Nobody in my chapter talked about academic awards like they actually mattered. They were something you put on a plaque, hung on a wall somewhere near the chapter room, and forgot about until the next IFC banquet. I was guilty of it too. We'd win something, clap for thirty seconds, and move on to whatever was next. It took me until junior year to realize we were completely missing the point. ... Read more

Somewhere between orientation week and your first bid night, someone hands you an invisible spreadsheet. Nobody actually gives it to you - you just absorb it through the air like secondhand smoke. Suddenly you know which houses are "top tier," which ones are "mid," and which ones are apparently one bad semester away from losing their charter. I didn't make the rules. I just lived inside them for four years. ... Read more

Every chapter has one. He sits somewhere in the middle of chapter meetings, maybe gives a two-minute update about GPA requirements, and then everybody moves on to argue about the date party theme. The academic chair. Probably the most overlooked elected position in any fraternity, and honestly, one of the most important ones a chapter can have - if the guy in the seat actually takes it seriously. ... Read more

When guys start looking into Greek life, they usually stumble into the same confusion. There's the fraternities on the main row, the ones with the big houses and the formal recruitment, and then there's everything else. The "everything else" is where it gets interesting - and where most people have no idea what they're actually looking at. ... Read more

Pledge semester is a weird psychological experiment. You're new, you want to belong, and the people deciding whether you belong have more social leverage than you do right now. That combination makes it really easy to slip into full people-pleasing mode - nodding along to everything, never pushing back, doing whatever it takes to get initiated. And honestly? That approach might work short-term. But it tends to backfire in ways you don't see coming until you're already in too deep. ... Read more

There's a headline making the rounds from Student Life at Washington University in St. Louis, and it's framing fraternity expansion as some kind of red flag - a sign that the Abolish Greek Life movement is losing ground and that's somehow alarming. I've read it a few times now. And I get what the writers are going for. But I think they're reading the situation backwards. ... Read more

Nobody told me pledge semester would hit my transcript like a freight train. Between chapter meetings three nights a week, new member education, philanthropy events, and just trying to figure out who everyone was - I watched my GPA slip in a way I hadn't expected. And I wasn't some slacker. I'd gotten good grades in high school. Greek life just has a way of filling every hour you thought you had. ... Read more

Nobody warns you about Greek Sing when you're rushing. You show up thinking it's gonna be some cringe talent show in a gymnasium, and then you watch a chapter of 80 guys absolutely nail a full choreographed number to a medley they clearly rehearsed for six weeks straight. And you just sit there thinking - wait, this is kind of incredible? Greek Sing is one of those traditions that sounds embarrassing on paper and then completely wins you over in person. ... Read more

With so many undergraduates joining fraternities and sororities, one thing is for sure: that’s a lot of bodies. And, a lot of potential to do good. Hence, most chapters across campuses have their mission rooted in some kind of philanthropic effort. Each year, chapters devote time and attention to planning a fundraiser to raise money for their philanthropy.... Read more

Miss Greek pageants are happening this time of year at colleges across the country, and we’ve funnelled the list down to five of the most popular, highest-raising, oldest-running, largest pageants and more. ... Read more

You have made one of the biggest decisions of your life to go to college. Congratulations! However, that’s not the only decision that you’ll have to make when it comes to college life. Another important decision that you’ll probably make is the decision to go Greek in college. Greek life has lots of benefits to offer to its members – opportunities to build a network, social/community activities to participate in, a strong brotherhood bond to maintain, and many more!  However, one of the biggest challenges college guys face at the beginning of their Greek life is choosing the right fraternity for themselves.... Read more

Thirty pledges. A filthy basement. Injuries. Condiments. That's what law enforcement found when they responded to a Wisconsin fraternity this past week, and it's the kind of story that makes even the most committed Greek life defender go quiet for a second. I'm not a committed Greek life defender - I joined a fraternity sophomore year after spending my first year firmly in the GDI camp - so I'm not going to sit here and spin this into something it isn't. What happened at that house was hazing. Full stop. And the fact that frat leaders were actually arrested over it means this one isn't going away quietly. ... Read more

Every fraternity recruitment pitch includes some version of the same line: join us, and you'll have brothers for life who will open doors for you. It sounds good. It's also, depending on who you ask and which house you're talking about, either completely true or total mythology. I've spent the last couple years watching my male counterparts from various chapters either cash in on those connections or realize the network was mostly vibes and a LinkedIn request from a guy who never learned their name. ... Read more

I've walked through a lot of houses. Fraternity houses, obviously - that's my world - but also plenty of sorority chapter houses over the years, usually for study halls, mixers, or just dropping someone off after a late-night campus event. And every single time, I walk away thinking the same thing: the way sorority housing works is genuinely fascinating, and almost nobody outside of Panhellenic actually understands how it functions day to day. ... Read more

So a university decided it was finally going to get serious about Greek life. Crackdowns, new rules, oversight committees - the whole package. And now CNN is checking in to see how it's going. Spoiler: it's complicated. It's always complicated. Anyone who's spent five minutes inside a fraternity or sorority house could've told them that before the ink dried on whatever policy memo kicked this thing off. ... Read more