There was nothing appealing to me about joining an organization with a bunch of strangers. Later on several of my roommates happened to be in the same frat and I went to quite a few of their functions. After knowing a bunch of them I wouldn’t have minded being part of that organization but it felt too late. I wouldn’t want to be a junior pledge.
I never joined one, but I ate in a fraternity dining room for most of my time in college. It was a good price and the food was far better than the cafeteria.
I also picked up some fraternity lore and traditions. My favorite moment was when they found a weird looking piggy bank and brought it the table and wondered what it was. I told them exactly what it was and when it was first used. They looked at me very strangely, like “how can an independent know more about our traditions than we do?”
I did - a small group on a small campus. We had two fraternities and two sororities. By the time I graduated, our fraternity chapter was basically gone - some members had discipline issues, but as a whole we were a group of poor college kids paying into national dues and the money just wasn’t there.
I did get to spend a lot of time with a great group of guys - who I likely would have spent time with regardless - but it was something I really enjoyed. I wasn’t a traditional student though - within a year of joining I was married and had a child. I often would decide on if I would stay for meetings based on babysitters/etc. and we moved away when the baby was about 7 months old so I also became a commuting student for the last semester and a half.
Brendon
This - frats weren’t allowed at my school.
I was on the rowing team all four years - those were my ‘brothers’. Still friends with some of them - and could call almost any of them 20 years later to grab a beer.
I didn’t live with those guys though - I lived with other science majors - so it was a nice mix of academics, athletics, and parties.
I was in a sorority in college. It was more my mom’s idea than mine, but it was good for me and I got over a lot of my shyness.
I hang out with a few of my “sisters” who in are my city every now and then.
No regrets.
Not a real big deal at my school. One frat house kinda went off the rails and started pledging women, had a co-ed house. National was not amused, but for a year or two it had the best parties.
I had friends and a personality so I never felt the need. Actually I may have considered it but between classes, work and fun it just wasn’t worth the time investment.
Being in a fraternity wasn’t really about having friends when I was in school. It was about having an institutionally enabled (in practice) underage drinking/partying establishment. There were single parties where we went through twelve full-sized kegs. We got a slap on the wrist one time for having an open cash bar without a license. Eventually, about a decade and a half after I graduated, the university started cracking down. Now, my old house and half of the others that were there are no longer.
Yup. A terrific experience. Three and a half decades later, we’re still close friends.
nope. the entire concept is stupid.
Wow.
Pledged KD in 1968 at Penn. At my north of the MD line university, it was a geek sorority so I fit right in- in the South I understand it was heavily social. It gave me the female geek companionship I craved and had never had. My dorm room mate was appalled, and I never could afford to live in the house. I never kept in touch with any sisters, but did get the newsletter for decades. I think we were all a touch spectrum 
Were you in a fraternity or sorority when you were in college?
Yes. Pi Kappa Alpha (Pikes). Pledged back in the 70’s.
**Did it have a positive/negative influence on your academic/social life? **
Very much so. I met my wife who was in the sorority house across the street. Tri-Delta. We’re still married 35 years later. If my daughter pledges, she’ll be a 4th generation legacy in the sorority.
**
How old are you now, and how do you feel these days about it? **
58. I still think it was a great decision and remember a lot of fun times and trips with my frat brothers. I’m not sure it was great for my grades though. 
Do you maintain an association with any of your fellow members simply because they are members, or do you only associate with the particular ones with whom you developed real friendships at the time?
Very few of them. Most were pretty likable, but I’ve moved around a lot so I only keep up with them via Facebook. Any remaining association is due to friendship, not the fact that they’re members. The frathouse provided a large array of potential friends, but my actual friends were a subset of the group.
I joined a sorority the second semester of my freshman year. I was a legacy and my best friend (a year ahead in school) was a member, so it was somewhat inevitable. I enjoyed the first two years immensely. I went to a very large university and appreciated the sense of family the sorority gave me. Midway through my junior year I became disenchanted with the system and left at the end of that year. By that time I was in a serious relationship with my eventual husband, who was a doctoral candidate and teaching assistant. He didn’t measure up to the kind of guy I was ‘supposed to’ be dating and I really didn’t care for the pressure I was getting to break up with him.
I don’t regret either decision - joining or quitting. I’m happy to have had the experience, but as I grew and changed, I outgrew the need for it.
No where I went to college there were none. There was just the Corp of Midshipmen.
I pledged TKE at NC State in the late eighties. It was a good group of guys. I was a legacy, but I joined because that was where my friends were. I would advise approaching a fraternity like approaching marriage, be friends first.
The biggest advantage of being in a fraternity was there was always something going on, whether it be watching Batman at 2:00 in the afternoon in the Back Bar, or a D&D game on the weekend. There was never any question about what to do.
The biggest disadvantage was there was always something to do, so if you were not a good studier or easily distracted, you could easily develop some bad habits. My grades for the first couple of years in school were not the best, but wasn’t due to being in a fraternity. That was mostly due to having never developing good study habits in High School.
**Were you in a fraternity or sorority when you were in college? **
Yes. This was like over 20 years ago though. I didn’t join until I was a sophomore. I “rushed” freshman year like everyone else, but had an unrelated injury midway through and was lukewarm about most of the houses my friends were interested in anyway.
In fact, the only reason I ended up joining the house that I did was that I started playing ice hockey again and became friends with the captain of the team who was the rush chairman of a house that was recolonizing (iow “new”).
Did it have a positive/negative influence on your academic/social life?
Overall positive. Really the other way around socially. As a recolonizing house, I had a bigger part in shaping what the fraternity would become, rather than join a house full of guys who have been the same guys for 20 years (or longer).
**How old are you now, and how do you feel these days about it? **
Early 40s. I recall them fondly. If somewhat a cautionary tale
Do you maintain an association with any of your fellow members simply because they are members, or do you only associate with the particular ones with whom you developed real friendships at the time?
I’ve kept in touch with about a dozen guys over the years off and on. Weddings/bachelor parties. The occasional man-vacation. Stuff like that. In fact, a bunch of us just got together in NYC a few months ago. These were guys I was close friends with in the house and afterwards.
Some of my fraternity “brothers” I never liked and regard them much as one might regard someone you happened to go to high school with.
Well, that’s close to a sorority. 
(What can I say? Third generation Army here)
I’d recommend them for 1. the test libraries many of them have and 2. the networking potential from alumni.
I know my wifes sorority keeps a pretty updated list of who works for what companies and where peoples careers are going and they have alumni associations in many major cities.
So does LinkedIn.
Let’s be honest. The value of a fraternity as a networking tool is dependent on the quality of the actual brothers and the school itself. If they aren’t the type of guys who go on to careers in investment banking, law, engineering, medicine or as executives in Fortune 500 companies, joining a fraternity isn’t any better career-wise than hanging out with any other group of drunks.
While overall I enjoyed my fraternity experience, I felt that it may have been somewhat limiting. I went to college at a relatively small school in the middle of nowhere with a big Greek system (something like 50% of 4000 undergrads were Greek with 35 fraternities and 8 sororities). So yes, I did do a lot of stuff as part of a fraternity of 40 guys, much of which I probably wouldn’t have done by myself or living with 4 random GDI house-mates. But that’s kind of all there was to do - Fraternity parties and Greek run events (with the same people), a couple of local off campus bars (with the same people who were bored of the fraternity parties), maybe some road trips (to your fraternity at some other campus). It was basically taking a school that was very insular from the surrounding community to begin with, and then breaking it up into 35 even more insular groups.