Ditto, We had frats at my undergrad school but being a commuter college, it just didn't draw many people. When your frat "house" was an office on a hallway in the student center; kinda misses something.

Good parties.But I never joined a fraternity.

Florida State University has really big greek system that is a lot of fun to be a part of.

Anybody have a really good experience with it? Because all I've seen is a lot of beer and a pretty solid sales pitch.

I visited a large school and a small school recently. The large school had a bunch of drunk idiots and the small school had a bunch of sober idiots. Which do you prefer?

Going Greek was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I really can't imagine college without it. You make the closest friends of your life and get to live with them for four years, something you really appreciate once you graduate and see them once a month if you're lucky.

There's always something to do, always someone to talk to. You will never be wanting for booze, but you'll also never be wanting for help on homework or picking classes for next semester or a host of other issues that'll come up. Little 19 year old Invictus learned a lot from talking to seniors in the fall of 2008. I like to think I did the same later.

Now, it won't be like Animal House and it won't be like TFM. There will be booze and there will be parties, but it's not the bacchanalia you're probably expecting. Except for the rare times when it is, but that can happen to anybody, honestly. It's more about the friendships and fun times you have with your buddies. These are the friends you really keep, not the ones from high school.

I went to the University of Illinois, which has the largest Greek system in the world, so my experience probably isn't typical. If you want more info on specifics then PM me, vamosrammstein.

Well I'm at Alabama, so it's pretty huge here too, and I've got a few roommates who are joining, but I feel like I'm really not grasping the point of it. I've not joined one and I'm not planning to, but I'm just curious as to why exactly it's so popular.

At my school, there was a moderately-sized greek community. I think they tend to have draw on the kids who are afraid of not having friends in a new place -- especially if they don't hit it off with their roommates. I got involved with a couple of clubs and noticed that most of the frat people didn't have enough time to do much more than attend (if that). Also, although it was technically not considered hazing, many of the kids who were rushing had to go through (what I would consider to be) humiliating and abusive trials. I had not interest in that kind of thing, so I made friends with (and ended up living with) some of the people in my clubs.

If you are at Alabama then do it! Great Greek system.

I'm at Florida State, and I didn't go Greek, I was really considering it for the first few months of my first semester, mostly because I hadn't yet found a good close group of friends. I ended up with a great group of friends who I see just about every day, and will be living with some of them next year, but we all got connected by a shared interest, longboarding, something we all did every day. It seems to me the advantages of going Greek are primarily, creating an artificial shared experience with which you can bond with other guys/girls and make friends. With some of the more prestigious (and expensive) Greek organizations it can also provide networking which can be seriously useful at some later date.

Its also worth mentioning that alot of them can get quite expensive, Chi Phi, which I think of as a sort of middle of the Road Fraternity over all has semester dues of $700, which does not include housing, or the extra money necessary for some of the more extravagant parties. Also most of (not all of the fraternities) do more or less follow the stereotype to some degree, and if that's not the kind of people you wanna be around then that's also something to .

@Gen. Lee When did you graduate?

We don't have that sort of thing in the UK and we're no worse off for it. University social life revolves around the friends you make during first year accommodation (which is generally on campus), the friends you make in your subject whilst studying, and the friends you make in the various societies you join (be they debating, football, shooting or whatever). The concept of a Fraternity seems to be just an added complication and expense that adds barriers between students and will detract from the experience.

I'm inclined to agree with Octavious. It is quite easy, if you are a sociable, nice, outgoing person, to make friends on campus. Even if you don't live on accomodation (few do in Australia, it is damned expensive, around $13,000 a year at my university), just hanging around, joining clubs and metting people through classes is generally enough.

Also, any uni bar/pub is likely to have weekly events, just go to them and you are likely to meet a lot of people.

Then again, with your drinking laws, America truly is the great Satan.

Paying oodles of money for a preset set of "friends" is pathetic. Thankfully schools are wising up and kicking these abusive booze cults off campus. When I was at university we began with 5 fraternities, and by the time I left we had two remaining. They were kicked off for a variety of violations after being on probation multiple times. Good riddance.

I think the book 'Pledged' by Alexandra Robbins is quite revealing about southern greek culture. Granted its about sororities, but there is pertinent info about frats too.

And from my comrades in Tuscaloosa I've heard Alabama frats think the year is 1861.