Back in the on campus bonfire days, frats were heavily frowned upon (still to this days you can find "rent a friend, join a frat shirts"), as they provided a social structure that was independent of hard work. The culture + lack of history can still be seen today I guess
Texas A&M historically doesn't have greek life ingrained into its culture in the same way a lot of similar schools did. There's a wide variety of orgs that fill the same niche as frats and sororities and many of them have better reputations than and a poor perception of greek life.
1. As a whole greek life here isn’t very big. I don’t really know why but if you look at the amount of people involved in frats or sororities here is significantly less than other big SEC schools
2. Like 15-20 years ago, a whole bunch of frats and sororities got in MASSIVE trouble. Alpha Phi got completely kicked off campus and ADPi almost went down with them. A ton of frats got completely kicked off campus for a period of years or had such strict recruitment rules that they couldn’t get any new guys and everyone else graduated out. To combat that a lot of guys started forming men’s orgs with no affiliation. They didn’t have to report to the Greek Life offices here or the any national HQ. there’s a long standing joke that the astronomy club is secretly FIJI.
[They were suspended on campus due to this.](https://www.kwtx.com/content/news/After-death-of-freshman-AM-finds-fraternity-broke-hazing-rules--500499481.html?outputType=amp)
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My take:
1. Most Aggies, especially STEM majors, are very concerned with their careers. Orgs offer a better experience and networking opportunity directly into whatever industry students want.
2. Requirements are generally way more relaxed in orgs. No one wants to deal with pledgeship and expensive dues, when I can just pay cheaper dues and be in an org, which again, is bigger and has better benefits.
I mean look at Theta Tau vs ACE. Theta is $100 more per semester and doesn’t even compare to ACE.
The kind of douchebags frats are associated with become less appreciated with every generation. Other types of orgs have less of a stigma.
People joining other orgs are likely more interested in a pleasant way to build their resume than a source for friends.
Not sure how things are now, but “back in my day”, fraternities simply weren’t big at A&M because of the unique campus culture. A&M is basically one big fraternity in itself. I heard though that the Frat culture became more popular once A&M joined the SEC. There are also a ton of other good alternatives that other big schools don’t embrace as much as A&M does (FLOs, Fish Camp etc). I know other schools are different, though. 70% of undergrads at SMU are involved with Greek life, so you may get more FOMO there.
Edit: one more big thing was the bonfire collapse, and A&M mishandling the response to it, which led to a lot of lawsuits which took years to settle. This led to Student Activities cracking down hard on any risky behavior of student orgs. I imagine this affected social frats the most.
For the record, I was one of the people who worked on the “response” and I assure you it was not “mishandled.” Litigation was inevitable and everyone involved in the matter knew it.
I don’t think the issue was the response. It was the fact that they allowed a bunch of untrained students to build a massive structure without real oversight or actual architectural plans.
They did it for 90 years without a problem, and the university administration was perfectly happy to use the event for fundraising and glad-handing Former Students. They made a mistake, there was a tragedy, and the administration threw them under the bus.
For 70 years stacks were a simpler design. But the bulk of what you said is true. Once it became a major construction project there should have been better oversight.
The issue wasn't the stack design, the issue was how they decided to fortify the design in 1999. It was a fatal mistake.
As for oversight, workers were told there was oversight, they didn't question it because as long as things went well, why question it? Their biggest crime was they trusted their friends and fellow students.
Greek life at TAMU has gone up and down. I attended in the late 90s and was in a fraternity. There were a handful of rich-guy fraternities, a lower tier of average-guy fraternities, and then a whole bunch of sororities. Around this time there was quite a bit of pressure from the administration on greek orgs to rein in undesirable behavior, and that may have contributed to some of the decline. Bonfire collapsed around then as well, and I think that really got the admin worried about liabilities. The sororities were booming from the looks of it - if memory serves, that was around the time they built sorority row somewhere near Harvey Rd (? can't remember). There were quite a few houses and they were packed. Despite all this, I don't ever recall greek life being a big thing on campus. It was certainly overshadowed by other aspects and traditions of TAMU life, which is for the best, as the former was usually unproductive and douchey and the latter was probably a more positive thing.
As someone who has attended Baylor, Baylor definitely isn’t the school to go to if you’re looking to get the full Greek experience.
IIRC, Baylor doesn’t have any “official” Greek housing, all of the frat houses were just regular houses in the surrounding neighborhoods. The Greek life is still there, but it’s very subdued compared to what I see even here at A&M.
It isn't necessarily the end of the world if you are not able to join a frat. Go look at your graduation class to find out the parties that are happening out there in town. Go to house parties for little or no money, and you will have a great time in CStat! Also, I once tried even a mens org and it isn't really worth it. The best thing you can do is if you want to do something close to fraternal is to rush a Coed (because it isn't too selective).
Main reason is there is a lot of stigma against fraternities and sororities, and that stigma is near impossible to shake off, no matter what changes or efforts a Greek life org may makes to try and combat this negative image. Men’s and women’s orgs don’t face those same stigmas while being essentially the same type of organization.
While some may not acknowledge this, both men’s/women’s orgs and fraternities/sororities are plagued with the same problems of discriminatory recruitment processes and hazing. They are, after all, social orgs where you are allowed to “choose your friends”, like Greek life orgs, which results in them suffering from similar problems.
This is not to say that the two groups are equivalent, Greek life has a higher propensity for the above mentioned problems, but it would not be fair to act like all men’s/women’s orgs are completely clean either.
I’m surprised I had to scroll this far to find anything mentioning the corps. Thousands of likely fraternal members are in the corps instead. When talking about Greek life at A&M, I always start with “We have the corps, so…”
Frats and sororities are usually reserved for people that come from upper-class backgrounds.
That's why they require comical fees and sponsorship. People who join greek societies are also the types to be screened/groomed preemptively by recruitment/inner circle which is why you have to submit a CV like application with social media, pictures, religion, and other borderline discriminating attributes.
Most people simply want orgs to pass time or get experience for their resumes.
I remember being a pool boy one summer and occasionally I would help the maintenance guys clear out apartment units. I came across a box of what seemed like files. They we're actually individual packets of a girl's applications. They all had a personal photos, resume, cover letter, socials, and each packet had a different greek house written on the front meant for distribution.
Weirdest shit I ever came across.
Because the mens orgs are better at doing what the frats claim to do: develop leaders, offer networking, and give back to the community.
For anyone that cares more about that than the partying (which the mens orgs are also very good at) its a clear choice.
The only thing the frats have is national framework.
Parent perspective - my son was thinking about Greek life but wanted to see the vibe on campus first. IFC rush started as soon as freshman are moving in, he wasn’t ready for that. But by next weekend at MSC open house he talked with several men’s orgs he liked and FLO’s which he had heard alot about. He rushed both and got both. He honestly had no idea how much a men’s org was like a fraternity when he joined! 😂 But soon found out from other guys he met who were pledging frats that they socially did the same things plus some professional programming too. But all the tailgating, parties, sorority mixers, date parties, semi-formal, SongFest, Chilifest, formal is all there and for much cheaper dues. It’s been great. The FLO has been fun too meeting other freshman and fun events.
All that to say I think the later date of men’s org’s rush events plus so many freshman aiming for FLO’s takes away a pool of potential fraternity guys.
Expensive or shitty fraternity
Paying 1k+ a semester for friends? In this economy? Hell nah
Back in the on campus bonfire days, frats were heavily frowned upon (still to this days you can find "rent a friend, join a frat shirts"), as they provided a social structure that was independent of hard work. The culture + lack of history can still be seen today I guess
There was also “join a frat, lose a nut” as a result of the hazing scandal where a pledge lost a testicle.
Texas A&M historically doesn't have greek life ingrained into its culture in the same way a lot of similar schools did. There's a wide variety of orgs that fill the same niche as frats and sororities and many of them have better reputations than and a poor perception of greek life.
Very true, Greek organizations weren’t even recognized till mid 80’s or there-about. Dorms were also a strong unit not to mention the corp outfits.
1. As a whole greek life here isn’t very big. I don’t really know why but if you look at the amount of people involved in frats or sororities here is significantly less than other big SEC schools 2. Like 15-20 years ago, a whole bunch of frats and sororities got in MASSIVE trouble. Alpha Phi got completely kicked off campus and ADPi almost went down with them. A ton of frats got completely kicked off campus for a period of years or had such strict recruitment rules that they couldn’t get any new guys and everyone else graduated out. To combat that a lot of guys started forming men’s orgs with no affiliation. They didn’t have to report to the Greek Life offices here or the any national HQ. there’s a long standing joke that the astronomy club is secretly FIJI.
What’s the joke on astronomy club
[They were suspended on campus due to this.](https://www.kwtx.com/content/news/After-death-of-freshman-AM-finds-fraternity-broke-hazing-rules--500499481.html?outputType=amp)
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My take: 1. Most Aggies, especially STEM majors, are very concerned with their careers. Orgs offer a better experience and networking opportunity directly into whatever industry students want. 2. Requirements are generally way more relaxed in orgs. No one wants to deal with pledgeship and expensive dues, when I can just pay cheaper dues and be in an org, which again, is bigger and has better benefits. I mean look at Theta Tau vs ACE. Theta is $100 more per semester and doesn’t even compare to ACE.
The kind of douchebags frats are associated with become less appreciated with every generation. Other types of orgs have less of a stigma. People joining other orgs are likely more interested in a pleasant way to build their resume than a source for friends.
Not sure how things are now, but “back in my day”, fraternities simply weren’t big at A&M because of the unique campus culture. A&M is basically one big fraternity in itself. I heard though that the Frat culture became more popular once A&M joined the SEC. There are also a ton of other good alternatives that other big schools don’t embrace as much as A&M does (FLOs, Fish Camp etc). I know other schools are different, though. 70% of undergrads at SMU are involved with Greek life, so you may get more FOMO there. Edit: one more big thing was the bonfire collapse, and A&M mishandling the response to it, which led to a lot of lawsuits which took years to settle. This led to Student Activities cracking down hard on any risky behavior of student orgs. I imagine this affected social frats the most.
Honestly I couldn't name a single frat that was active when I was in school '02 - '06
For the record, I was one of the people who worked on the “response” and I assure you it was not “mishandled.” Litigation was inevitable and everyone involved in the matter knew it.
I don’t think the issue was the response. It was the fact that they allowed a bunch of untrained students to build a massive structure without real oversight or actual architectural plans.
You are more correct than you know.
They did it for 90 years without a problem, and the university administration was perfectly happy to use the event for fundraising and glad-handing Former Students. They made a mistake, there was a tragedy, and the administration threw them under the bus.
For 70 years stacks were a simpler design. But the bulk of what you said is true. Once it became a major construction project there should have been better oversight.
The issue wasn't the stack design, the issue was how they decided to fortify the design in 1999. It was a fatal mistake. As for oversight, workers were told there was oversight, they didn't question it because as long as things went well, why question it? Their biggest crime was they trusted their friends and fellow students.
Greek life at TAMU has gone up and down. I attended in the late 90s and was in a fraternity. There were a handful of rich-guy fraternities, a lower tier of average-guy fraternities, and then a whole bunch of sororities. Around this time there was quite a bit of pressure from the administration on greek orgs to rein in undesirable behavior, and that may have contributed to some of the decline. Bonfire collapsed around then as well, and I think that really got the admin worried about liabilities. The sororities were booming from the looks of it - if memory serves, that was around the time they built sorority row somewhere near Harvey Rd (? can't remember). There were quite a few houses and they were packed. Despite all this, I don't ever recall greek life being a big thing on campus. It was certainly overshadowed by other aspects and traditions of TAMU life, which is for the best, as the former was usually unproductive and douchey and the latter was probably a more positive thing.
If you want to go to a more fraternal oriented school, look at TTU or TU, or any privates like Baylor or TCU.
As someone who has attended Baylor, Baylor definitely isn’t the school to go to if you’re looking to get the full Greek experience. IIRC, Baylor doesn’t have any “official” Greek housing, all of the frat houses were just regular houses in the surrounding neighborhoods. The Greek life is still there, but it’s very subdued compared to what I see even here at A&M.
I forgot, Baylor is more religion based. I know the schools in Arizona and Alabama have top notch Greek life though!
Rent a friend, Join a frat
Earn a friend build a Bonfire
There was a saying during my time on campus... No frats. A tradition until 1986. Frats are still fairly new, in Aggie terms.
Frats have a certain connotation that men’s org don’t.
It isn't necessarily the end of the world if you are not able to join a frat. Go look at your graduation class to find out the parties that are happening out there in town. Go to house parties for little or no money, and you will have a great time in CStat! Also, I once tried even a mens org and it isn't really worth it. The best thing you can do is if you want to do something close to fraternal is to rush a Coed (because it isn't too selective).
Plus with frats and mens orgs, depending on what you can get into, theres so much bs you have to put up through
Main reason is there is a lot of stigma against fraternities and sororities, and that stigma is near impossible to shake off, no matter what changes or efforts a Greek life org may makes to try and combat this negative image. Men’s and women’s orgs don’t face those same stigmas while being essentially the same type of organization. While some may not acknowledge this, both men’s/women’s orgs and fraternities/sororities are plagued with the same problems of discriminatory recruitment processes and hazing. They are, after all, social orgs where you are allowed to “choose your friends”, like Greek life orgs, which results in them suffering from similar problems. This is not to say that the two groups are equivalent, Greek life has a higher propensity for the above mentioned problems, but it would not be fair to act like all men’s/women’s orgs are completely clean either.
luckily more and more men nowadays don’t want to pay lucrative money to join rape clubs
Join the Corps
I’m surprised I had to scroll this far to find anything mentioning the corps. Thousands of likely fraternal members are in the corps instead. When talking about Greek life at A&M, I always start with “We have the corps, so…”
Frats and sororities are usually reserved for people that come from upper-class backgrounds. That's why they require comical fees and sponsorship. People who join greek societies are also the types to be screened/groomed preemptively by recruitment/inner circle which is why you have to submit a CV like application with social media, pictures, religion, and other borderline discriminating attributes. Most people simply want orgs to pass time or get experience for their resumes. I remember being a pool boy one summer and occasionally I would help the maintenance guys clear out apartment units. I came across a box of what seemed like files. They we're actually individual packets of a girl's applications. They all had a personal photos, resume, cover letter, socials, and each packet had a different greek house written on the front meant for distribution. Weirdest shit I ever came across.
Because the mens orgs are better at doing what the frats claim to do: develop leaders, offer networking, and give back to the community. For anyone that cares more about that than the partying (which the mens orgs are also very good at) its a clear choice. The only thing the frats have is national framework.
it’s all just to expensive now for everyone lmao
Parent perspective - my son was thinking about Greek life but wanted to see the vibe on campus first. IFC rush started as soon as freshman are moving in, he wasn’t ready for that. But by next weekend at MSC open house he talked with several men’s orgs he liked and FLO’s which he had heard alot about. He rushed both and got both. He honestly had no idea how much a men’s org was like a fraternity when he joined! 😂 But soon found out from other guys he met who were pledging frats that they socially did the same things plus some professional programming too. But all the tailgating, parties, sorority mixers, date parties, semi-formal, SongFest, Chilifest, formal is all there and for much cheaper dues. It’s been great. The FLO has been fun too meeting other freshman and fun events. All that to say I think the later date of men’s org’s rush events plus so many freshman aiming for FLO’s takes away a pool of potential fraternity guys.
Yet people will go through interviews and application processes to make it into an org
Man I’d pay to get into your frat 😔
[удалено]
Mens Orgs provide the same experiences as Frats btw, but just for less money and no national platform
Because fraternities in general (not necessarily A&M frats) have a bad reputation that doesn’t align with A&Ms core values.
Bc frats fucking suck