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You know, I don't actually get asked this as much as I thought I would (most questions come internally from the frat). But I'm glad you asked.
My freshman year I did the IFC rush with one of my best friends from high school. At the end of the rush, my friend had decided Greek Life wasn't for him and I had received a bid from a smaller fraternity that was in a revamping process at the time. I was attracted to it because it was smaller than the other IFC fraternites and that was something I wanted--a brotherhood where I would actually know each brother (a stigma that I recently learned isn't necessarily true, many IFC members know all of their members and facts about each one). Anyway, they partied way too much, the tradition aspects of the org were lax, and ultimately, I decided to decline my bid and thought that was the end of Greek Life for me. Until I looked into other options.
I had a co-worker one day say to me "you would be a cute Que." And I gave the typical small-town white boy answer of "uhh...a what?" And then she talked to me about the NPHC and the MGC fraternities on campus. I came from a small town where my high school population was 1200 and the only non-whites I saw were on TV, so the idea of Greek Life was foreign to me, even more so were the NPHC and the MGC. Luckilly, I'm one of those people that reads A LOT (thank God for messageboards like these haha). Bought a couple of books and talked to some friends and greek advisers and ultimately narrowed my choice down to two fraternities based on their national information and what I had read. I went to events and met members of each organization and found my niche in Iota Phi Theta.
To sum up this crazy long story of my greek life, I chose an NPHC org because:
--The membership was smaller than that of the IFC orgs
--I wanted more hands-on community service as opposed to a philanthropy
--My college town has a large black population in need of services that my org actively works with (and I've since changed my career goals to reflect that)
--We have social events, but they are moderately spaced throughout the semester
--DUES WERE CHEAPER
--MGC/NPHC orgs hold seminars open to all members of our campus
--The culture is just facinating, and it never gets dull
--We celebrate eachother's backgrounds and don't have to change our personalities to match the overall stereotype of our organization (which, to be white in a black org and not have to "act black" to be "cool," is one of the reasons why I love my frat)
*breathes* So that's my story!
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