Sororities and fraternities: are they for you?
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April 22, 2010 • Mallory Grant, Guest Contributor
Filed under 2009-2010
Are you thinking about going to college, either in your home state or leaving the nest and finding independence? Have you thought about how or where you are going to live?
Leah Gilbert, a senior at Chugiak High School replies, “Well, I am hoping to get an apartment in Anchorage with a couple of people and go to school at UAA for my first year at college.”
Many seniors are looking for the most costly option of getting their own house or apartment, maybe with some friends. However, others are considering joining a sorority or fraternity, or getting a dorm room instead of just living at home.
“To me, sororities and fraternities are good for socializing and getting around college. The bad part I’ve heard about though is the hazing that happens when you are first initiated into the sorority or frat-house,” says Kimberly Smith, another senior going to college in 2010.
Hazing, as defined by Wikipedia is used to describe various rituals and other activities involving harassment, abuse or humiliation used as a way of initiating a person into a group. It can cause physical and psychological stress to all involved, and is subject to expulsion in most colleges and universities.
When Robyn Hurley, an 18 year-old high school student was asked what she thought about hazing, she replied, “I think it’s not as frequent as it used to be, though I definitely will agree it can destroy a person’s life. But I don’t think hazing is that serious unless you’re talking about a huge school like Notre Dame for example.”
The good side of sororities and fraternities is that statistics show that people who are involved with them are 10% more likely to graduate from college and help out in their community than those who are not linked to these groups. A quote from TeenAdvice.com says that “Fraternities and sororities are not all bad; they are excellent networking groups for later life, give college students a second ‘family’ and are very philanthropic, giving hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours and millions of dollars to worthy causes every year.”
The trick is to find the one that best suits you, and learn as much as you can about all the different houses at the colleges you might be attending. There are groups based all around a certain lifestyle, ethnicity, religion and of course there is the Greek system to choose from also. Ultimately, the decision is yours to live where you want to live and do what you want to do, and a sorority or a fraternity may be the thing for you.
