Hi guys! DESPERATELY Need Advice!!!!!

If you couldn't tell from the title... I need a little advice! Also, I apologize if this isn't the correct forum for this type of post, I'm new to this website and am trying to figure it out! I'm also so sorry if this post is rather long, I'm trying to give as much information as I can.

Unfortunately the Greek life at MCPHS University is little to non-existent. There are some sororities, but at my school apparently "fraternities" and "sororities" aren't even the technical terms, they're all just called fraternities. Secondly, these "fraternities" are only open to pharmacy majors who are not freshmen, excluding a lot of students in my university. As a first year student myself who is not majoring in pharmacy, I was really bummed out.

I'm just looking to gain more knowledge about Greek life and what goes in to starting a sorority, or if it's even something I can handle. I don't know the first thing about Greek life but I remember always wanting to join a sorority. All of my old high school friends have all joined their own sororities and it looks like so much fun and so inclusive, and I wish I could be a part of it. The descriptions on my school's website are very poor, they don't even tell us when rush is! But from all the descriptions I've read, it's only for pharmacy majors.

The ones here focus mainly on community service, (here's one for example https://www.azo.org/ )
One sorority's description says, "LKS, an international professional pharmacy fraternity for women, offers opportunities for community service, involvement in various Women's Health Initiatives (WHI), scholarship and leadership opportunities, and professional development. LKS provides members with a multitude of ways to get involved, including executive board positions, poster presentations, professional, fundraising, and sisterhood events, and much more"
The third and last sorority's description is, "The purpose of Phi Lambda Sigma, also known as the national Pharmacy Leadership Society, is to promote the development of leadership qualities, especially among pharmacy students. By peer recognition, the Society encourages participation in all pharmacy activities. Since membership crosses fraternal and organizational lines, the Society does not compete with other pharmacy organizations."

I know sorority's are so much more than fun parties, meeting life long friends, and being in an exclusive community than how movies and social media make them out to be. Like the ones at my school I'm sure many sororities do a lot of community service and things of the sort. That's why I'm hoping to gain as much knowledge as possible with how to start one, what the requirements are, rushing, events, literally everything.

I'm so sorry if I seem so clueless or that this is too much for me to do, but I could really insanely use everyone's help. I want to do it the right way. Please help!!!

[Titchou]

The groups you specifically mention are called professional and/or service fraternities. Also women's groups can be fraternities and many of the social ones you are looking for are fraternities. They are members of National Panhellenic Conference -or NPC for short. You can look them up online for yourself. So if there are no social fraternities or sororities on your campus, you would need to start with whatever U official is over student organizations. NPC groups will not go on a campus unless they are invited by the U. I strongly suggest you go to the NPC website and read everything you can,including the Manual of Information(MOI)which lays out the method to get a group to your campus. Then go see you U official.

[thetalady]

Originally Posted by cbw0900

If you couldn't tell from the title... I need a little advice! Also, I apologize if this isn't the correct forum for this type of post, I'm new to this website and am trying to figure it out! I'm also so sorry if this post is rather long, I'm trying to give as much information as I can.

Unfortunately the Greek life at MCPHS University is little to non-existent. There are some sororities, but at my school apparently "fraternities" and "sororities" aren't even the technical terms, they're all just called fraternities. Secondly, these "fraternities" are only open to pharmacy majors who are not freshmen, excluding a lot of students in my university. As a first year student myself who is not majoring in pharmacy, I was really bummed out.

I'm just looking to gain more knowledge about Greek life and what goes in to starting a sorority, or if it's even something I can handle. I don't know the first thing about Greek life but I remember always wanting to join a sorority. All of my old high school friends have all joined their own sororities and it looks like so much fun and so inclusive, and I wish I could be a part of it. The descriptions on my school's website are very poor, they don't even tell us when rush is! But from all the descriptions I've read, it's only for pharmacy majors.

The ones here focus mainly on community service, (here's one for example https://www.azo.org/ )
One sorority's description says, "LKS, an international professional pharmacy fraternity for women, offers opportunities for community service, involvement in various Women's Health Initiatives (WHI), scholarship and leadership opportunities, and professional development. LKS provides members with a multitude of ways to get involved, including executive board positions, poster presentations, professional, fundraising, and sisterhood events, and much more"
The third and last sorority's description is, "The purpose of Phi Lambda Sigma, also known as the national Pharmacy Leadership Society, is to promote the development of leadership qualities, especially among pharmacy students. By peer recognition, the Society encourages participation in all pharmacy activities. Since membership crosses fraternal and organizational lines, the Society does not compete with other pharmacy organizations."

I know sorority's are so much more than fun parties, meeting life long friends, and being in an exclusive community than how movies and social media make them out to be. Like the ones at my school I'm sure many sororities do a lot of community service and things of the sort. That's why I'm hoping to gain as much knowledge as possible with how to start one, what the requirements are, rushing, events, literally everything.

I'm so sorry if I seem so clueless or that this is too much for me to do, but I could really insanely use everyone's help. I want to do it the right way. Please help!!!

So you attend Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS University) is a private university focused on medical programs. I had to look it up.

This is not the type of institution where NPC sororities establish chapters. NPC rules state that

"The institution must be a senior college or university
that is authorized to confer a bachelor’s degree"

It looks like this university is geared more toward other types of degrees, rather than the traditional 4 year bachelor's. That is why there is no traditional Greek system there.

[navane]

According to their website, in fall 2018, this campus only had 2,823 female students. That figure did not tell me how many of those were enrolled as online students. Plus, with three different campus locations, I assume all of those women aren't in one location. Even at the full figure of 2,823, that makes a small audience from which to gain interest in a national sorority.

I would imagine that, at a specialty medical-type university such as yours, the type of students there are highly focused on their career field and on earning their doctorates before most anything else. They will have long lists of course prerequisites and many required hours at clinical rotations. I wonder how many students would be interested in a traditional Greek Life opportunity such as a social sorority. Since you are not a pharmacy major, it is a disappointment for you to not have an opportunity with the professional pharmacy fraternities on campus.

I wonder if you might be able to start a local sorority on campus. You will have to go to your student organizations office and speak with a staff member about the requirements for starting a new student club. You might have to advertise around for interest; but, there could be other women like you who are interested in a sorority but are also not pharmacy majors. Check your student life office to see what might be possible.