Rushing currently, have a few questions

[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 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.

[DubaiSis]

You've mentioned leaders who were in fraternities. You have not provided any proof they were in Top Tier fraternities.

[MU2Driver]

To paraphrase JFK, ask not what your fraternity can do for you; ask what you can do for your fraternity. I can tell you from first hand experience as a colony pledge and ultimately charter member that you will be planting and watering acorns for trees under which you will never sit. Also, your group will be under greater scrutiny from your national office and will be expected to do everything right.
The rewards are great, but be honest with yourself. If you are not 100% OK with that deal, don't sign up for the re-colonization experience.

[WLVR]

thanks everyone. also another question. What social opportunities would I have if I was part of the recolonized fraternity? Do the do things with other fraternities and sororities or is that pretty limited until they're actually established?

[jazing]

From what I've seen at my University, colonizing chapters usually are smaller than the average size chapter, so they team up with another fraternity usually for socials. This helps build inter fraternal relations. My chapter did this while I started pledging by having a social with a sorority and the colonizing Sigma Chi here. We also did it with Triangle earlier this semester (interestingly it was the same sorority who suggested it).

[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.

[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.

[ree-Xi]

Originally Posted by 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.

I think the point is that membership is what you make of it. It starts with the person him/herself.

[Firehouse]

Originally Posted by 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.

OK. Now we're got the name of a school to work with. Lehigh is an old, private school with a distinguished fraternity system that dominates Greek life there. It's a high-prestige university with some old-line predominately northern fraternities (like Delta Psi and Psi U) that establish chapters only at old-line schools. There are a lot of fraternities for the size of the school; it's considered a desirable campus to have a chapter.

What this means is that your collegiate orientation now and as an alum is going to be heavily focused on Lehigh itself and your chapter. This is true for reasons not necessary to go into here.

Join wherever you're happiest because the fraternities there are very stable. The chapters there now have always been there and probably always will be (you mentioned Phi Delt - they first established a chapter at Lehigh in 1876 and probably haven't been gone long).

Don't worry about making the wrong decision here. On this campus, wherever you go will probably be fine.

[Sciencewoman]

So, here's another question. Is the national name recognition of a particular fraternity worth more to an individual member, long term, than the perceived tier of a given chapter on a particular campus?

[Firehouse]

[QUOTE=Sciencewoman;2199733]So, here's another question. Is the national name recognition of a particular fraternity worth more to an individual member, long term, than the perceived tier of a given chapter on a particular campus?[/QUOT

The answer is, it makes a difference where you went to college. Look at UVA for example. If you go to Virginia and you join Delta Psi (known simply as "Hall' there, after their alternate name, St. Anthony Hall) you will have joined one of the true, elite, old-line fraternities at Virginia. Delta Psi only has about a dozen chapters, all at elite schools.
If you are Delta Psi at UVA, that becomes your alumni world. The UVA alumni stick together - tremendous pride and identity - and everyone who was ever Greek at UVA knows 'Hall'. UVA Delta Psi alumni have an ongoing alumni organization that is all you'll ever need.

If you live in, say, Dallas, the chances of you running into other Delta Psi alumni from other chapters is negligible. The young man who posted is asking abouit Psi Upsilon, and Psi Upsilon is a slightly larger version of St A. Lehigh is like UVA in that Lehigh alumni have a strong iden tity with the school, and Psi Upsilon alumni tend to insulate themselves as memebrs of the Lehigh chapter. On a side note,. Psi Upsilon has some of the most marvelous hearaldry of any fraternity - each independent chapter adds it's own colors and design to the template.

No, let's say you go to a small school soemwhere in Georgia and you pledge SAE or Sigma Chi or Beta...or Phi Delt (the other fraternity the young man is considering). Those four fraternities especially (I am not a member of any of those) are among the most recognized and most popular names nationally. After graduation if you move to Dallas, you will be welcomed into an extensive alumni network of (SAE, Sigma Chi) fraternity Brothers from all over the country.

So yes, it does make a difference, but what difference it makes depends to en extent on the strength of your identity to your university. At Lehigh, it doesn't make a lot of difference unless the young man intends to go live in a major metropolitan area outside the northeast.

[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."