more?

Just trying to understand where these types of discussions about "Greek Life" stem from.

[bowsandtoes]

Originally Posted by ree-Xi

Third, at many schools (like mine), the curriculum is "college prep" - meaning that they prepare you for college. Ninety-eight percent of my graduating class went to college immediately after graduating. We were encouraged to go to apply to schools with higher academic reputations above anything else; anything else was secondary. Very few people went to state schools; if they did, it was for financial reasons. (I am not saying that state schools lack academically; many private schools usually have a higher percentage of rejections than public universities).

I'm not sure I agree with this. I also went to a rigorous private school in Texas and aside from the Ivys, there was just as much 'prestige' in going to Texas as there was for many of the NESCAC schools or other small school throughout the South. Given, most of the people who do go to Texas from there are in the honors program, but it is still looked favorably upon.

In a state where the state university does not have a very good reputation, I could see that happening. But there are several good state schools throughout the South that have very solid academics as well (UVA, Chapel Hill, Texas, just to name a few) as well as smaller liberal arts schools.

[KyleMcGuire1983]

I think the Pacific Coast (WA, OR, CA) has its own cultural weirdness going on. I think I can name maybe three guys in my graduating high school class who went greek in college. It's just not normal out here. Fraternity guys are seen as sleazy, drunk, date rapists, etc. etc. It's really not fair at all but that's life.

I know when I joined I heard a lot "paying for your drunk friends!" comments whereas in the south it might be like "oh you have to carry on your family name, go join what your dad and your daddy's dad were a part of". Honestly I think it's part of that liberal culture outside fo the south that causes anxiety about greeks.

[Benzgirl]

Originally Posted by KyleMcGuire1983

I think the Pacific Coast (WA, OR, CA) has its own cultural weirdness going on. I think I can name maybe three guys in my graduating high school class who went greek in college.

Honestly I think it's part of that liberal culture outside fo the south that causes anxiety about greeks.

^^^what you said
Out of my high school class (small at about 170), two of us joined sororities and only 1 guy joined a fraternity. As I have said many times on this board, it just wasn't ingrained into our head growing up.

The chapters up north operate the way they do because they fit the personalities of the universities and the people that make up their populations. If you tried to come to Penn State back in my day and tell us to start having high school "teas" and have fashion shows and resume review workshops for HS SENIORS to get them ready for rush, you would have been laughed off campus. Or if area alums had come in to tell us that they were doing that and expected to then have input on who got bids to our chapter, that would have stopped at the door, too. We had a healthy, thriving chapter of 110 (limited to total by the university) and not one of us had been "bred" to rush.

Exactly!!!

[sigmaceli]

Oddly enough, it seems that when you get to the EXTREME South, i.e. South Florida, our Greek systems operate more like a Northern chapter. It's pretty weird.

The "Southern" style of recruitment wouldn't fly down here.

[bamagirl09]

No offense to south Florida, but that is NOT the south. Yes it is the southern United States, but it is not the south in the sense of culture. Most people at UA don't consider FL a southern state at all. It's mostly displaced yankees who got tired of snow.

[ktbug10474]

hehe that's the way i see florida past orlando.....

orlando and northwards i still feel like that's the south in terms of culture but get past orlando and it's just northerners that are "fleeing" the snow

[DSTRen13]

Originally Posted by bamagirl09

No offense to south Florida, but that is NOT the south. Yes it is the southern United States, but it is not the south in the sense of culture. Most people at UA don't consider FL a southern state at all. It's mostly displaced yankees who got tired of snow.

It definitely depends on the part of Florida --- it's a patchy state, lol

[PhiLove83]

Originally Posted by DSTRen13

It definitely depends on the part of Florida --- it's a patchy state, lol

Most definitely! I am from "south" Florida, my hometown is about an hour north of west palm beach, but the town is extremely southern... and the town where my parents are from is even smaller (one blinking light, an elementary school, two gas stations and a post office but it was founded by our family in the 1800's!). I grew up around orange groves, railroading and commercial fishing... Florida is a very different place, some people embrace the southern culture, but a lot are from the north as well. As for my graduating class, most of the people that went Greek we born and raised in the area, a lot of the "transplants" did not.. it definitely depends on how you were raised. Although neither of my parents are Greek they are very accepting, and even encouraged me to go through rush when I was still iffy.