what are the benefits of joining a fraternity?

[The Icon]

Am I the only one here that had a bad experience with Greek Life?

I joined up with Sigma Pi as a freshman and during the Rush period, it was the coolest thing. The guys seemed to be great, the philanthropy was appealing and to be honest, the idea of making connections was a major plus.

A week later it was a complete turn around. Every night, begining at 7:00, it was my pledge classes duty to shadow the brothers to make sure they had rides while they were drunk. This usually lasted until around 2:00 am. After that, they would usually have us do menial tasks until around 4:00am. This was a bad thing. When you have an 8:00 class and you're too tired after class to study, and the whole process repeats itself, things turn pretty grim.

They also talked up the brotherhood aspect, saying that "No matter what, we'll always be friends." I graduate in a week and to date, not one of them has spoken to me since I de-pledged in 1998. Not a one.

My advice to Chad, make sure you have all your bases covered. Hell, I'd wait until you were a sophomore until you took it seriously. At least then you'll have a steady GPA in case you have the experience from Hell that I had. It took me the better part of two semesters to recover from that.

I'd take into account that there are other organizations that do the exact same things that you want out of a fraternaty and the brotherhood is just as legit if not more, than the Greek system.

This was just my experience though. Take it as you will.