Rushing currently, have a few questions

[jazing]

MysticCat lets keep up with the time. You either pledge Alpha or get stuck with Delta next door. Delta is just the try hards that couldn't get into Alpha (TFM Book)

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by jazing

MysticCat lets keep up with the time. You either pledge Alpha or get stuck with Delta next door. Delta is just the try hards that couldn't get into Alpha (TFM Book)

Oh, I don't know that we can say which is the worst fraternity on campus. They're each outstanding in their own way.

[ElvisLover]

From what I can gather upthread from Firehouse's post about not being intimidated in the boardroom, etc., yes, confidence is attractive in a guy; however, cockiness is not.

[Psi U MC Vito]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

l'm not going to say Omega's the best house on campus, but a lot of outstanding guys figure they'll pledge Omega or won't pledge at all.

Random Psi U trivia, but Omega from Animal House was based on the Zeta chapter of Psi U.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by Firehouse

Does top tier status breed arrogance, as 'DubaiSis' charges? You're dealing with 18-21 year old males, so yes, the confidence and pride displayed by top chapters on every major campus are often viewed as arrogance.

Maybe that's because they're being told things like this:

I've seen men in a top tier chapter told, "By the time you leave here, you'll never walk into any Board room and be intimidated; you'll never lack confidence in the presence of any beautiful woman."

Just because someone says this to you, doesn't mean it's true.

...the top fraternities routinely produce the top performers, the top leaders, and eventually the top contributors to their university. It's hard to think of any famous, accomplished man who was in a college fraternity who was not in a top tier chapter when he was there. Off the top of my head: Sam Walton, George Bush, John Wayne, Warren Buffet, Jon Stewart, David Letterman, T. Boone Pickens, Burt Reynolds, Michael Jordan, Eli Manning, lots of Congressmen on both the left and the right...

It sounds to me like you're saying that only if you're famous can you be considered successful. There are so many people in this world who are successful, and you couldn't possibly know them all. And I guarantee that those that are Greek didn't all come from "leading chapters."

And quite frankly, even if all of these famous people were in "leading fraternity chapters," it doesn't mean that everyone else in those chapters is successful.

I believe that people make their own success, regardless of where they come from.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by Psi U MC Vito

[/INDENT]Random Psi U trivia, but Omega from Animal House was based on the Zeta chapter of Psi U.

Their crest always reminded me of Sigma Chi, though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuFCaIAnETk (at 0:53)

http://www.microworks.net/sigmachi/images/crest.GIF

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by Psi U MC Vito

Random Psi U trivia, but Omega from Animal House was based on the Zeta chapter of Psi U.

Are you sure? Every seemingly-reliable source I've seen says it was mainly based on the Dartmouth SAE chapter. Miller was an SAE legacy, and his description of SAE's rush party bears a strong resemblance to rush at the Omega house -- right down to the two girls handing out nametags at a table at the front door and a brother telling rushees that most of the "real achievers at Dartmouth" choose SAE.

Perhaps this means it's time to read The Real Animal House again.

[TSteven]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Their crest always reminded me of Sigma Chi, though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuFCaIAnETk (at 0:53)

http://www.microworks.net/sigmachi/images/crest.GIF

It does. But it also has a crescent moon on it and the colors are red and green - so perhaps an homage to Kappa Sigma as well. Also, Omega Theta Pi sounds a lot like Beta Theta Pi. Just sayin'.

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Perhaps this means it's time to read The Real Animal House again.

And it might be time for me to watch “Animal House” again.

[Firehouse]

To ASTAlumna06
OK. I say with respect, I think you probably do understand what I'm saying, you just do not care for the narrative.
The truth is that 'programming' is not what differentiates one fraternity chapter from another. The truth is that individual fraternity reputations flow from the composition of their memberships. College men are drawn toward fraternities composed of men like themselves.
Here are two chapters on the same campus: AAA and Tri-Chi. The AAA fraternity is large, well housed with powerful alumni support, strong in athletics and campus leadership. Their members are aggressive, confident, ambitious. They sustain their standing by recruiting men who want the same things
Tri-Chi is very different. They are not a large fraternity and see no reason to grow. The play intramurals for fun not for glory. If a member happens to win some office on campus they are happy for him but they don't particularly attach that achievement to the chapter at large. They tend to be low key, non-competitive, non-aggressive.
Who has the better college Greek experience? Well, that depends on the individual. AAA and XXX both draw specific types of individuals to their chapters, and those guys WANT to be in THOSE chapters. All of the members in both chapters can have rewarding Greek Life expereicnes if they make the effort.
Now...Go back to the original premise. If you desire to be the Governor or a corporate CEO or a pro quarterback or a lion of Wall Street, you are going to be drawn to AAA. If you are just a laid-back type with little compelling ambition to be in the limelight, then XXX my be for you.
The movie 'Animal House' illustrated both types. The author Chris Miller was a member of Alpha Delta Phi at Dartmouth where his chapter was very much like Delta Tau Chi of the movie. I'm guessing that every fraternity in Amercia could cast that wonderful movie with emmebrs from their own individual chapter. But Miller, needing a foil to make the story work, and being from an Animal House chapter himself, made the Omegas to be the guys whose stories ended badly and the Deltas into the later-in-life success stories.
But that's not the way it really works. Sure, Miller is a great success, but in real life it is the Omegas who end up running the show. In the movie, the hero John Belushi ends up as a United States Senator. In the real world, as we know, Belushi dies of a drug overdose.

[MysticCat]

You're trying too hard, Firehouse. Way too hard.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

You're trying too hard, Firehouse. Way too hard.

No kidding.

The ironic thing: He pretty much proved my point for me. You have to make your own success. As I said, your fraternity doesn't just hand you everything. The guys who work hard are successful. The only thing he doesn't understand is that you don't have to be Mr. Popular in the "perfect" fraternity chapter to be successful and make a good life for yourself.

And there are definitely jackasses who join those "leading" fraternities who fail at life. I've seen it happen. And I've also seen members of the smallest chapters from some of the smallest schools go on to be more successful than pretty much anyone else I know. No, their names aren't George Bush or Eli Manning, but not everyone wants to be President of the United States or a starting quarterback in the NFL.

ETA: The bottom line is that the OP should do what he feels is best for him. Being a founder of a chapter is a lot of work, but it will definitely pay off in the end.. if you put in the effort. Tiers mean nothing except to the people who are lame enough to be concerned with them. Just be yourself, make friends, and join (or start) a fraternity chapter that fits with who you are.

And work your butt off so you can be awesome, and successful, and get hot chicks.

[Firehouse]

OK. Probably. I haven't posted in a long time and I got bored. And chatty.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by Firehouse

OK. Probably. I haven't posted in a long time and I got bored. And chatty.

LOL. Don't be a stranger!

[Firehouse]

(Gotta hit it one more time...)

Yes, Low C Sharp, you're entirely correct. There is a dynamic that is very perdictable among the general-interest fraternities, but the historically Jewish and historically Black fraternities have very different dynamics.

Back in the day, for example the Jewish fraternities at the University of Florida considered themsleves to be grouped together socially and in terms of competition. They were large and powerful chapters but they generally weren't calculated in assessing the 'tiers' of the general-interest fraternities. The landscape for Jewish fraternities has changed radically in the last 20 years. As far as I know, AEII is the only specifically Jewish fraternity left. I think Pi Lambda Phi, ZBT (having absorbed Phi Epsilon Pi and Phi Sigma Delta, also national Jewish fraternities) and perhaps TEP have all moved toward marketing themselves as general-interest fraternities.

The Black Greeks are very different. I threw out Michael Jordan's name just because I like him. Jordan was an Omega at UNC. I've felt that Black fraternities in terms of their chapter size, organization and alumni emphasis resemble much more the traditional white fraternities of 150 years ago. Today's Black fraternities are much more oriented toward the community than their general-interest counterparts. Here in Tallahassee, a friend of mine said, "If you go into any Black church on Sunday, there may not be more than a handful of people who have gone to college, but if the pastor speaks of an individual and says 'He's a Kappa' or 'He's an Omega man', everyone in the room understands exactly what he means."

[WLVR]

ok. so basically what i've gathered is that tier's don't necessarily mean anything. I'm at Lehigh, rushing Psi U, technically a lower middle fraternity. Not that I really care about that though. I could also take part in founding phi delta theta here. I really like the guys at Psi U so far, could easily see myself living with them and all that. Just trying to figure out what I should go for.