I was a raving GDI in college - no greek affiliation at all. For us engineering students that wasn’t unusual; my college’s greek system was populated almost entirely by business majors and the other soft arts .
The greek members would justify the cost of the fraternity/sorority by pointing out how that affiliation would pay-back in their future lives. How those personal relationships, secret handshakes, and shared semi-nude hazing rituals would allow them to rise to greater heights than simply working hard would allow.
(not that I have an opinion or anything)
So - fess up you ex-greeks. Did being in a fraternity or sorority lead to bigger and better now that you’re out in the real world?
No. But that’s not why I joined a sorority so it doesn’t worry me. Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever knowingly met a fellow sorority sister as an adult. I do, however, keep in close contact with many of the sorority sisters I was friends with in college and those friendships have been really valuable to me in a personal, non-business way.
FWIW, all of the friends I have, and currently maintain relationships with, all came via my fraternity (Phi Kappa Sigma, U. Mass Lowell).
Several of them have assisted me in finding positions within the company they worked for. I have helped at least one. Others in my chapter, and some from other chapters to whom I’ve spoken, have had similar experiences.
I think it mostly comes from what you put into the chapter. I worked hard for the benefit of my chapter, and made some very good friends, so those tended to bear fruit for me.
Some of the members of our chapter didn’t put much into it, and drifted away after graduation. Those didn’t tend to have the same post-grad experiences.
It also depends on if you need post-graduation help, too. I was president of my chapter for a year and also had a couple other executive board and committee positions throughout the years. After I graduated, though, I sort of went adventuring, was able to find a good job without needing to network, and now I’m staying home with my kids. If I had stayed in the D.C. area and worked in politics or for the federal government (like nearly all of my close college friends), I’m sure I would have received or given help at some point along the way. The same could be said, though, of the friendships I had with non-greeks during college.
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