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I grew up in a blue-collar home, and attended a "regional" college. I joined a fraternity that demographically "fit" me well, from my blue-collar background. But, the school, and the house were focused on the northeast, and, of the 800, or so brothers in my house, I am one of a dozen who made it to the west coast.
Although individual chapters evolve over time, and a given house on one campus can be different from the same letters on a different campus, what is more important is that your son enjoys the people he is with.
My house is small (44 chapters), and doesn't have the national resources to develop a mentoring program like Balanced Man, True Gentlemen, True Brother, etc. I would rather have my son experience a mentoring program, that only a large (200+ chapters) fraternity can provide. Plus, large houses have good alumni chapters, everywhere. My house does not have an alum chapter in America's fifth largest metro - San Francisco. (I know what you are thinking, and I am getting off my keister and organizing one!)
I would want my son to have a good greek experience, but a few of the schools he could possibly attend don't have fraternities. And, he is likely to work in academia, rather than commercial industry, so having an alum network is not as crucial. But, if his campus has fraternities, I would want him to join, but what's important is that he picks good people, not good "letters".
As far as my house, I would like it to merge with, or form a federation with other smaller houses and each house do one aspect of a mentoring program. There are two dozen fraternities in the 30 to 80 size range and, among them, perhaps half a dozen could work together, but each retain identity and tradition.
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Hybrid Mode
