Joining a frat?
What are your thoughts on joining a frat in undergrad?
Obviously makes for a more interesting social life, but I’m also wondering if joining a frat has the following professional benefits:
1. More connections / networking opportunities
2. Come off as more social/collaborative to recruiters
What has been your experience with this?
If ur asking then are u rlly ferda my guy?
Do it. Sociability goes through the roof
I rushed my freshman fall semester and served on my chapter's exec board in one of the top three largest fraternities. I'm generally hesitant to recommend fraternities because the culture has made a complete 180 over the past ten years. You no longer get the social benefits of being in a fraternity because national HQ's and university boards have regulated greek life into the ground. Most fraternities have their pledge process online that's monitored and it's basically just another class that you take without the fun involved.
I still think it's beneficial to have the network access but in my experience it's been marginal. My 25k+ alumni career group on LinkedIn is just filled with people posting weak resumes and asking for sales leads. It's hard to find accomplished people that take it seriously. In that case it's worth it. Mine recently launched a mentorship program that pairs professionals with undergrads to start a pipeline into jobs which is cool for the undergrads.
My final recommendation is if you're interested in greek life, join a top five organization so you get access to networking opportunities and note that the partying culture is mostly gone.
Not a clue what he is talking about and is only relating to his own personal experience. His school is probably trying to faze out Greek life which is why it sucked for him.
At my school and a lot of my friends schools Greek life is very prevalent and still has all the social benefits as it had in the past. In short, frats are great for the social life while in undergrad if you think it’ll be something you’ll enjoy and if you are willing to put up with pledging (which is still shitty contrary to what this guy said)
Aside from the obvious social life of frats, it can be extremely beneficial or not helpful at all for recruiting. This all depends on the alumni connections the chapter has at your school. I go to a strong semi target and half of the frats have no IB/PE alumni connections and others are extremely great. For example, my friends frat has very few alumni in finance and then my chapter has dozens from recent years and many MDs and a few founders/CEOs that are always willing to help in recruiting.
In short, if you think you’ll like the culture of Greek life then do it. If not then don’t. It will only have upside potential in recruiting.
If you don’t do a fraternity it’s because you didn’t get a bid.
Frat connections go crazy.
I know this girl who got an IB role solely through the president of her Sorority. She was telling me how she had no idea how it worked and how she almost quit the first week bc it’s not what she signed up for. The Greek-life connections go crazy
One thing I reflect on and sort of caution - you're kinda locking in your friend group for the next 4 years. If I were to do it all again, I'd still rush, but I'd make a greater effort to build and maintain friendships outside of the fraternity
this is the best advice imo, I realized that about halfway through it and tried to make more conscious steps to do that. A lot of group think otherwise which just gets boring quick.
cant believe freshman in college are on this. i didnt know what IB was until i was like a senior. but yea, join a frat. its fun
I’d say it’s worth it, a caveat to it though. At least for me, joining a fraternity (and playing an active role in it) meant that I had to forgo other extracurriculars I wanted to partake in because of the weekly commitment, especially when the semester after I pledged I had to catch up on the recruiting I neglected b/c of said fraternity. However, it is 100% worth it and helps you find a sense of belonging especially in larger schools, and exposes you to a lot of different types of people that you may have not met if you didn’t do Greek.
Highly recommend
Make TFM great again
Greatest decision I ever made. Ton of fun and really developed as a man. Had to get out of my comfort zone and get more social, had to become a leader when I was on exec board, and met a ton of cool people i never would have met otherwise.
TBD on the professional connections so far, but for personal development it was phenomenal. Also a hell of time.
Would recommend finding a good fraternity with guys you get along with. Don’t force yourself to join the “top house” just to be in the “top house” but also be careful with some bc they can be a group of weirdos or losers.
Older and full disclosure wasn't in a FRAT (wasn't a big thing at my large state school). Forget about "professional benefits". Ask yourself a very basic question: " Do you want to be part of that group and hang with those people / brothers most of the time?" No right or wrong answers. If it will make for a much better social life, great. If you already have a fine social life, maybe no need. From what I've seen, hard to be available for both with all the FRAT gatherings / requirements.
Wasn't for my kid, but made a huge difference for my nephew. Also depends on the school. Some rely on it to be a primary housing and social outlet past freshman yr. Others it's just another thing to do.
Another much older Monkey here with a biased opinion. Lots of my friends belonged to frats and liked them a lot. They are good to enhance your social life, if you need it. I pledged and the brothers were cool with me, meaning no significant hazing. I can't say the same thing about how the brothers treated other pledges, which was very badly, which was kind of cringy. Their treatment of the pledges made me feel uncomfortable. As a result, I quit but I stayed friends with the frat brothers and went out with them to bars, etc. For me, I already has a good social life, so not being part of the frat did not negatively impact me
Join the rowing team instead and forget frats
why the rowing team?
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