Greek Alternatives

[Senusret I]

Georgetown University Step Team (Founder )
Black Student Alliance
NAACP
Brother 2 Brother
The Black House (residential special interest programming)
Yearbook Photographer
Alpha Phi Omega (of course)
Hosted minority students during open house weekends; did other admissions related things from time to time like doing campus tours and online chats with prospective students)

I think it's also important to sample as many different cultural activities as possible while you're in college. I went to as many dance recitals and concerts as I could.

[Dionysus]

Ummm....if you want to join a social sorority or fraternity, I don't see how joining 95% of the organizations on these lists will fill the void. Almost none of these organizations are "social".

The only alternative I can see is Campus programming, here you can plan a lot of campus wide events, that are often more popular than Greek events. Also, very outgoing and friendly people tend to join this organization. If you luck out, you might find a very social APO or PhiMA/SAI chapter.

But, ditto on the Greek networking.

[dznat187]

almost all student orgs are social. i would say 95% of the ones on my list were, except maybe order of omega. the only thing is they have focuses other than just being social. ex. student newspaper, we put out a weekly paper. but we definately hung out and had weekend parties and stuff. it was my "sorority" in a sense before i joined greek ife my junior year. yes, it could never be everything that greek life can be for a person, but it is definately social. and for me, joining greek life was more than just social anyway.

[Senusret I]

Originally posted by dznat187
almost all student orgs are social. i would say 95% of the ones on my list were, except maybe order of omega. the only thing is they have focuses other than just being social. ex. student newspaper, we put out a weekly paper. but we definately hung out and had weekend parties and stuff. it was my "sorority" in a sense before i joined greek ife my junior year. yes, it could never be everything that greek life can be for a person, but it is definately social. and for me, joining greek life was more than just social anyway.

I can agree with this. When we started the step team, we didn't want people who would just come to practice, step in shows, then leave. We had bonding activities for each class of new steppers so we could get to know them, and we had socials throughout the year. It wasn't meant to mimic the greek scene, but we definitely wanted to know each other beyond performances.

[Dionysus]

Well, I guess this varies from campus to campus. Orgs outside of campus programming and APO, were quite anti-social for my taste.

[KSigkid]

Originally posted by Dionysus
Ummm....if you want to join a social sorority or fraternity, I don't see how joining 95% of the organizations on these lists will fill the void. Almost none of these organizations are "social".

The only alternative I can see is Campus programming, here you can plan a lot of campus wide events, that are often more popular than Greek events. Also, very outgoing and friendly people tend to join this organization. If you luck out, you might find a very social APO or PhiMA/SAI chapter.

But, ditto on the Greek networking.

A lot of organizations can have social components, though. When I was on the newspaper at Boston U., there used to be parties and events all the time for the staff. A lot of times, other students would be invited. I know it was that way for a lot of clubs and orgs on campus.

[valkyrie]

Originally posted by Dionysus
Ummm....if you want to join a social sorority or fraternity, I don't see how joining 95% of the organizations on these lists will fill the void. Almost none of these organizations are "social".

But you know, it will make you feel really super cool if you can post your 900 college and/or high school organizations, activities, and accomplishments on a message board one day.

[33girl]

A lot of the time things like the paper, radio station are co-curriculars for the comm department - i.e. it's as much a part of their curriculum as classes and they have to be there. You can probably pick the one that has the people on it you get along with the best but not always. Plus sometimes it's very hard for non-comm majors to get into it.

For music majors, band, choir etc - same deal.

That's not to say you CAN'T make friends there, but it's not the same as a sorority where the main thing that binds you together is that you just plain all like each other. I think that is what D was trying to say.

[Rudey]

Originally posted by aephi alum
Society of Women Engineers
Assassins' Guild (live-action role-playing games)

That is so sexy. Please don't stop. I got all excited reading it.

-Rudey
--OMG!

[KSigkid]

Originally posted by 33girl
A lot of the time things like the paper, radio station are co-curriculars for the comm department - i.e. it's as much a part of their curriculum as classes and they have to be there. You can probably pick the one that has the people on it you get along with the best but not always. Plus sometimes it's very hard for non-comm majors to get into it.

That's true; my school was kind of different, in that, there were a variety of people on the paper. The paper wasn't "officially" recognized by the school; it was funded through other means, and although journalism professors would recommend it as good experience, there was no push at all from them to join. There were some journalism majors, but much of the staff was just people who wanted to write and see what it was like to be a reporter. I think that fact made it easier to socialize outside of the newsroom.

[Glitter650]

Originally posted by Dionysus
Ummm....if you want to join a social sorority or fraternity, I don't see how joining 95% of the organizations on these lists will fill the void. Almost none of these organizations are "social".
But, ditto on the Greek networking.

I kinda agree, I mean it might be a good alternative to do some of these other things... and you can totally make friends at almost any club even if it's not specifically a "social" organization...

but honestly the last thing I'd want to hear RIGHT after not getting a bid is, well, why not join the choir ? or the club for your major ?

[AngelPhiSig]

In Phi Sigma Sigma, you are 'supposed' to be in 2 extra curricular activities...

Just cos I wanna be a dork, I was in:

*Marching Band/Colorguard
*Winterguard
*Tau Beta Sigma, National Honorary Sorority for members of the collegiate band
*Concert Choir
*Symphonic Band
*theater productions
*dance productions

etc.

Sheila, yes, it is def. different when the club is something you HAVE to do for your major - notice I didnt list SPSEA... I joined because I needed to - I had to have my liability insurance before student teaching.

Extra curriculars are wonderful recruitment tools. We recruited most of the guard one year!

[dznat187]

Originally posted by 33girl
A lot of the time things like the paper, radio station are co-curriculars for the comm department - i.e. it's as much a part of their curriculum as classes and they have to be there. You can probably pick the one that has the people on it you get along with the best but not always. Plus sometimes it's very hard for non-comm majors to get into it.

For music majors, band, choir etc - same deal.

on my paper, we only had like 1 comm major even though it is the 2nd biggest department on our campus. we had a bunch of english, government, history, and art kids. even a business and education major or two. noone was erquired to do it really. some profs recommended but few actually did it. but my school was like that.

our radio station had more comm kids, as that is what they were into but i know a bunch of art, english and el ed students were on staff too.

I never joined any student orgs because i had to or they were recommended. in fact, only the tv station, nbs, and music orgs were 'recommended'.

this is why my undergrad school rocked. but liek i said before, while they were social and i had friends, they could never take the place of my greek experience.

[PhoenixAzul]

At Otterbein, poor freshmen journalism/PR/org com majors get thrown into Newspaper practicum FIRST QUARTER. You are basically writing for the paper from the second you step foot on campus. There's practicum almost every quarter till you graduate. It can be *very* rough in the beginning, but they usually get it by week 10. Ive been a staff photographer, assistant photo editor, back to staff photo, and now co-editor. It is the greatest campus job that anyone can ask for....I get paid to build my portfolio.

That being said this is what I've gotten myself into here:

Tau Delta (of course )
Alpha Lambda Delta
Phi Eta Sigma
Order of Omega
UGGB (greek governance)
newspaper
founded a rowing club
starting to help with the humanities journal to bail out a friend.

newspaper takes a TON of time since there's always a ton of images to edit and place and fix and ads to help design. It is a great crash course in photoshop.

[LXA SE285]

I kinda agree, I mean it might be a good alternative to do some of these other things... and you can totally make friends at almost any club even if it's not specifically a "social" organization...

but honestly the last thing I'd want to hear RIGHT after not getting a bid is, well, why not join the choir? or the club for your major?

Cosign. Not that getting involved on campus isn't fulfilling, and not that it isn't a great way to make lasting friendships, and not that such comments aren't always delivered with the very best of intentions, but, fact is, people often process things through the filter of rejection. Ex.: A woman who's gotten cut from every group might hear: "Well, you can always join those geeks in the band over there! And you know that history honorary? Well, they have Greek letters, too! Or you could join the service sorority ... well, no, they're not a real sorority, but, hey, the dues are cheap!"

IMO, a sincere "Sorry things didn't work out" is all you can really offer. I think most folks eventually figure out on their own that there's plenty they can get involved in.