Top Reasons to Join Greek Life

When you’re a freshmen entering college, its only a matter of time until you start seeing the flyers and tables set up around campus recruiting for greek life organizations. Whether it’s a social fraternity or sorority, or academic related, there are some clear reasons to join greek life. While the cost of the membership dues every semester may seem high when you’re a broke college student, the short and long term benefits listed below will be well worth the costs. If you’re someone who has a negative perception of greek life due to some stories or a few negative individuals, remember that these few do not represent how every person or organization acts. We highly recommend you check out a few organizations on campus and decide for yourself!

Benefits During College

I. Parties & Socialization

When you consider the stereotypes around greek organizations and college, the first thing that comes to mind is the Project X style parties that will occur. Surprisingly, the scale and production of parties can commonly reach the same sizes. More notably, the frequency of parties in the greek community can almost be viewed as occurring 3-4 times a week! These parties are a great way to let loose between the academics, meet some new friends (or more than friends, if it’s what you’re after), and make some positive memories.

If you’re an introvert, greek life is a great way to help you become more comfortable in social settings. From mixers and ‘pref’ with other greek organizations to helping interview and recruit new members, your own abilities to communicate and socialize will be improved. This ‘soft skill’ of communication will help you with group projects, meeting new people, having healthy relationships, and importantly: selling yourself for your first job or internship!

II. Friendships & Networking

Having friends on campus is critical to an enjoyful college experience- from memories at parties to activities on and off campus, this is the rare time in your life when you will be free and surrounded by similar aged individuals. In greek life, you will meet others that you wouldn’t usually have crossed paths with. The networking with other classmates, especially those that are older than you, is especially valuable for classes. They can help you pick the right classes, and importantly share previous years tests and assignments with you to learn from. As you attend different GE classes and major specific classes, you’ll also find that you’ll run into others you know from your greek organization, which makes group projects and class significantly more entertaining – especially when it’s time to study.

III. Fun Activities

There’s many activities to join into in a Greek organization that go beyond simple partying. Volunteering and fundraisers are very common among greek organizations, and they will help you meet new people on and off campus and make a positive difference for others. In addition, many volunteering events are fun ways to do things you wouldn’t usually do, from fun runs to walks for causes. Other common activities include sport and intramural leagues that let you have a full team of friends playing the game you enjoy. Other events with your organization will include brotherhood and sisterhood events that are meant to foster team building and strengthen your ties with others. From camping or kayaking to laser tag and bowling, these activities ensure to add some fun balance into your life outside of the academics.

IV. Different Perspectives

Being in a tight knit greek community means that you need to learn to respect all the brothers and sisters that share the same chapter as you. In most cases, you will run into individuals that have opposite beliefs from you – whether politically or socially. Greek life provides a useful life lesson as it forces you to acknowledge, respect, and support those that disagree with your own beliefs. In addition, you get to learn some of the stories and hardships of others that can give you a broader appreciation or insight on some of your own issues or goals.

Benefits Post College

V. Friendships

When you graduate from college, you will go from living and being surrounded by thousands of like minded and aged individuals, to being thrown into the workforce. Whether you’ve gone back to living at home, or perhaps you’ve moved in somewhere near a job you’ve accepted, there’s a good chance that your current social network has shrunk. While coworkers can help fill the void, the large reaches of your greek organization generally means you can connect with someone near wherever you ended up. Instead of going to party college housing and dorms you’ll find yourself going to bars, clubs, and concerts after college. If you’re near campus, you also may find yourself visiting your old chapter or chapter house as it’s common to still be connected to the class a few years younger than your own.

VI. Internships/Jobs

When you’re a new grad looking to get into the industry, tapping into your greek organizations connections is a wonderful start to getting a job. Most companies offer some form of referral program, so many brothers or sisters will be more than happy to put in a recommendation for you. On the same concept, if you are currently employed, the younger members of your greek organization are great candidates for you to recommend to work at the company you work for.

Even if you’re looking to start your own business, the greek life community will have exposed you to a number of individuals that had studied different things and possessed different skillsets. If you’ve built good relations with them, you can recruit them to join your startup vision.

Your organization may have alumni events on an annual basis, and they are a great way to connect with current and previous members of your greek organization and continue to grow your professional network.