S/O Sororities - What did you get out of it?

I was an AOPi at the University of Chicago.  The University of Chicago is a very small, nerdy school.  There is a standing joke that the most social place on campus on a Saturday night is the 3rd floor of the Reg (main library).  There aren't a whole lot of opportunities for socialization for general students and many of the students just flat out aren't interested in a typical college experience.  As a freshman, I went to several parties and I found that the people who I consistently saw there were the fraternity and sorority members.  Now, my college had 2 sororities and a handful of fraternities.  The sororities did not have a house.  My "dues" for membership were $11 per week.  And with that, I was included in many social activities.  Of all the greek organizations on campus, my sorority had the highest GPA.  I found value in studying with my sorority sisters, especially the ones who were older than I was.  I enjoyed parties where dressing up was required and the private parties between us and the fraternities.  I enjoyed the charity events and fundraisers we did and I still give to my sorority's chosen charity to this day.  I like the ceremonial aspects of our rituals.  I enjoyed all the special activities we did, as well.  We had an event called SING.  It was where all the Greeks dressed up and sang songs.  So fun.  It was just a very small, intimate group of women that enjoyed spending time together.  I feel it really helped me make my college experience there much more of a normal college experience.  

In my junior year, I transferred to Michigan State University.  I spent several weeks trying out my sorority there and I just didn't find that experience to be anything like the kind of friendships I made and the social activities I had enjoyed during my time at the University of Chicago.  And the dues were significantly higher, the number of members was significantly higher, it seemed to me that they came off much more of the worst of what you hear about Greek life.  So, I decided not to participate there.  

I'm not sure my experience with my sorority was the norm.  Like I said, I had a chance at two colleges and one I thought was an example of the worst of Greek life and the other was the best of Greek life.  

As a kid who went to the same private school (and loved it) from K-12, I knew going to a big state school was going to be rough. For me, joining a sorority would dramatically narrow down the pool of people and help me make friends. I joined a freshman interest group for the same reason, along with the extracurriculars I participated in. Additionally, I wanted to make close, lifelong friends.

I’m in my 30s now and I can confidently say that my closest friends from college are the ones I was closest to in my sorority. We’re a group of 6 women (I think we had 70 in our pledge class? I might be misremembering) who are very different people living all over the US, but we are still very, very close. We just all got together for a bachelorette party, actually. I count them as one of my 3 main groups of friends.

I also went to a heavy Greek school (he number always quoted was 40%) and I was 3000 miles from home and my friends — many who went to the big school in our backyard!

It did give me my best friends in college - and it gave me so many fun mixers (parties, exchanges with fraternities, “wine and cheeses” which we had non stop with fraternities) and formals. My boyfriend all through college was in a fraternity (even president) so there were events a couple times a week. I have to say it was a lot of fun. Probably too much fun lol.

I went to a very small private college in the south. I chose a really small school on purpose as I had moved around a lot in my life and then attended a very large high school where I was constantly reminded I was not ‘from there.’

My college experience did not disappoint. I loved all four years and made my lifelong friends there. Sorority was a huge part of that.

(Actually fraternities and sororities were banned by the school charter - pre civil war even. So we had literary societies that leaned heavily toward debate clubs when they were founded. By the time I attended there, those societies operated essentially as modern fraternity and sorority organizations.)

I went to college 8 hours from home (in the late 70s). My mom pressured me to go through rush since I knew no one. She had been in a sorority as had my aunt, grandma, my sister and several cousins. We are NOT what I expected sorority girls to be like. We were not rich, my mom sewed a lot and made most of my dresses. I did not expect to actually join a sorority, but I ended up falling in love with the sorority my grandma had been in. It was small and recovering from a scandal where their treasurer absconded with money. Because of that we had a lot of guidance from national, and I got pushed into leadership rolls pretty quickly. I was shy at the time, and being forced to take on these jobs really helped my self confidence. I made life-long friends, learned a lot and enjoyed most of it. There were not sorority houses on campus then, so I had lots of friends from my dorm who were not in my sorority which helped me to mix things up and try lots of things. I am glad I did it.

My DD joined a sorority at a small college about 6 years ago and she did not have the same experience. Lots of very rich, very entitled, very snooty girls in her sorority, and lots of drug use, which surprised me. She has not stayed close to those girls. Wishes she had not joined. She was looking to get involved in lots of activities and just didn't find it rewarding. Got involved in things outside her sorority.