Usually its just good for contacts. I was almost in an agricultural-themed sorority, and many of the alumnae had good jobs in the field and could use connections to help a fellow sister out upon graduation. At least that’s what I understood it to be.
Hise-rises and commercial buildings have stand-pipes, but residential areas have hydrants.
It’s also IME a regional thing. Here in the South, the Greek system is a lot bigger deal at the universities than it was back home in the Northwest. Especially at the “cow colleges” (state universities in Western agricultural states), fraternities and sororities are sometimes considered a BS sort of thing – exclusionary and not really related to getting an actual job and getting ahead. You will no doubt hear this disputed by someone from the University of Iowa sho is a Sig Ep (Sigma Phi Epsilon [fraternity]) or a Tri-Delt (Delta Delta Delta [sorority] – “Delta Delta Delta, can I help ya, help ya help ya??”).
Jodi, another Gamma Delta Iota (i.e., GDI, i.e, God Damn Independent, i.e., not Greek affiliated).
I did apply for sororities when I was a freshman at college. I couldn’t afford the dues and there was a big “Black Diamond” ball where you were supposed to dress in full formal wear. I, being a poor college student working my way through school, could not afford the dress.
I figured I didn’t need to pay for my friends, and had a good time without the sorority. YMMV.
(Tri-Delts at my school were known as the cheerleader, cute, social butterfly sorority)
ivy, did you go to UCF or move here after college?
A Twinkie is a type of junkfood-it’s simply yellow sponge cake filled with cream.
I’m not very fond of them-I prefer Dolly Madison Zingers, myself. They’re just like Twinkies, only they come in vanilla AND chocolate flavors, AND they have a layer of icing on top.
At Princeton, the Greek organizations exist but they are not recognized officially by the university. The etaing clubs are the sanctioned vehicle for separating by classiness.
Right-I usually find myself saying, “No problem!” instead of “You’re welcome”.
Another complication to the Greek system-there are many organizations that are National Honor Societies that go by Greek names.
Thanks all for your answers regarding the Greek alphabet-soup organisations.
A supplementary question - if you enrol at an American college that has such a society, do you automatically become a member of the Greek society? Or do you have to apply to join (and if so, is your application ever rejected)? Or is it strictly invitation-only, restricted to the “right sort” of people? Or do different societies impose different membership rules?
In addition to what Ivylass has already said, this idea does extend into adult life, although in a more limited fashion. No one who I know is going to refrain from reporting a serious crime, but it can be a problem in some inner-city areas. (This is an extension of the us-against-them attitude mentioned by Ivylass.)
But most people will think twice about reporting minor crimes, especially if the violator is a neighbor or friend. For example, I wouldn’t normally report someone for smoking pot, failure to have a city (car tax) sticker, or traffic violations unless someone is being directly harmed.
Of course, opinions can vary on what is a minor crime, but I suspect very few Americans report every illegal act that they see.
Where are you from, if I may ask?
No. Yes. (Yes.) Sometimes. Yes.
There will almost always be more than one Greek society at any given school, if it has any (a few colleges don’t). You have to apply to join them, and yes they do reject people. 50 years ago, it would have been fairly common to be rejected from a fraternity or sorority for being a member of the “wrong” race, religion, or socio-economic class, but that happens much less if at all now (and any group that did do it would almost certainly not admit to it in public, and would get in trouble with the college if it came out).
There are some less-than-flattering stereotypes of “frat boys” and “sorority girls” in American culture. They’re quite a bit like the “dumb jock” or “dumb cheerleader” stereotypes- someone who’s not too bright and gets where they are based on popularity rather than skills or work. Calling someone a frat boy, as some people do call our President, is generally not a compliment- if that person is older than traditional college age, it’s almost certainly not a compliment.
For some schools, it goes far beyond alumni. For example, the entire state of Kentucky (well, with the exception of those weirdos in Louisville) lives and dies by the Kentucky Wildcats even though most people never took a single class here at UK.
Heck, in my high school days, if Kentucky was playing a first-round NCAA game during school hours the entire school would stop what it was doing to watch.
Kentucky is a bit of an aberration that way, because there’s no major-league professional sports team in the state and the University of Kentucky Radio Network covered the entire state pretty early on in UK’s storied history, so everyone followed the 'Cats.
I went to a college that had no Greek system. I found it quite nice. Where I am now is one of the cow-colleges (historically a land-grant agricultural university, but it’s the closest thing in New Mexico) Jodi mentioned as a grad student, so of course I’m pretty much out of the loop as how the undergrads see things, however I’d tend to agree with the perceptions Jodi relates. There’s also been a lot of bad press in the last few years with fraternities–alcohol-related deaths, mostly. Though one day the university newspaper headline was along the lines of “Sorority kitchen trashed, Hot Pockets stolen.”
Good lord, no, you don’t automatically become a member. You have to apply during what’s called “Rush Week” which is when the sororities/fraternities “rush” – i.e., pursue – the girls/guys they want to encourage to join their sorority/fraternaty, although it’s AFAIK really more of a process the other way – the girl or guy indicates interest in the S/F they want to attend. Members have to be voted in, and once in are usually subject to “initiations” that may include hazing – stupid, embarrassing, sometimes dangerous stunts. Hazing is pretty severely frowned on by most colleges/universities these days, but it still happens.
Applying members are AFAIK (not being a Greek or former Greek) voted in or out by the existing S/F members (“sisters” or “brothers”). They used to vote by placing marbles in a box; white marbles meant “yes,” black marbles meant “no” – one black marble and the applicant was rejected – hence the term, “blackballed.”
The old established S/F tend to be racially segregated. They give some lip service to seeking diversity, but black S/F arose as a direct result of the fact that blacks were not accepted at white S/F. (And since S/F are private organizations, with members chosen “secretly” and one vote enough to disqualify a candidate, there’s a fat lot universities can do to prevent this continuing de facto segregation of many larger, older S/F.) There are some newer S/F that are intentionally more inclusive and less cliquey than the older ones. Ironically (if appropriately IMO) black S/F now function more in the way that S/F were intended to function: members support each other in school and beyond, and contacts from the S/F can be of real value when starting out in the working world. White S/F tend to be more purely social.
There is a certain type of student (of which I must admit I was one) that can be disdainful of the Greek system. Where I went to school, the fraternity guys were jocks and meatheads, very hard partyers, and the sorority girls were pretty but stupid and sometimes easy. There also was IME a distinction between the respect fraternities got and the respect (or lack thereof) sororities got. A guy in a fraternity could still be a good student and a good guy, but sorority girls were by default considered shallow and not too bright My dad was in a fraternity and I dated guys in fraternities, but I would never in a million years have rushed a sorority.
Again, this is the opinion of someone who (a) doesn’t really respect the Greek system and (b) never participated in it at all, beyond dating into it and going to a lot of parties. I’m sure a person with fond memories of going Greek will tell you all the ways I’m full of shit.
It’s used as a slur in some asian-american circles.
Yeah, calling an Asian person a Twinkie is like calling a black person an Oreo. A Twinkie is yellow on the outside and white on the inside whereas an Oreo is black on the outside and white on the inside. Both snack food slang terms refer to people not being true to their culture.
Can a Canadian play?
In Canada, goods and/or services are not sold using words like “90 days same as cash.” I have no idea what that means. And what is APR?
Also, there are no sophomores in the country. I have a very fuzzy frame of reference for what it might be; but if a movie, TV show or album is described as “sophomoric,” I don’t have the faintest idea what they’re talking about.
Sophomores refers to the second year of higher ed–either HS or university (or college). Sophomoric as an adjective to describe juvenile and immature behavior…well, think of the ages these two group would be and put the pieces together!
This is a fascinating thread.
Oprah is (supposedly) known the world round as the premier talk show diva and delver into Feelings and Bad Experiences in Your Past. Or she was few years ago-it’s easy to lose track of her many manifestations–perhaps she is into Tough Love now…She did get a whole lot of Americans to read actual books, so she is ok in my book, despite my snark.
I knew a girl in college who quit her sorority after one of the girls blackballed a rushee because said rushee had a retarded sibling. Nice. Another girl I knew (she went to a different uni) said the most fun she ever had in her sorority was in getting to decide who got in and who didn’t. Nice again.
However, having dated an RA* for a frat (a frat that was in danger of losing it’s charter from the National Organization due to illegal drinking and [for all I know] hazing), I have seen first-hand the amount of charity work that some Greeks do. Some of them are assets to their communities–but I couldn’t stomach the social side of it all.
RA=Resident Advisor. They usually live in the dorms (or in this case, the frat), they are upper classmen and women who are there to help out frosh (a slang term for freshman) and sophs–the population that typically live in the dorms. Juniors and seniors tend to live in Greek houses or off campus housing/apartments. Anyway, the RA is there to help with homesickness, sudden illness and other crises, as well as maintain some kind of discipline on their floor. Same principle with the frat RA.
“90 days same as cash” means they don’t charge you interest for the first 90 days. If you pay it off in that time, it’s as if you bought it for cash. Of course, if you don’t pay it off in that time, they start charging you interest out the wazoo. This financing is usually not available for little things, or for big ticket items you obviously would pay off over more than 90 days (like cars). You mostly see it offered for furniture, or other mid-price items. (Really, I can’t think of any but furniture right now.) “APR” is “annual percentage rate” – 10% APR, 12% APR, etc. It’s the rate of interest the vendor will charge you if you buy the item. Usually you see APR referenced in car sales and it’s often part of “[good rate] APR OAC” which means “[good rate] annual percentage rate on approved credit” – meaning, if you have less than perfect credit, you ain’t getting that rate.
Do you have freshmen, juniors, and seniors? “Sophomore” is a weird word, but it would seem odd to me to have names for Grades 9, 11, and 12 (and 1st, 3rd, and 4th year university) but not for Grade 10/second year university.