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  1. #1
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    What are Fraternities and Sororities?

    Aimed at the Americans on the site, what on earth are University Fraternities and Sororities?

    I've seen the word bandied around, but honestly I don't think we have anything comparable in Scotland, I don't really understand the concept behind them, so could I get clarification on what exactly they are?
    Last edited by mmoc65a9be75bb; 2012-11-26 at 11:47 PM.

  2. #2
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    no idea, here about them all the time in movies though. from what i can gather, fraternities are groups of guys who drink a lot, sororities are groups of girls who drink a lot.

  3. #3
    Pit Lord aztr0's Avatar
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    Organized gangs of college. Some do have a purpose and help their community out with volunteer work, while some just party, drink and sex.

  4. #4
    Frats and sororities are kinda like... clubs. But gender specific. Members call each other brothers and sisters and stuff, they're a way to do community service and get involved in general college/university life. They say they have good intentions, and some do actually good stuff. But many are just used for drinking and partying. Theres an initiation process and in some universities the frat/sorority were banned because of how terrible the hazing process was to get into them. When you graduate, many times frats are used to network people into getting internships and jobs with previous frat/sorority members who went someplace in life! Hope that helped!

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Istaril View Post
    Aimed at the Americans on the site, what on earth are University Fraternities and Sororities?

    I've seen the word bandied around, but honestly I don't think we have anything comparable in Scotland, I don't really understand the concept behind them, so could I get clarification on what exactly they are?

    Dont want to sound like an ass but....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fratern...and_sororities

    Not really that hard to look it up. Also..

    In the United Kingdom, there are a limited number of student dining clubs, which are similar to American eating clubs which were later eclipsed by Greek societies. Some, such as the well-known Bullingdon Club at Oxford University, are socially exclusive due to being prohibitively expensive. Several secret societies exist, the most famous being the Cambridge Apostles, also known as the Cambridge Conversazione Society.

  6. #6
    Bloodsail Admiral Talokami's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Ogdru Jahad View Post
    Frats and sororities are kinda like... clubs. But gender specific. Members call each other brothers and sisters and stuff, they're a way to do community service and get involved in general college/university life. They say they have good intentions, and some do actually good stuff. But many are just used for drinking and partying. Theres an initiation process and in some universities the frat/sorority were banned because of how terrible the hazing process was to get into them. When you graduate, many times frats are used to network people into getting internships and jobs with previous frat/sorority members who went someplace in life! Hope that helped!
    Pretty much nailed it.

    They tend to be non-stop party central, lots of drinking and the like. Case in point, the sorority dorm on my campus was nicknamed "four floors of whores" for a reason. -_- They're not all bad but it seemed that they spent more time wasted and doing initiation ceremonies than anything useful. One frat actually got kicked off campus the year before I started due to hazing of female freshman for their initiation.
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  7. #7
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    In the United Kingdom, there are a limited number of student dining clubs, which are similar to American eating clubs which were later eclipsed by Greek societies. Some, such as the well-known Bullingdon Club at Oxford University, are socially exclusive due to being prohibitively expensive. Several secret societies exist, the most famous being the Cambridge Apostles, also known as the Cambridge Conversazione Society.
    No such thing exists in Aberdeen Uni, Robert Gordon Uni, Dundee Uni or Abertay Uni, the four uni's I have experience with in Scotland. Furthermore Oxford and Cambridge could hardly be considered the 'norm in British society.

  8. #8
    Titan vindicatorx's Avatar
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    Generally it would depend on who you ask. Fraternities in college there are several types types mainly professional fraternities which focus around your major and can help you get connections in the field, and then there are social fraternities who mainly do community events, school related events, and etc. Usually they have a house and have this long rushing procedure to become a member. If you have ever seen Animal House those are fraternities/sororities but there are usually pretty strict rules on drinking/ overall gpa/ and other rules. I had thought about joining one when I first started college but due costs and etc were way too much for me to afford. A lot of non fraternity people don't like people in the Frat (PS. Frat guys hate it when you say frat) citing they are basically paying for friends. Hope this answers general questions

  9. #9
    Mostly, those things involve excessive drinking, or rather what they are most famous for, with college students. It also is brotherhood (frats)/sisterhood (sororities) with those same students and some alumnists. They also do charity work in their community, though at times I believe it has more to do with a requirement than any personal desire to help. Granted, I won't insult the help they give, just don't like when they brag about it. Cheapens the work I feel.

  10. #10
    Herald of the Titans Maruka's Avatar
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    from what i cant tell its places where a lot of amateur college gang bangs get filmed

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Istaril View Post
    Aimed at the Americans on the site, what on earth are University Fraternities and Sororities?

    I've seen the word bandied around, but honestly I don't think we have anything comparable in Scotland, I don't really understand the concept behind them, so could I get clarification on what exactly they are?
    Spend weeks being a slave and getting hazed half to death, so you can sit around and drink beer with a bunch of guys and bang hottie greek chasing chicks.... that is what a frat was for me anyway...
    Pros: Hot Chicks
    Free Beer
    Awesome friends for life
    Social Connections
    Frat house to live in, instead of a dorm.
    Did I mention banging hot greek chasing freaks?
    Cons: Hazing
    More Hazing
    Can be expensive
    Very distracting (I went to a very expensive private college, going greek certainly lowered my grade point and took away from my studies)
    Did I mention Hazing??

    That being said, college and the frat I was in were part of the greatest years of my life. I would do it all over again if I had the chance. My frat consisted of mostly athletes.
    Last edited by Bremmon; 2012-11-27 at 12:08 AM.
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    Immortal TEHPALLYTANK's Avatar
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    Basically high schoolers in college.
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  13. #13
    Networking.

    Meet people who think you're cool and can help you in the future. Get interviewed by a guy who used to be in your Fraternity from a different chapter (different location)? That's a boost right there depending on the person. As you've noticed, there are a lot of fraternities and sororities in the U.S.
    It's stupid. It probably isn't perfectly justifiable. It isn't a certainty. It is, however, a selling point.
    Last edited by Confirm Deny; 2012-11-27 at 12:33 AM.

  14. #14
    Groups of people who are in a group or club and try to bond with they're class mates socially by engaging in reckless activetys (Example: Under age drinking) and experimenting with different things such as people or other things. It's a way to say "You belong" or try to re-click with a new click from High School. For many it's only last group of friends after high school.

    I never saw the point of it. You'd usually have do something embarrassing to join. They're are strict laws in place to defend someone from being bullied because it goes down to that. Some might help clean the school after hours but in the end they're all just social groups. This right here is a social group online, a community engaged in something just like them.

    This is just online where they're is more offline.

  15. #15
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    ITT: A lot of people with zero first hand experience with Fraternities.

    Fraternities vary greatly from school to school. Also note that there are "National" Fraternities (The big ones like Pi Kappa Alpha, Sigma Chi, Delta Tau Delta, Sigma Alpha Epsilon) which have chapters at many different schools and an "Arch Chapter" or centralized organization. Then there are "Local" Fraternities which is much more stand-alone, maybe only on one campus, not really over-ruled by a central organization.

    I can only speak from my experience. I went to an engineering college with very heavy Greek involvement. For having such a small student population, we had fourteen different Fraternities on campus, all National ones. Occasionally a house would get in trouble for drinking, but it usually involved some stupid freshman getting back to the dorms plastered and pissing off their RA. In generally everyone is very responsible. We rent a party bus to do runs when we have a huge party. Every weekend we have a list of DDs posted on our bulletin board with their phone number if you happen to be out and need to have a ride. We look after each other in the house. I can think of only one occasion in my four years in school where we had an alcohol incident (someone over-did it on their 21st birthday).

    I can say for certain that I would not have made it through college without the support of my Fraternity. The study help we had available in our house (fluctuating between 25 and 45 members while I was there) was invaluable. We also had a crib system with previous tests for all of the classes available as study aids. As an underclassman I was sure that there were at least a couple people in house who had already taken the classes I was in and could help me if needed.

    That said, we still partied on the weekends. We one large campus-wide party each term, and every weekend we had fun hanging out and socializing in the house. But to say it was 24/7 drinking is ridiculous: we would never have made it through school. I am sure I got much more social exposure by being in the fraternity that if I had just lived in an apartment or an off-campus housing with 3-4 roommates.

    Then there's all the secret society stuff that goes along with a Greek organization. Every fraternity has its own rituals and history which is communicated to a member once they are initiated. It just helps bring the brothers together insofar as it's something that they share which no one else knows about. Movies are just movies; again from just personal experience there's no hazing like the forced drinking, forced to stay awake, "gay" things, humiliation, fighting, etc etc. It just didn't happen with us (and members wouldn't stand for it).

    As for "Buying Your Friends." My common response to that is "Well, these are the best and longest lasting friends money can buy." Again, maybe it's just my experience, but pretty much all of my long-lasting friends are my fraternity brothers, who are all professionals out working. I got my job through a friend of one of my fraternity brothers. I have an expansive web of friends that stretch across the US all because of my choice to join my Fraternity. Even now I stay in contact with current members in the house through our chapter's website and forums, and I go back up to school every year for Alumni day (usually a Golf outing, but this past year we went trap shooting).

    I find it sad when people just point at Animal House and say "Frats are binge drinking sex houses that losers join to buy friends and have sex and fuck off through college." Not in the slightest.
    Last edited by Porcell; 2012-11-27 at 03:40 AM.

  16. #16
    I am Murloc! Roose's Avatar
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    They are places where rich kids buy friendship with other rich kids. Great sources for drugs, designer clothing, and STDs as well.

    At least that is what they are in the South. Lived in a college town for the past 17 years and am very familiar with the greek system.

    They may have been cool at some point in history. Sort of like MTV.
    Last edited by Roose; 2012-11-27 at 03:44 AM.
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  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by Istaril View Post
    No such thing exists in Aberdeen Uni, Robert Gordon Uni, Dundee Uni or Abertay Uni, the four uni's I have experience with in Scotland. Furthermore Oxford and Cambridge could hardly be considered the 'norm in British society.
    You should feel lucky. We have the male version of them in Germany (Burschenschaften/Verbindungen), and where I studied in Heidelberg you yould not help but notice them. They range from Catholic/protestant christian, conservative groups to Nazis, and all the scale between. But where housing is expensive and scare, they can offer you large appartments, in prime locations, for practically free, so many students go there for 1 semester, after which you have to join. The people from the christian groups are mostly normal, except for the heavy drinking, but the far-right groups... ouch. Several of them also practice rapier-fighting without face protection, so they can get scars on their face.

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by Istaril View Post
    Aimed at the Americans on the site, what on earth are University Fraternities and Sororities?

    I've seen the word bandied around, but honestly I don't think we have anything comparable in Scotland, I don't really understand the concept behind them, so could I get clarification on what exactly they are?
    Organized partying, basically.
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  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Istaril View Post
    Aimed at the Americans on the site, what on earth are University Fraternities and Sororities?

    I've seen the word bandied around, but honestly I don't think we have anything comparable in Scotland, I don't really understand the concept behind them, so could I get clarification on what exactly they are?
    As noted in thread, most are people you get trashed with and live with while at college/university, and most are a social networking device for the rest of your life.

    Some actually do stuff like public service and try to help out around their communities, but most are just for partying and then giving each other jobs after college.

  20. #20
    To sum up:

    It's somewhat like a club and

    Fraternities vary greatly from school to school

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